CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 475-450 B.C.

The shape of this scaraboid is unusual, as it is domed in profile, lacking the more usual vertical side walls. The underside is superbly engraved with a plump sow enclosed within a hatched border. The bristles are broken in the Archaic manner, cresting in two sections along her back. The tail curves forward along her flank, and she wears a beaded necklace. According to Boardman and Wagner, a plump sow is symbolic of wealth and fertility. For another boar similarly wearing a beaded necklace, and for a boar nearly identical in style but for the addition of two piglets, perhaps by the same artist as the Sangiorgi gem, see nos. 546 and 554 in Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems. The device was also popular on coins (see for example an electrum stater from Clazomenae, circa 500 B.C., no. 76 in C. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins).