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The Etruscan civilization ( ) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. After adjacent lands had been conquered its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria and northern Lazio,
A large body of literature has flourished on the origins of the Etruscans, but the consensus among modern scholars is that the Etruscans were an indigenous population.
The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 500 BC, shortly after the Roman Kingdom became the Roman Republic. Its culture flourished in three confederacies of cities: that of Etruria (Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), that of the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, and that of Campania.The topic of the "League of Etruria" is covered in Freeman, pp. 562–65. The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy.The entire subject with complete ancient sources in footnotes was worked up by George Dennis in his Introduction. In the LacusCurtius transcription, the references in Dennis's footnotes link to the texts in English or Latin; the reader may also find the English of some of them on WikiSource or other Internet sites. As the work has already been done by Dennis and Thayer, the complete work-up is not repeated here. The reduction in Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500 BC the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from the Etruscans in favor of the rising Roman Republic.
The earliest-known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700 BC.
According to Dionysius the Etruscans called themselves Rasenna (Greek Ῥασέννα), a stem from the Etruscan Rasna (𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀), the people. Evidence of inscriptions as Tular Rasnal (𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌛 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋), "boundary of the people", or Mechlum Rasnal (𐌌𐌄𐌙𐌋 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋). "community of the people", attest to its autonym usage. The Tyrsenian etymology, however, remains unknown.Rasenna comes from The syncopated form, Rasna, is inscriptional and is inflected.The topic is covered in Pallottino, p. 133.Some inscriptions, such as the cippus of Cortona, feature the Raśna (pronounced Rashna) alternative, as is described at
In Attic Greek the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians (Τυρρηνοί, Tyrrhēnoi, earlier Τυρσηνοί Tyrsēnoi),, . from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhēnum (Tyrrhenian Sea).
The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī (singular Tuscus).According to Félix Gaffiot's Dictionnaire Illustré Latin Français, the major authors of the Roman Republic (Livy, Cicero, Horace, and others) used the term Tusci. Cognate words developed, including Tuscia and Tusculanensis. Tuscī was clearly the principal term used to designate things Etruscan; Etruscī and Etrusia/ Etrūria were used less often, mainly by Cicero and Horace, and they lack cognates.According to the the English use of Etruscan dates from 1706. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region. The term Tusci is thought by linguists to have been the Umbrian word for Etruscan, based on an inscription on an Iguvine Tables from a nearby region. The inscription contains the phrase turskum ... nomen, literally ‘the Tuscan name’. Based on a knowledge of Umbrian grammar, linguists can infer that the base form of the word turskum is *Tursci, which would, through metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis, be likely to lead to the form, E-trus-ci.
As for the original meaning of the root, *Turs-, a widely cited hypothesis is that it, like the Latin turris, means ‘tower’ and comes from the ancient Greek word for tower: τύρσις,The Bonfantes (2003), p. 51.. likely a loan into Greek. On this hypothesis, the Tusci were called the ‘people who build towers" or "the tower builders".Partridge (1983) This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. Alternatively, Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante have speculated that Etruscan houses may have seemed like towers to the simple Latins.
The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod in his work the Theogony. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins.Hesiod, Theogony 1015. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to DionysusHomeric Hymn to Dionysus, 7.7–8 referred to them as pirates.John Pairman Brown, Israel and Hellas, Vol. 2 (2000) p. 211 Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east and did not associate them with the Pelasgians.
It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks" respectively.Strabo. Geography. Book VI, Chapter II. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022. The 5th-century BC historians Herodotus,6.137 and Thucydides4.109 and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo,Strabo. Geography. Book V, Chapter II. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022. did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of the Greek island of Lemnos. They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" (τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον Πελασγικόν, τῶν καὶ Λῆμνόν ποτε καὶ Ἀθήνας Τυρσηνῶν). As Strabo and Herodotus told it,1.94 the migration to Lemnos was led by Tyrrhenus / Tyrsenos, the son of Atys (who was king of Lydia). Strabo added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros then followed Tyrrhenus to the Italian Peninsula. According to the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos, there was a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians.
There is some evidence suggesting a link between Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The Lemnos stele bears inscriptions in a language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans. The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a "Tyrrhenian language group" consisting of Etruscan, Lemnian, and the Raetic language spoken in the Alps.
Τhis is aligned with the famous and largely debated testimony of Herodotus: "The emigrants went down to Smyrna and built ships, and sailed away in search of a livelihood. After passing many nations, they came to the land of the Ombricans, where they built cities and have lived ever since. They no longer called themselves Lydians, but after the name of the king's son who led them out, they called themselves Tyrrhenians.” (Herodotus)
Herodotus also mentions the existence of a tribe called Tyrsenioi/Tyrrhenoi in Central Macedonia: "based on the Pelasgians, who even now dwell above the Tyrrhenians in the city of Creston and who were once neighbors of those now called Dorians (for at that time the Pelasgians inhabited the land which is now called Thessaliotis)."'' By this Herodotus refers to Creston, a city/region in Macedonia, and that Pelasgians are residing above the Tyrsinoi that are known by Thucydides to dwell in the Athos Peninshula (Acte).
In Acte were settled barbarian peoples, mixed and bilingual, and a small number of Chalcidians; but the greater part were Pelasgians Tyrrhenians from Lemnos and Athens, alongside Visaltai, Kristones, and Idones. (Thucydides)
But the 1st-century BC historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that the Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians. Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian Xanthus of Lydia, who was originally from Sardis and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of the Lydians.
The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the endonym of the Etruscans: Rasenna.
Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian Livy, in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri, said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin.
The first-century historian Pliny the Elder also put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north, and wrote in his Natural History (AD 79):
Several archaeologists specializing in Prehistory and Protohistory who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to material culture or to social practices, to support a migration theory.
A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities showed a continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years. Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during the last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous Proto-Villanovan culture and that the subsequent Iron Age Villanovan culture is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization. It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the Mycenaeans at the end of the Bronze Age, but contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of Greece, Aegean Sea Islands, Asia Minor, and the Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan ethnogenesis was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the Magna Grecia and Phoenician-Punic colonies in Sardinia, and the consequent orientalizing period.
One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of the past, has been to associate the later Orientalizing period of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria. The Etruscan orientalizing period was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with the Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations. The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to several other civilizations in the central and western Mediterranean up to the Iberian Peninsula. Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the Tomb of the Augurs, the Tomb of the Triclinium and the Tomb of the Leopards, as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the Monterozzi necropolis in Tarquinia, were painted by Greek painters or at least foreign artists. These images have, therefore, a very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population. It was only from the end of the 4th century BC that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic.
An archeogenetic study focusing on Etruscan origins was published in September 2021 in the journal Science Advances and analyzed the autosomal DNA and the uniparental markers (Y-DNA and mtDNA) of 48 Iron Age individuals from Tuscany and Lazio, spanning from 800 to 1 BC and concluded that the Etruscans were autochthonous (locally indigenous) and had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. In the Etruscan individuals the ancestral component Steppe was present in the same percentages as those found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and the Etruscan DNA bore no trace of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Both Etruscans and Latins were firmly part of the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscans were a mixture of WHG, EEF and Steppe ancestry; 75% of the Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to haplogroup R1b (R1b M269), especially its clade R1b-P312 and its derivative R1b-L2, whose direct ancestor is R1b-U152, whilst the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was H.
The conclusions of the 2021 study are in line with a 2019 study published in the journal Science that analyzed the remains of eleven Iron Age individuals from the areas around Rome, of whom four were Etruscan, one buried in Veio from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near Civitavecchia from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the Latins (900–500 BC) from Latium vetus were genetically similar, with genetic differences between the examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant. The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of steppe ancestry. Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds Copper Age ancestry (EEF + WHG; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%) and one-third Steppe-related ancestry (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%). The only sample of Y-DNA belonged to haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283), found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried the M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from Croatia (16311531 BC). The four samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups U5a1, H, T2b32, K1a4.
Among the older studies, based only on mitochondrial DNA, a mtDNA study, published in 2018 in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology compared both ancient and modern samples from Tuscany, from Prehistory, the Etruscan age, Ancient Rome, Renaissance and the present day and concluded that the Etruscans appear to be a local population, intermediate between the prehistoric and the other samples, placing them in the temporal network between the Eneolithic and the Roman Age.
A couple of mitochondrial DNA studies published in 2013 in the journals PLOS One and American Journal of Physical Anthropology, based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that the Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to be very close to a Neolithic population from Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Hungary) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the Villanovan culture, as supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research, and that genetic links between Tuscany and western Anatolia date to at least 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of Early European Farmers (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) JT (subclades of J and T) and U5, with a minority of mtDNA H1b.
An mtDNA study published in 2004, based on about 28 samples of individuals who lived from 600 to 100 BC in Veneto, Etruria and Campania, found that the Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European or but only a few were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among Germans (seven haplotypes in common), the Cornwall from the South West of Britain (five haplotypes in common), the Turkish peoples (four haplotypes in common) and the Tuscany (two haplotypes in common). The modern populations with the shortest genetic distance from the ancient Etruscans, based solely on mtDNA and FST, were Tuscans followed by the Turks, other populations from the Mediterranean and the Cornish after. This study was much criticized by other geneticists, because "data represent severely damaged or partly contaminated mtDNA sequences" and "any comparison with modern population data must be considered quite hazardous", and by archaeologists, who argued that the study was not clear-cut and had not provided evidence that the Etruscans were an intrusive population to the European context.
In the collective volume Etruscology published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins, echoing an article of his from 2009, provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes, "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that the Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".
In his 2021 book A Short History of Humanity, German geneticist Johannes Krause, codirector of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Jena, concludes that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque language, Paleo-Sardinian and Minoan language) "developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Europe".
Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the Greeks' expense, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily. A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites.
In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gaul invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic Sea. Meanwhile, Ancient Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. During the Roman–Etruscan Wars, Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BC.
There were two other Etruscan leagues ("Lega dei popoli"): that of Campania, the main city of which was Capua, and the Po Valley city-states in northern Italy, which included Bologna, Spina and Adria.
The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to the Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date. Many, if not most, of the Etruscan cities were older than Rome. If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. These would indicate that certain institutions and customs came directly from the Etruscans. Rome is located on the edge of what was Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome.
Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills—the steeper the better—and surrounded by thick walls. According to Roman mythology, when Romulus and Remus founded Rome, they did so on the Palatine Hill according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a pomerium or sacred ditch. Then they proceeded to the walls. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under Pons Sublicius). The name of Rome is attested in Etruscan in the form Ruma-χ meaning 'Roman', a form that mirrors other attested ethnonyms in that language with the same suffix -χ: Velzna-χ '(someone) from Volsinii' and Sveama-χ '(someone) from Sovana'. But this in itself does not prove Etruscan origin conclusively. If Tiberius is from θefarie, then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar (Tiber) river. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. In 390 BC, the city of Rome was attacked by the Gauls, and as a result may have lost many, though not all, of its earlier records.
Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Vicus Tuscus,Tacitus, Cornelius. The Annals & The Histories. Trans. Alfred Church and William Brodribb. New York, 2003. the "Etruscan quarter", and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek, Demaratus of Corinth) that succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, proves that Rome was founded by Etruscans.
Under Romulus and Numa Pompilius, the people were said to have been divided into 30 and three Roman tribe. Few Etruscan words entered Latin, but the names of at least two of the tribes— Ramnes and Luceres—seem to be Etruscan. The last kings may have borne the Etruscan title lucumo, while the regalia were traditionally considered of Etruscan origin—the golden crown, the sceptre, the toga palmata (a special robe), the sella curulis (Curule seat), and above all the primary symbol of state power: the fasces. The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe, carried by the king's . An example of the fasces are the remains of bronze rods and the axe from a tomb in Etruscan Vetulonia. This allowed archaeologists to identify the depiction of a fasces on the grave stele of Avele Feluske, who is shown as a warrior wielding the fasces. The most telling Etruscan feature is the word populus, which appears as an Etruscan deity, Fufluns.
The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. It retained the power of life and death; in fact, the gorgon, an ancient symbol of that power, appears as a motif in Etruscan decoration. The adherents to this state power were united by a common religion. Political unity in Etruscan society was the city-state, which was probably the referent of , "district". Etruscan texts name quite a number of , without much of a hint as to their function: The , the , the , the , the , and so on. The people were the mech.
“That such bird had come from such a quarter of the heavens... it had lifted the ornament placed on the head of man, to restore it to the same, by direction of the gods.”This notion of combined political power and religious authorities held by the kingship is reinforced by Sybille Haynes, an expert on Etruscology, described the lucomo to also be "chief priest." Tombs of the royals found also are engraved with divine symbols, which can be interpreted to understand that kings in this society acted as a connection between humans and the spiritual.
While there was a transition from monarchy to oligarchic democracy, religion was deeply intertwined with Etruscan political and governmental identity, as Kings and magistrates worked to ensure peace with the gods by rituals and interpretation of the divine and their will through haruspicy and augury. The Haruspex were a group of pristries who by analysis of the celestial signs and animal entrails could deduce the will of the gods. The creation of city-states as Tenney Frank argued took place due to economic and natural advantages, and also due to a need for common tribal meetings in ancient polities. It allowed for a dialogue of ideas to increase communication, and desires and was headed by the zilath mechl rasnal, (“magistrate of the Etruscan people”) who as modern scholars have argued functioned largely as a ceremonial leader, rather than a federal executive. Modelling a decentralised theocracy, this role further ties together the idea that Entruscan government was held through shared religious rituals and beliefs.
It is important to note that while Etruscan city states such as Tarquinia and Veii were established as politically autonomous, being centered around aristocratic rule and magistrates, international composition in these states were also considered progressive by scholars and historians. It is believed often due to the abundance of Greek and Roman sources over Etruscan ones that women were not allowed participation and enjoyment in public life, however their society was depicted to revere female gods, and women were allowed to participate in public life. This reverence for female duties can be deduced to understand how gender-diverse spirituality was also an important aspect of Etruscan society.
Political religion also extended to the establishment of the twelve city-states, whose league was called “ duodecim populi Etruriae.” This league held assemblies annually and selected their zilath mechl rasna at the Fanun Voltumnae, the shrine of Voltumna. Taking place at a sanctuary dedicated to the god Voltuma. These assemblies acted as both political conferences where military and peace talks could be held as well as religious festivals. Foreign policy, related to war, and alliances, were believed to be an outcome of the will of the gods, and discussions regarding this also took place at the yearly assemblies. Mario Torelli articulates that these asemblies served the purpose of ensuing a divine sanction for the actions decided by the collective.
Lastly, the importance of religion in these meetings is further emblematic by the appointment of a dictator,Religion was further embedded into the urban and geographical organisations of city states, and temples became an important political feature where decisions would be made as gods would act as a tool of legitimation. Mario Torelli, an Italian scholar of the culture of Etruscans, notes the intersection of temples as a place of worship and political power, creating the ultimate intersection cultivating an environment of sacred order.
Etruscan's political and governmental strategies, with their influence of religion, also left a legacy in Roman religion and statecraft. Roman annexation of Etruscan city states occurred in the 4th and 3rd century BCE, and saw the adoption of many religious-political practices. Practices such as augury and haruspicy remained especially prevalent, as Etruscan haruspices were called upon by the Roman senate reflecting the importance of religion in nation building. As much of what is known about Etruscans comes from Greek and Roman authors, due to the few written records remaining from Etruscan's, it is studied through perspectives other than their own leading to a diminished understanding of religious importance in Etruscan governance.
Similarly, the behavior of some wealthy women is not uniquely Etruscan. The apparent promiscuous revelry has a spiritual explanation. Swaddling and Bonfante (among others) explain that depictions of the nude embrace, or symplegma, "had the power to ward off evil", as did baring the breast, which was adopted by western culture as an apotropaic magic, appearing finally on the figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society. In both Greece and the earliest Republican Rome, respectable women were confined to the house and mixed-sex socialising did not occur. Thus, the freedom of women within Etruscan society could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability.Briquel, Dominique; Svensson Pär (2007). Etruskerna. Alhambras pocket encyklopedi, 99-1532610-6; 88 (1. uppl.). Furulund: Alhambra. A number of Etruscan tombs carry funerary inscriptions in the form "X son of (father) and (mother)", indicating the importance of the mother's side of the family.
That many Roman cities were formerly Etruscan was well known to all the Roman authors. Some cities were founded by Etruscans in prehistoric times, and bore entirely Etruscan names. Others were colonized by Etruscans who Etruscanized the name, usually Italic languages.
Vite maritata is a viticulture technique exploiting companion planting named after the Maremma region of Italy which may be relevant to climate change. It was developed around the area by these early predecessors of the Romans who cultivated plant as nearly as possible in their natural habitat. The from which wine is made are a kind of liana that naturally intertwine with trees such as maples or willows.
Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), and Cel, the earth goddess. In addition, some Greek and Roman gods were inspired by the Etruscan system: Artume (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva), Pacha (Dionysus). The Greek heroes taken from Homer also appear extensively in art motifs.
Bucchero wares in black were the early and native styles of fine Etruscan pottery. There was also a tradition of elaborate Etruscan vase painting, which sprung from its Greek equivalent; the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek vases. Etruscan temples were heavily decorated with colorfully painted terracotta and other fittings, which survive in large numbers where the wooden superstructure has vanished. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.
The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs are different types of pipes, such as the aulos (the pipes of Pan or Syrinx), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the tintinnabulum, Timpani and crotales, and later by stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara.
With the founding of on Ischia and Kyme (lat. Cumae) in Campania in the course of the Greek colonization, the Etruscans came under the influence of the Greek culture in the 8th century BC. The Etruscans adopted an alphabet from the western Greek colonists that came from their homeland, the Euboean Chalkis. This alphabet from Cumae is therefore also called EuboeanLarissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 14. or ChalcidianFriedhelm Prayon: The Etruscans. History, religion, art. p. 38. Alphabet. The oldest written records of the Etruscans date from around 700 BC.Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 56.
| Letter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transcription | A | B | G | D | E | V | Z | H | TH | I | K | L | M | N | X | O | P | Ś | Q | R | S | T | U | X | PH | CH |
One of the oldest Etruscan written documents is found on the tablet of Marsiliana d’Albegna from the hinterland of Vulci, which is now kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence. A western Greek model alphabet is engraved on the edge of this wax tablet made of ivory. In accordance with later Etruscan writing habits, the letters in this model alphabet were mirrored and arranged from right to left:
| Letter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transcription | A | B | C | D | E | F | Z | H | TH | I | K | L | M | N | S | O | P | SH | Q | R | S | T | U | X | PH | KH |
The script with these letters was first used in southern Etruria around 700 BC in the Etruscan Etruscan cities (lat. Caere), today's Cerveteri. The science of writing quickly reached central and northern Etruria. From there, the alphabet spread from Volterra (Etr. Etruscan cities) to Etruscan cities, today's Bologna, and later from Chiusi (Etr. Etruscan cities) to the Po Valley. In southern Etruria, the writing spread from Tarquinia (Etr. Etruscan cities) and Veii (Etr. Etruscan cities) further south to Campania, which was controlled by the Etruscans at the time.Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 54. In the following centuries the Etruscans consistently used the letters mentioned, so that the deciphering of the Etruscan inscriptions is not a problem. As in Greek, the characters were subject to regional and temporal changes. Overall, one can distinguish an archaic script from the 7th to 5th centuries from a more recent script from the 4th to 1st centuries BC, in which some characters were no longer used, including the X for a sh sound. In addition, in writing and language, the emphasis on the first syllable meant that internal vowels were not reproduced, e.g. Menrva instead of Menerva.Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 81. Accordingly, linguists also distinguish between Old and New Etruscan.Friedhelm Prayon: Die Etrusker. History, Religion, Art. pp. 38–40.
Alongside the tablet of Marsiliana d’Albegna, around 70 objects with model alphabets have been preserved from the early period.Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 55. The most famous of these are:
As all four artifacts date from the 7th century B.C. come from, the alphabets are always written clockwise.Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 133. The last object has the special feature that, in addition to the letters of the alphabet, almost all consonants are shown in sequence in connection with the vowels I, A, U and E (Syllabary). This syllabic writing system was probably used to practice the written characters.
The most important Etruscan written monuments that contain a large number of words include:
No further Etruscan literature has survived and from the early 1st century AD, inscriptions with Etruscan characters have ceased to exist. All existing ancient Etruscan written documents are systematically collected in the Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum.
In the middle of the 7th century BC, the Romans adopted the Etruscan writing system and letters. In particular, they used the three different characters C, K and Q for a K sound. Z was also initially adopted into the Roman alphabet, although the affricate TS did not occur in the Latin language. Later, Z was replaced in the alphabet by the newly formed letter G, which was derived from C, and Z was finally placed at the end of the alphabet.Steven Roger Fischer: History of Writing. pp. 141–142. The letters Θ, Φ and Ψ were omitted by the Romans because the corresponding aspirated sounds did not occur in their language.
The Etruscan alphabet spread across the northern and central parts of the Italian peninsula. It is assumed that the formation of the Oscan language, probably in the 6th century BC, was fundamentally influenced by Etruscan. The characters of the Umbrian language, Faliscan and Venetic language languages can also be traced back to Etruscan alphabets.Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. p. 117.
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