![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/etruscan-07856.jpg\")
\nStudents look at Etruscan terracotta figurines from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in preparation for a new exhibit in the Brown Gallery at Doe Library. A student takes notes on an iPad while lecturer Lisa Pieraccini makes measurements. (Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, Etruscan terracotta votives from the Vignaccia sanctuary at ancient Caere [Cerveteri]; Photos by Jami Smith\/UC Berkeley Library)<\/p>\n
The students leaned in to get a closer look at the object on the table: a small terracotta figurine of a woman cradling a baby, her features softened by time.<\/p>\n
On the back, pressed into the clay more than 2,000 years ago, was a fingerprint \u2014 a trace of the maker\u2019s hand and a link to the worshipper who once carried the statuette as an offering to a goddess. For the students gathered in the quiet classroom that day, the ancient world felt suddenly close.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/etruscan-exhibit-01858.jpg\")
\nFingerprints of its creator are pressed into the back of this terracotta figurine of a woman with an infant. (Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, \u00a08-2543)<\/p>\n
\u201cPressing the clay inside the mold, where you actually see those fingerprints, is really the most poetic time-traveling you can do,\u201d said Lisa Pieraccini, a continuing lecturer in the Department of History of Art.<\/p>\n
The students in Pieraccini\u2019s seminar, \u201cThe Etruscans: Pasts, Present, and Futures,\u201d spent a semester traveling deep into history, examining artifacts from a civilization that thrived in central Italy long before the rise of Rome. They worked alongside Pieraccini and Art Librarian Lynn Cunningham to co\u2011curate a new exhibition at the UC Berkeley Library.<\/p>\n
Their research forms the foundation of The Etruscans Uncovered: The Phoebe A. Hearst Collection at UC Berkeley, which opens this week in Doe Library. Drawing on materials from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology<\/a> and The Bancroft Library<\/a>, the exhibition showcases artifacts \u2014 from bronze belt buckles to clay wine pitchers \u2014 that illuminate Etruscan daily life, artistry, and religious practice.<\/p>\n Pieraccini, who also serves as the interim director of the Mario Del Chiaro Center for the Study of Ancient Italy and the Roman World<\/a>, hopes visitors will slow down and let the objects speak.<\/p>\n \u201cTake the time to read the labels, look at the artifacts, look at the photographs and images,\u201d she said, \u201cand see an amazing culture from ancient Italy that provided so much artistic, religious, and cultural impulse for the people who came after them, the Romans.\u201d<\/p>\n Teaching collection<\/p>\n The exhibition is rooted in a collection that still astonishes Pieraccini. With more than 4,000 artifacts, the Etruscan collection at the Hearst Museum is one of the largest of its kind in North America. It was built through the early 20th\u2011century partnership between Phoebe Apperson Hearst and her art adviser, Alfred Emerson.<\/p>\n \u201c(Hearst) wasn\u2019t collecting these artifacts to showcase in her private home,\u201d Pieraccini said. \u201cShe was giving them to a research institution \u2014 the University of California at Berkeley \u2014 specifically so that students could learn more about this culture and \u2026 do hands-on research.\u201d<\/p>\n That forward-thinking philosophy was reflected in the structure of Pieraccini\u2019s spring 2025 seminar. After delving into Etruscan history, the students worked to envision a public exhibit, selecting and analyzing the objects and developing themes to guide their display.<\/p>\n Cunningham helped the students navigate the research process. She accompanied the class to the Hearst Museum to see the artifacts up close and to The Bancroft Library, where the students learned how to work with primary sources \u2014 including Hearst\u2019s correspondence with Emerson. A letter from that time (1902) is displayed in the exhibit.<\/p>\n For many of the students, the endeavor was formative.<\/p>\n Kate McGuirt, a double major in ancient Greek and Roman studies and art history, appreciated the opportunity to get practical experience in her field. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been my dream to work in a museum and do the research and curate exhibits,\u201d she said. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be able to do that as an undergrad.\u201d<\/p>\n For Sofia Huff, an art history major considering a future in art law, the class offered a rare look at the nuances of decision-making when preparing to display artifacts.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing professor Pieraccini having to just sift through objects, see what\u2019s getting approved \u2026 what we can use and why we can\u2019t do certain things \u2014 I think that\u2019s definitely been interesting for me to see behind the scenes,\u201d Huff noted.<\/p>\n Pieraccini said she found it deeply fulfilling to watch the students grow excited about sharing Etruscan culture with others. Their hard work \u2014 now more than nine months ago \u2014 will pay off this week. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see the students\u2019 faces when they see the exhibit open,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n A culture worth rediscovering<\/p>\n What can visitors expect? The exhibition highlights a range of artifacts that reveal the richness of Etruscan artisanship, communal life, and religious customs.<\/p>\n One standout is a bronze belt buckle from the seventh to sixth centuries B.C.E., found at Poggio Buco in southern Etruria. (Ancient Etruria comprised most of modern Tuscany and parts of Umbria and Lazio.) The buckle\u2019s prongs are decorated with stylized horse heads, and though its surface is now green from oxidation, it would once have gleamed, a clear marker of the wearer\u2019s high status. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBronze was expensive in Etruscan times,\u201d Pieraccini noted. \u201cAnd it\u2019s shiny, so this would have had a lot more bling to it back then.\u201d<\/p>\n Another object \u2014 believed to be a bronze furniture foot \u2014 is fragmentary but unmistakably Etruscan in its decorative flair. Pieraccini loves how it captures the culture\u2019s instinct to embellish even the most functional items.<\/p>\n A poster in the exhibit shows an item that was too precious to display. The fifth\u2011century B.C.E. bronze mirror is engraved with a helmeted warrior and a winged youth, possibly Eros (the god of love), holding a hare. The mirror underscores the Etruscans\u2019 skill in metalwork and their rich visual vocabulary.<\/p>\n For Pieraccini, however, the exhibit is about more than objects \u2014 it\u2019s about rebalancing how we understand the ancient Mediterranean.<\/p>\n \u201cAcademic departments in our country \u2026 have been built on a Greco-Roman model, placing those civilizations at the top \u2026 while other cultures have been grossly marginalized,\u201d Pieraccini said. \u201cThe Etruscans are one of those cultures. So just shedding light on the Etruscans for me is a decolonial act \u2026 because it\u2019s saying, \u2018Hey, the ancient Mediterranean was full of a lot of different people and a lot of different cultures.\u2019 And those people are worth understanding, too.\u201d<\/p>\n This exhibition complements two other Etruscan shows in the Bay Area: Encountering the Etruscans<\/a>, at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum (through May 2026), and The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy<\/a>, at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (May 2 through Sept. 20).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students look at Etruscan terracotta figurines from the Phoebe A. 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\nStudents in History of Art 192B look over letters to and from Phoebe Hearst, held by The Bancroft Library, to prepare for the exhibit.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/etruscan-08106.jpg\")
\nPieraccini holds a bronze item believed to be a furniture foot, shaped like a human foot. (Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 8-3397)<\/p>\n