Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Ferrara

The jewels of Spina, datable mostly between the second half of the fifth and half of the fourth century BC, in addition to documenting the well-being of the population, demonstrate the technical skills achieved by the artisans of central-italic and and padan Etruria, capable of working not only with gold and silver, but also with amber and semi-precious stones, creating a new and original language. The presence of gold artifacts, as real indicators of high social rank, is still relatively exceptional and almost always refer to women.

True symbols of status are the gold foil diadems , with only four exemplars found in Spina, two of which in a naturalistic style with ivy leaves and rosettes and other two in form of a headband with side plates representing a Gorgon's head or a riding Amazon and a Scythian archer. The ornaments found most frequently in burials are earrings, tools of seduction as well as luxury items. The most common type (end of fifth - early fourth century BC) is the curved tube earring in smooth sheet, worked in filigree and granulation in the form of an animal head (lion and ram), of a woman and of Achelous - a river god from the Greek mythology represented with the face of a beardless young man with bull horns, in harmony with the lagoonal surrounding of Spina. The extraordinary skill of Etruscan goldsmiths is even more evident in the cluster earrings and those in the form of discs from the second half of the fourth century BC.

The women of Spina who wore earrings did not like to wear other gold jewelry, but preferred necklaces in amber and glass paste, inspired by Greek models. Typically Etruscan is the inclusion of golden bulla shaped pendants, a small bivalve container of symbolic value that will find success in the Roman world.

More appropriate to decorate a tall headgear (tutulus), according to Etruscan fashion and perhaps produced by an oriental craftsman, is a golden disc with a man's face in its center, unique in Spina, dated to the sixth century BC and placed in the tomb of a wealthy woman as a precious family jewel a few decades later.

A golden ring from the fourth century BC with a bezel decorated with an equestrian scene, could have belonged to a Venetic knight or a horse trader, alluding to the level or activity of its owner. Silver buckles (fibula), functional closure of the garments, as well as ornaments, were used in both male and female graves to hold the edges of the shroud. Documented in Spina in the simple form (so-called "Certosa") and in the form of twisted arcs, they were produced in Padan-Etruscan and Venetic workshops between the late fifth and early fourth century BC

Among the materials that characterize the status of privileged social classes, are the balsam bottles, small containers of ointments and perfumed essences, made of alabaster or glass paste with the technique of the nucleus. Made in the same forms as the Greek vases in terracotta, as indicated by the same names (alabaster, Amphoriskos, aryballos, oinochoe), almost all of the balsam bottles of Spina are oriental productions and are dated between the middle of the fifth and third century BC. The perfumed oils were applied on the body and hair with long rods with handles in the shape of a human figure, then placed in the tomb at the foot of the deceased. Rare artifacts of great value are two pissidi (cylindrical containers with lid) in white marble, perhaps from the Greek island of Paros, designed to keep valuables, makeup tools and cosmetic powders.