Female-headed perfume burners in Sicily. A reappraisal based on data from the Punic Mediterranean

Abstract

This paper aims to offer an up-to-date reassessment of the female-headed perfume burners of Punic Sicily. The work has been based on three main lines: bibliographic and archival research; the analytical study of both known specimens and some unpublished finds; and the contextualisation of these terracottas within the Punic Mediterranean. After information on the finding context, the main iconographic and technical characteristics of each terracotta and the most relevant comparisons are identified. The catalogue with a schematic and technical description of the terracottas is at the end of the work. The paper highlights the variety of the female-headed perfume burners found on the island and shows how Punic Sicily – during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC – played a very minor in the origin of the iconographic type and the circulation of these terracottas within the Mediterranean.

The papers published in this volume were presented at the International Conference “What Can Terracottas Tell Us: Coroplastic Polysemy in the Ancient Mediterranean” (Cagliari – Cittadella dei Musei, 10–12th November 2022) organized under the scientific direction of Romina Carboni, Claudia Cenci and Nicola Chiarenza.