First published in 2012, this catalogue presents fifty-six Etruscan, Greek, and Italic carved ambers from the Getty Museum’s collection—the second largest body of this material in the United States and one of the most important in the world. The ambers date from about 650 to 300 BC. The catalogue offers full description of the pieces, including typology, style, chronology, condition, and iconography. Each piece is illustrated.

The catalogue is preceded by a general introduction to ancient amber (which was also published in 2012 as a stand-alone print volume titled Amber and the Ancient World). Through exquisite visual examples and vivid classical texts, this book examines the myths and legends woven around amber—its employment in magic and medicine, its transport and carving, and its incorporation into jewelry, amulets, and other objects of prestige. This publication highlights a group of remarkable amber carvings at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

• Introduction
  • Amber and the Ancient World
  • Jewelry: Never Just Jewelry
  • Amber Magic?
  • What Is Amber?
  • Where Is Amber Found?
  • The Properties of Amber
  • Ancient Names for Amber
  • Color and Other Optical Characteristics: Ancient Perception and Reception
  • Ancient Literary Sources on the Origins of Amber
  • Amber and Forgery
  • The Ancient Transport of Amber
  • Literary Sources on the Use of Amber
  • Amber Medicine, Amber Amulets
  • The Bronze Age
  • Early Iron Age and the Orientalizing Period
  • The Archaic and Afterward
  • The Working of Amber: Ancient Evidence and Modern Analysis
  • The Production of Ancient Figured Amber Objects
• Catalogue
  • Orientalizing Group
    • 1. Pendant: Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos)
    • 2. Pendant: Female Holding a Child (Kourotrophos) with Bird
    • 3. Pendant: Addorsed Females
    • 4. Pendant: Divinity Holding Hares
    • 5. Pendant: Lion with Swan
    • 6. Pendant: Paired Lions
  • Ship with Figures
    • 7. Pendant: Ship with Figures
  • Korai
    • 8. Pendant: Standing Female Figure (Kore)
    • 9. Pendant: Head Fragment from a Standing Female Figure (Kore)
  • Human Heads
    • 10. Pendant: Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx
    • 11. Pendant: Head of a Female Divinity or Sphinx
    • 12. Pendant: Satyr Head in Profile
    • 13. Pendant: Satyr Head
    • 14. Pendant: Female Head in Profile
    • 15. Pendant: Winged Female Head in Profile
    • 16. Pendant: Winged Female Head
    • 17. Pendant: Female Head in Profile
    • 18. Pendant: Female Head
    • 19. Pendant: Female Head
    • 20. Pendant: Female Head in Profile
    • 21. Pendant: Female Head
    • 22. Pendant: Female Head
    • 23. Pendant: Winged Female Head
    • 24. Pendant: Female Head
    • 25. Pendant: Female Head in Profile
    • 26. Pendant: Female Head
  • Animals
    • 27. Roundel: Animal
    • 28. Plaque: Addorsed Sphinxes
    • 29. Pendant: Hippocamp
    • 30. Pendant: Cowrie Shell / Hare
    • 31. Pendant: Lion
    • 32. Pendant: Female Animal (Lioness?)
  • Lions’ Heads
    • 33. Pendant: Lion’s Head
    • 34. Spout or Finial: Lion’s Head
    • 35. Pendant: Lion’s Head
    • 36. Pendant: Lion’s Head
  • Boars
    • 37. Pendant: Foreparts of a Recumbent Boar
    • 38. Plaque: Addorsed Lions’ Heads with Boar in Relief
  • Rams’ Heads
    • 39. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 40. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 41. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 42. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 43. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 44. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 45. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 46. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 47. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 48. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 49. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 50. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 51. Pendant: Ram’s Head
    • 52. Finial(?): Ram’s Head
    • 53. Spout or Finial: Ram’s Head
  • Other Animal Heads
    • 54. Pendant: Bovine Head
    • 55. Pendant: Horse’s Head in Profile
    • 56. Pendant: Asinine Head in Profile
  • Forgery
    • 57. Statuette: Seated Divinity
• Technical Essay: Analysis of Selected Ambers from the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum — Jeff Maish, Herant Khanjian, and Michael R. Schilling
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• About the Authors
• About

Faya Causey is the former head of academic programs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London; and a past Getty Scholar (2017–18) and Getty Guest Researcher (2018–19). She was educated at the University of California, receiving her BA at UC Riverside and her MA and PhD degrees at UC Santa Barbara. Causey has lectured and published widely, primarily on amber, antiquity, and modern artists and architects whose work relates to the ancient world. She is also the author of Amber and the Ancient World (Getty Publications, 2012).