Etruscans

A little essay on the Spirit  of Place, defining the difference between site and place. The case is Hampton's book on the Etruscans.


The reader is ererred to my other texts on architecture and landscape, Academia.edu:

- Authoritarian Architectre
- Anecdotal Architecture
- Gardens, Parks, Landscape, Environment
- Public Spaces
- The Folly of Follies

Abstract: Das Entstehen von protourbanen Zentren zeigt in den drei Modellregionen Etrurien, Venetien und Dolenjska zwar gewisse strukturelle Ähnlichkeiten, doch dürften diese Orte unabhängig voneinander entstanden sein. Ein globaler „protourban turn“ stand gewiss nicht dahinter. Allein ihre Dauerhaftigkeit spricht für geordnete
rechtliche Verhältnisse. Gemeinsam aber scheinen die stadtartigen Zentren auf Betreiben hegemonialer Familien entstanden zu sein. Die Struktur dieser solidarischen Familienverbunde findet in der Ethnologie den besten Vergleich im konischen Klan nach Paul Kirchhoff.

Schlüsselwörter: Protourbane Siedlungen, Siedlungsbildung, Zentralorte, Analyse der Nekropolen, ungeschriebene Gesetze, Sozialstrukturen, konischer Klan

L’iconografia della donna assisa con bambino costituisce senza dubbio il soggetto più significativo nel repertorio dei votivi fittili del santuario di Fondo Patturelli dell’anti-ca Capua. Oltre che nei piccoli votivi è rappresentato sulla serie delle celebri statue in tufo, nonché replicato su vari esemplari nella coroplastica maggiore. Questo contribu-to intende fornire degli spunti preliminari di analisi a partire dai primi alla luce delle altre due serie testimoniali, ponendo l’attenzione su alcune caratteristiche stilistiche e formali, evidenziandone i tratti comuni e le differenze. Tale analisi infatti potrebbe sondare ulteriori ipotesi sulla natura e motivazione del tipo di offerta.
The iconography of the seated woman with a baby is surely the most significant in the terracotta votive offerings from the Fondo Patturelli sanctuary at Capua. This subject is also testified by the well-known tufa statues and by some samples in the major terracot-ta votives. This contribution aims to provide some preliminary remarks, starting from the small votives in comparison to the other two object categories, focusing on stylis-tic and formal features and considering the similarities and the differences, in order to trace further possible hypothesis on the nature and reason of each votive offering.

In this study, two of the most important Sabine deities, Sabus and Vacuna, are considered. Their names are analysed and derived from eponyms which are characteristic of Proto-Scythian global culture. Moreover, the ethnogesesis of the sabine people is investigated in order to understand the origin of the deities, their cults, and their names. To this aim, the peopling of ancient Central Italy is studied by considering the ancient sources and the results of a diffusion model based on the time and space distributions of ancient and current geographical names and ethnonyms. The migrations to Italy of peoples contributing to the population of Central Italy are then distinguished and changes in people names are demonstrated. On the basis of ethnogenesis of the Sabine people, the customs related by ancient sources are explained and the relationships between the Sabine eponymous deities and those of other Italic peoples are highlighted. In particular, the relatioships with Feronia and Bellona goddesses are analyzed. These deities are recognized as the eponymous goddesses of some Proto-Etruscan tribes.

The Mediterranean basin was a multicultural region with a great diversity of linguistic, religious, social, and ethnic groups. This dynamic social and cultural landscape encouraged extensive contact and exchange among different communities. This book seeks to explain what happened when different ethnic, social, linguistic, and religious groups, among others, came into contact with each other. What means did they employ to mediate their interactions? How did each group construct distinct identities while interacting with others? What new identities came into existence because of these contacts? Denise Demetriou brings together several strands of scholarship that have emerged recently, especially ethnic, religious, and Mediterranean studies. It reveals new aspects of identity construction in the region examining the Mediterranean as a whole and focuses not only on ethnic identity but also other types of collective identities, such as civic, linguistic, religious, and social identities.

""Etruscan is an Indo-European language, probably belonging to a sub-branch of Anatolian which does not include Hittite. This claim is based on the following evidence:
• only lexical items for which Etruscologists have proposed a gloss have been used in this research (no attempt has been made at proposing new glosses for currently obscure or highly controversial Etruscan terms);
• 138 of the glosses put forth by Etruscologists belong to basic lexicon, and 97% of such basic lexicon has an IE etymology;
• 19 grammar morphemes have also been assigned a value by Etruscologists: 95% of them have an IE etymology;
• all such etymologies are based on regular sound laws;
• a few notable innovations are shared by Etruscan and Anatolian languages (often excluding Hittite).""

Keywords: Rjabchikov, archaeoastronomy, writing, solar eclipses, Pythagoras, Greek, Etruscan, Etruria, Egypt, Italy

This paper was first read by the author on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures, January 13, 2014, Krasnodar, Russia.

The article aims to add a few thoughts on the position of the Etruscans and Trojans in the dramaturgy of Virgil's Aeneid, and to identify some values common to both peoples. The Roman historiography in fact put the Etruscans on the part of the Italian confederation under the leadership of Turnus; Virgil, on the other hand, presents them as Aeneas’ allies and consequently on the winning side and on the side of the future founders of the Roman Empire, describing them as a positive and even decisive component in the clash between the confederation of Turnus and Aeneas’ Trojans, though he could not evade the widely disseminated stereotypes on the decadent character of the Etruscan people. Starting from this dualism and from many other parallel features the author tries to prove that Virgil put on parallel tracks in the plot and structure of the Aeneid the historical fate of the Etruscans with the mythological one of the Trojans, demonstrating how both have left an important cultural heritage to the Roman Empire that is expressed in the fortitudo, in the monarchical organization and in the religious piety.

Funde, Eigennamen und Schriftzeichen beweisen Roms lange Zugehörigkeit zur etruskischen Kultur. Die historisch faßbaren Anfänge des Etruskertums in Italien fallen mit der mythischen  Gründungzeit Roms (datiert auf 753 v. Chr.) zusammen. Die Sage berichtet vom korinthisch-etruskischen Ursprung der letzten römische Könige und von Einfällen der Etrusker unter dem König von Clusium Lars Porsenna nach dem Sturz der Tarquinier.  Die zwei römischen Gründungsmythen, die Äneas- und die Romulus-Sage, bezeugen die enge Verbindung Roms mit den etruskischen Nachbarn. Von den sieben sagenhaften Königen Roms, von Romulus bis Tarquinius Superbus, waren vier etruskischer Herkunft. Romulus ist der mythische Ahnherr der *Ruma, eines aus lat. Roma erschlossenen Geschlechternamens. Die erschlossene etruskische Form von Romulus lautet *Rumle. Von ihm leiten sich auch die Gentilizien Romulius bzw. Romilius ab. Auf die Romulii oder Romilii ist auch die erste der  sechzehn ältesten römischen Landtribus, die Romulia zurückzuführen. Remus gilt als der Ahnherr der Remmii, eines Geschlechts, das es wohl im ältesten Rom gegeben haben muß. Dem Gentilnamen liegt der etruskische Name  Rem-ne oder Rem-ni zugrunde. Von diesem Gentilizium leiten sich in und um Rom die Toponyme Rem-ona und Rem-oria her. Tyrrhener  und Römer wurden von den Griechen häufig synonym benutzt: Tyrrhenoì  è Rhomaîoi („Tyrrhener oder Römer“), ebenso wie Tyrrhenía è Italía. Einige Sprachelemente seien zusätzlich genannt: Im Etruskischen lauten die Namensbezeichnungen für Rom Ruma, für Römer Rumach, für Troja Truia, für Trojaner Truial. In der Frühzeit herrschte ein Priesterkönig (lauchme oder lochume, lat. lucumo) in jeder etruskischen Stadt, ein Titel, der möglicherweise auf die Heilskönige und Richter der nordostgeorgischen Bergstämme verweist, die häufig den Namen Luchumi trugen.

Das etruskische Erbe Roms gelangte erst Jahrhunderte später, während des Humanismus und in der Renaissance wieder zum Vorschein. Bei der Hinwendung zur Antike in der Rinascita spielte in der Toskana und in Latium, vor allem in Florenz und Viterbo, die Etruscheria, die Begeisterung für die Etrusker, eine besondere Rolle. Das Etruskertum diente als Modell gesellschaftlicher Erneuerung und fand Eingang in die kulturellen Programme der Renaissancefürsten, nicht zuletzt  der Medici. Der römische Baumeister Vitruv hatte  in seinem Augustus gewidmeten Werk De architectura  die tuskische Säulenordnung beschrieben. Diese Schrift regte die Renaissancearchitekten Andrea Palladio und Giorgio Vasari an. Der Palladianismus bildet zwei Jahrhunderte später eine der wichtigsten Stilrichtungen des Klassizismus. Durch die Lektüre von Palladio inspiriert, errichtete Thomas Jefferson sein Haus „Monticello“ mit toskanischem Portikus – die  erste toskanische Villa in der Neuen Welt.  Den Etruskern verdankt das  abendländischen Denken  schließlich  eine zentrale Kategorie – die Person.

It has been forty-one years since I presented my initial work on the Etruscan language to the curator of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. It was about this time of the year and at the time I was thirtyeight years old. The curator kindly met with me but was not able to help me beyond suggesting meeting with some professors at the Sorbonne University. I was looking, of course, for the scholastic world s interest in the work and help in pursuing it in detail. I went to the Sorbonne without any positive result. I had been working then on the Etruscan language for about ten years, having been curious about Michael Ventris decipherment of Linear B, a writing system used in Crete by the Mycenaean civilization. Having spent some time on it and Linear B (which continues to be undeciphered, I switched to the examination of a curious Etruscan lead tablet called the Magliano Disk which had an inscription in the form of a spiral or meander. The Magliano Disk has been date to be around 500 B.C. Another document like the Magliano Disk is the Phaistos Disk which dates to 2,000 B.C. The Magliano Disk prompted me into searching out all of the Etruscan texts I could find, the results of which are provided on my Etruscan Phrases web pages. All written documents are intended to be understood and assume that the reader knows the value of the characters used to communicate the ideas expressed in a document. The Etruscan characters posed a unique problem, since they are almost the same as the Roman or Western alphabet and one is tempted to assign the values we know and understand to the Etruscan writings. But there is a problem with this, since the Etruscan writing often did not separate characters, phrases, or sentences, and separating distinct words in the texts is a challenge. Complicating the reading of the texts is the problem peculiar to Phoenician and later Hebrew texts where vowels are omitted. The omission of vowels in the Etruscan texts, however, did not appear to be systematic. The values of the Etruscan characters turn out to be not the same as our alphabet. The V, for instance, is not the Roman v but used as a u and o. The Etruscan F is interesting since it serves both as a consonant and a vowel. It is a v and a u, as in the word for Dionysus, Bacchus, L. Euias, Euan, which is Etruscan EFAIS, Euais. Euan is Etruscan EFAN. These and other similar relationships will be seen in the Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary (as well as the Etruscan Glossary A). In any event, it is now October 17, 2022 after preparing the Introduction to the Etruscan Language and further pursing the draft findings of this document, identifying specific declension and grammatical applications, another document has grown out of the work which is the Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary. It has been compiled using a worksheet at the end of this document called the Etruscan Glossary. Since the Etruscan Glossary is an excel spreadsheet, it could be used to organize refine and translate the Etruscan words of the Etruscan texts. Associated with preparation of the Etruscan Glossary is my Indo-European Table1 which is in 11 parts, available on academia.edu at: Introduction to the Etruscan language 2 https://www.academia.edu/35148685/Etruscan_Phrases_Indo_European_Table_1_Update_02_06_22_ The purpose and function of the table can be easily discerned by one s first look at the table and its succeeding 10 parts. Its 11 parts can also be easily accessed at: http://www.maravot.com/indo-european_Table.html. The Indo-European Table is not what I intended it to be, for it has grown into a table and worksheet on Eurasian languages. Each language represented in the Table reveals relationships that may be surprising. For instance, those who are interested in the origins of certain English words will see entries on origins (taken from The Concise American Heritage Dictionary, 1987 Houghton-Mifflin Company. Many of the English source or origin entries may not be correct, as will be seen in the Table. What does all this have to do with the Etruscans, who date from about 1,000 B.C. in Tuscany, Northern Italy? A good part of the English language derives from Latin, and Latin is very closely related to Etruscan (an older civilization that the Latin/Roman civilization). Civilizations influence on another, either by trade or conquest or both. We know the relationship of English-Latin, or French-Latin, etc. because of the Roman conquests. The Etruscan-Latin relationship is more perplexing, since the Etruscans had an established civilization long before, hundreds of years before, Rome came into existence. There were Latin-speaking tribes that were neighbors of the Etruscans but since the relationship between them and the Etruscans was before Rome came into existence we can t speak to the history of the Etruscans and Latin-speaking people. Could they understand one another? It s hard to say. We can assume that old Latin was closer to Etruscan than Roman Latin. The name of Hercules, for instance, in Etruscan is HERCLE, in old Latin it appears to be the same. In French the name of Hercules is Hercule. There is a possibility that we can write a history the Etruscan world from the Etruscan point of view and that is through the translation of the Etruscan texts. This leads you to the Copeland-English-Etruscan Dictionary, currently in preparation. There are 136 pages in the document and growing, as I convert the Etruscan Glossary A data into a working dictionary. The final Etruscan dictionary will be in excess of 300 pages, estimated to include about 3,000 words.

The Etruscans, a nickname of the prehistoric Pelasgo-Proto-Macedonic civilization from the Aegean. Erodot (Lat. Herodotus) recounts their origin in “Lydia” or “Phrygia,” both civilizations being also listed among the allies of Trojans in the Trojan War. According to Erodot, due to a famine (or other calamity) in Lydia many emigrated westward, to Smyrna on the Aegean coast, built ships and put to sea to find a new home...

In the past, many scholars have attempted to find tin sources, in the central Mediterranean area, for bronze production, mostly between the Medium Bronze and Recent Bronze Age (1,700-1,200 BC). In this period we can find, in the entire Mediterranean, a series of critical events such as the depletion of the Anatolian tin ores; the advent and rise of the long-distance Cypriot trades; the " Bronze-Age collapse " ; the arrival of intra-European and intra-Mediterranean central production&trade places. With regard to the discussion of tin sources, scholars have fluctuated between recourse to the commonplace of " absence of prehistoric exploitation " or to the Cassiterides myth. In this paper, I will attempt to demonstrate that the tin from the Campiglia area was available in such quantity to meet, for some centuries, the needs of the central Mediterranean and was of exceptional quality, allowing it to be easily extracted and worked quickly. This paper will also underline that the Cornwall mines have stocked tin in large quantities only after the Roman conquest and that the oldest dating of Erzgebirge mining is medieval.

Thanks to the increasing multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of votive contexts, a meaningful amount of information about both archaeological finds and associated faunal remains is available, giving way to interpretations about cults and sacrificial practices. This paper deals with the filling of different categories of “cavities” included in Etruscan sacred areas: the deep ones providing a connection with the underworld (mainly holding a primary hydraulic function); the wide ditches and the artificially delimited hollow spaces. In spite of the uneven quality of published data, this paper attempts to discuss and highlight their possible meaning and common distinctive features, taking into account their stratification, the sequence of operations involved and the evidence of specific rituals performed during the definitive land filling.

"The early 20th century excavation of Banditella cemetery at Marsiliana d’Albegna (Manciano, GR) provided a list of the grave-goods placed into the burials. A close analysis of all the tombs’ contents enables us to point out some recurring grave-goods associations, which are presumably related to different hierarchical levels within the gens buried in the cemetery. The plan of the necropolis allows us to elaborate on the distribution of the identified grave-goods associations and the possible relationships between burials. They often appear to have been arranged in discernible patterns, such as in groups around chariot graves, or to have been disposed according to relationships between high-ranking male and female tombs and middle- and low-ranking tombs. Moreover, the finding of two nearly life-size anthropomorphic images within two burials (‘Circolo degli Avori’ and ‘Circolo della Fibula’) leads to some remarks on the interpretation of such statue-like objects, which are known from a very few examples from Vulci and its territory."

Updated attached exel file only, 3.09.2024. Updated to include corrections of mirrors. One mirror carries the name TIRANAII (Tyrhenni).  It is the oldest extant document containing the name Herodotus referred to and may predate Herodotus' "Histories." The Etruscan Glossary A spreadsheet presents 2,800 individual words from the major extant Etruscan texts. The texts contain a total word count of 6,000+ words, about 4,000 of which are repetitious. The Etruscan Glossary also sheds light on Etruscan declension and conjugation patterns that are similar to Latin, French & Italian. The glossary accounts for all of the 6,000+ words in the texts, including  the Zagreb Mummy wrapping and important grammatical and mythological data contained in Etruscan mirrors. Each word in the glossary has alphanumeric locators showing exactly where they are used in the cited texts.

The landing place of the Etruscan site of Alsium is not as well-known as the most important of Caere’s harbors, Pyrgi, and its supposed location has fluctuated between the promontory of Palo, where the Roman colonia maritima is located, and the site of the famous so-called “Villa of Pompey”, about 2 km further south.Nowadays the second hypothesis seems to be the most likely. Its geographical position, dominating the alluvial plain of the Tiber, its proximity to the mouth of the Cupino stream, the placement of important necropolises such as S. Paolo and Monteroni along the route from Caere to Alsium, as well as the discovery and rediscovery of a number of interesting contexts are just some of the main indications in favour of this “petite acropole”. However, there is still no archaeological proof of this theory and currently it is only possible to outline a few preliminary considerations about the role played by Alsium, from the Orientalizing period onwards, in contacts with Mediterranean trade routes and, through to the Cupino valley, with the territorial sections overlooking Bracciano Lake and the Tiber valley.

In the context of an overall study of the production of the bucchero in Veii, the still unpublished materials found in the
excavations of Enrico Stefani in the eastern sector of the sanctuary of Portonaccio bear witness of the level of the local
workshops and of the existence of productions specifically intended for the attendance of the sacred area. Among these,
a two-faced female protome applique with a polos decorated with a cervid, perhaps pertaining to the decoration of a
piece of furniture, may be interpreted as a precious image of Artemis, adding to other evidences of the devotion to the
goddess in the great suburban sanctuary of Veii.

In this book, we review the studies concerning the genetic and cultural anthropology of the Po Valley (northern Italy), as far as they can shed light on its Celtic roots. As for genetic anthropology, we refer to the pioneering studies by Luca Cavalli Sforza and Alberto Piazza; according to these studies, the genetic landscape of modern-day Italy is virtually frozen to pre-Roman times and modern-day northern Italy is characterized by a strong Celtic component. As for cultural anthropology, we claim that some peculiarities of the Latin epigraphy, religion, onomastics and literature - and of modern-day cultural anthropology and toponomastics - of the Po Valley are perfectly compatible with the hypothesis of a Celtic imprinting that survived Romanization.

Emperor Claudius I who was born with cerebral palsy.  Apart from being an emperor he was also a major Roman historian who was tutored by Livy (one of most significant Roman historians of all time).  Claudius wrote a number of history books and he was one of the last major figures to be fluent in Etruscan.  Emperor Claudius I first wife was Etruscan.  He also wrote a history of  the Etruscans which has since disappeared.

In Etruria, the period of the " Romanization " is a phase of deep structural upheavals, which have an immediate impact both on the organization of the " minor " settlements, which are born in the late IV century, and on the system of " new " settlements, which arose around the middle of the III century after the direct intervention of Rome. In this context, the data pertaining to the sacred contexts, can be integrated by those of domestic architecture unfortunately limited-and by the most important expressions of the funerary architecture. Some examples of both urban and funerary contexts are illustrated, in order to reconstruct the development of traditional elements and, furthermore, to highlight the innovative elements derived from new Hellenistic models.

In ogni tempo e in ogni luogo, le immagini hanno rappresentato un codice di comunicazione dalla straordinaria ricchezza semantica. Così fu anche per Etruschi, Italici e Greci, che attraverso esse crearono un vero e proprio mondo di significati e di valori, nel quale le singole comunità umane potevano rispecchiarsi al loro interno e autorappresentarsi verso l’esterno. Il loro linguaggio è tutt’altro che immediatamente comprensibile all’osservatore moderno. Infatti, l’immaginario non è fotografia della realtà antica, ma è, al contrario, codice comunicativo arbitrario, meditato, filtrato in conseguenza della scelta di valori che la comunità - e il singolo individuo - decidono di affidare alla memoria collettiva. L’esegesi dei significati, spesso volutamente ambigui, che le immagini sottendono rappresenta una delle più affascinanti sfide della ricerca archeologica.
Per la loro straordinaria portata semantica, le immagini furono presto integrate all’interno della ritualità funeraria, nei singoli corredi tombali, venendo a configurarsi spesso come vero e proprio manifesto ideologico del defunto o dei defunti che in quella sepoltura trovavano la loro ultima dimora. Chiave di lettura indispensabile per comprenderne la valenza semantica originaria è l’interpretazione del contesto nel quale erano inserite.
La prospettiva contestuale nella lettura delle immagini funerarie è il trait d’union imprescindibile dei contributi che questo volume raccoglie. I saggi, inoltre, si coagulano attorno ad un tema di straordinaria rilevanza nella percezione antica: la prospettiva della morte e, eventualmente, del destino oltremondano.
Il volume inaugura una serie di incontri e di riflessioni sul significato delle immagini nei contesti funerari che si propone di indagare in maniera ampia, contestuale e interculturale il problema della percezione antica dell’immaginario rapportato alla dimensione funeraria, dalla selezione, alla fruizione, all’eventuale rifunzionalizzazione del segno iconico.