the shape introduced in the Orientalizing era: The Bullae. A pear shaped vessel used to hold perfume. Its surface was usually decorated with repoussé and engraved symbolic figures. Yet another leitmotiv in Etruscan jewelry is the Egyptian Scarab. In ancient Egyptian cultures it symbolized luck. It increased in Vulci and Tarquinia from the last decades of the 6th century BC. In the northern city-states however, jewelry was more sober and refined pieces from Vetrulonia, for example, are decorated with minute particles known as pulviscolo (gold dust). These practices came to them from the (at the time) distant Middle East, along with imported objects who inspired them to widen their range of jewelry. The Etruscans perfected these techniques, and in turn lead them to the very stylized jewelry of the 7th and 6th centuries. Often these pieces are considered the peak of their abilities. Repoussé literally translated means to push back in French. The technique consists of hammering the design behind the ornament with the relief on the other style. Granulation was the art of decorating smooth surfaces of gold jewelry with patterns composed of tiny granules of gold. It was invented in Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and was subsequently introduced to Anatolia, Syria, Egypt, Cyprus and Mycenaean Greece. The collapse of the Bronze Age civilization brought with it the disappearance of such sophisticated arts in Greece, but they survived in the Near East and from there they were reintroduced in Greece in the 9th century and transferred to Italy during the second half of the 8th century. Filigree is a decorative open work made from thin twisted wire mainly in silver and gold but also in other type of metals. The most commonly used metal is copper in these cases. Most Etruscan jewelry is 18 karat gold but it varies - going as low as 15 karat. While pure gold is 24 karat, 18 and 15 karat gold benefit from their alloys. 18 karat gold is much more durable and harder than 24, and 15 karat is so much more durable and 'hard' than 18 karat. Some jewelry of the Regolini-Galassi tomb was too; thin, delicate and big to have been worn while more robust and less poutre gold ornamentation was solid enough to have been worn in life. Etruscans would also mold their gold and jewels into stone-carved molds. Archaic Era Among the jewelry found in tombs