Italic disc with mythological relief that possibly served as a shield boss at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri

Italic disc with mythological relief that possibly served as a shield boss at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Today's artifact is another interesting piece from the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum. A bronze disc with a relief depicting mythological creatures and stylized human figures thought to be a shield boss from the 7th to early 6th century BCE Italic people of Tuscany near the settlement of Vetulonia, formerly the Etruscan city of Vatluna. The city was part of the Etruscan League of twelve cities that opposed Rome in the 7th century B.C.E. According to Silius Italicus, the Romans adopted their magisterial insignia, the Lictors' rods and fasces and the curule seat, from Vetulonium (its Roman name).
In 1898, a tomb in the necropolis was discovered with a bundle of iron rods with a double-headed axe in the centre, and soon afterwards, a grave stela inscribed for Avele Feluske was discovered, on which the fasces were pictured. The city's fortification walls known as the Mura dell'Arce are thought to have been constructed in the 6th-5th century B.C.E. Although famous for its goldsmiths, after the Roman conquest, the city shrank in importance, in part due to the northward spread of malaria. The site was excavated between 1885 and 1886 and grave goods recovered from over 1,000 tombs. Most of the artifacts are on display at museums in Grosseto and Florence, Italy.

Italic disc with mythological relief that possibly served as a shield boss at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Saint Louis, Missouri.  Image courtesy of the museum.

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