(Redirected from Etruscans)
Etruscan couple, National Museum at Florence.
'Etruscan
civilization' is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient
Italy and
Corsica whom ancient Romans called ''Etrusci'' or ''Tusci''.
[1] The
Attic Greek word for them was '' (
Tyrrhēnioi)'' from which the Romans of the republic developed Tyrrhēni (Etruscans), Tyrrhēnia (
Etruria) and Tyrrhēnum mare (
Tyrrhenian Sea).
[2] The Etruscans themselves used the term ''Rasenna'', which was syncopated to ''Rasna'' or ''Raśna''.
[3]
As distinguished by its own language, the civilization endured from an unknown prehistoric time prior to the foundation of
Rome until its complete assimilation to
Italic Rome in the
Roman Republic. At its maximum extent during the foundation period of Rome and the
Roman kingdom, it flourished in three confederacies: of
Etruria, of the
Po valley with the eastern
Alps, and of
Latium and
Campania.
[4] Rome was sited in Etruscan territory. There is considerable evidence that early Rome was dominated by Etruscans until the Romans sacked
Veii in 396 BC.
Culture that is identifiably and certainly Etruscan developed in Italy after about
800 BC approximately over the range of the preceding
Iron Age Villanovan culture. The latter gave way in the seventh century to a culture that was influenced by Greek traders and Greek neighbors in
Magna Graecia, the
Hellenic civilization of southern Italy.
Language
:''Main article:
Etruscan language''.
The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a non-
Indo-European language. Knowledge of their language is still far from complete.
Dr. Bugge, a learned
Norwegian, has developed a suggestion offered years ago by the late
Dr. Robert Ellis of
London, that the
Etruscan was an
Armenian dialect.
[5]
Etymology
No etymology exists for Rasna.
The etymology of Tusci is based on a beneficiary phrase in the third
Iguvine tablet, which is a major source for the
Umbrian language.
[6] The phrase is 'turskum ... numem', ''the Tuscan name'', from which a root
★ Tursci can be reconstructed.
[7] A metathesis and an e-extension produce E-trus-ci.
[8] A common hypothesis is that
★ turs- along with
Latin turris, "tower", come from
Greek , "tower."
[The Bonfantes (2003), Page 51.]. The Tusci were therefore the "people who build towers"
[ ] or "the tower builders."
[9] This venerable etymology is at least as old as
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who said "And there is no reason why the Greeks should not have called them by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers."
[Book I, Section 30.]
The Bonfantes speculate that Etruscan houses seemed like towers to the simple Latins. It is true that the Etruscans preferred to build hill towns on high precipices enhanced by walls. On the other hand if the Tyrrhenian name came from an incursion of
sea peoples or later migrants (see below) then it might well be related to the name of
Troy, the city of towers in that case.
Origins
The origins of the Etruscans are lost in prehistory. Several hypotheses exist, some of which are listed below. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Debate over origins began even as the Etruscans lived out the floruit of their civilization and was revived in the 17th century AD. Whether ancient or modern theorists proceed mainly by looking for pattern matches between cultures; that is, given sets of cultural elements, {a, b, ...} of cultures {A, B, ...}, theorists look for groups of common elements and then hypothesize a connection between the corresponding cultures. The elements might be from any cultural aspects at all from speech sounds to pot marks.
No complete but many partial matches have been found.
Ethnic formation hypothesis
In his own history of the Etruscan debate,
Massimo Pallottino, the dominant Etruscologist of his times, distinguished between "provenance" and "ethnic formation."
[10] Theories of the former seek an origin. He divided those into "oriental", "northern" and "autochthonous."
Formulating a different point of view on the same evidence, Pallottino says:
[11]
Autochthonous hypothesis
Dionysius of Halicarnassus asserted:
[ ]
With this passage Dionysius launched the autochthonous theory, that the core element of the Etruscans, who spoke the Etruscan language, were of "the earth itself"; that is, on location for so long that they appeared to be the original or native inhabitants. They are therefore the owners of the
Villanovan culture.
[12]
Picking up this theme, the Bonfantes (2002) state:
[13]
An additional elaboration conjectures that the Etruscans were
[14]
Lydian immigration hypothesis
Herodotus[15] records the legend that the Etruscans came from
Lydia in Asia Minor:
In reply,
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who read Herodotus, states:
[ ]
Sea peoples hypothesis
Main articles: Tyrrhenians
The Tyrrhenians may have been one of the
sea peoples of the 14th ''(13th?)'' century BC.
Genetic evidence
A team of geneticists from different universities in
Italy and
Spain undertook the first genetic studies of the ancient Etruscans, based on mitochondrial DNA from 80 bone samples taken from tombs dating from the seventh century to the third century BC in
Etruria.
[16] This study finds that they were more related to each other than to the general population of modern Italy. Recent studies suggested a Near East origin
[17]
Moreover, this pool contained between about 150,000 to 200,000 women. Dividing these numbers by the 36 cities in the three Etruscan leagues obtains an average of between 4167 and 6944 women per community. Selecting an arbitrary family size of four gives a most approximate Etruscan population of 600,000 to 800,000 persons in about 36 communities of an average between 16,668 and 27,776 persons each. These populations are sufficiently dense and sufficiently urban to have accomplished everything the Etruscans were supposed to have accomplished.
The study has also shown that there is a link between Etruscans and certain populations of
Anatolia. In particular, the areas of historical Etruscan occupation share a relatively high concentration of
y-haplogroup G with Anatolians. This evidence is not specific to any period or calendar date; the time of a contiguous population or significant migration might be far back in the stone age.
Another team of Italian researchers has shown that the
mtDNA of cattle (''
Bos taurus'') in modern
Tuscany is different from that of cattle normally found in Italy, and even in Europe as a whole.
[18] Their mtDNA is, in fact, similar to that of cattle typically found in the Near East. Many tribes who have migrated in the past have typically taken their livestock with them as they moved. This bovine mtDNA study suggests that at least some people whose descendants were Etruscans did in fact make their way to
Italy from
Anatolia or other parts of the
Near East. The study gives no clue as to when they might have done so.
Prehistory
Main articles: Villanovan culture
As the Villanovan Culture prevailed over the Etruscan range at the dawn of their history, it must have been theirs. That it was exclusively theirs over its time span is less certain, and whether Etruscan culture preceded it is completely unknown.
History
Main articles: Etruscan history
History is the story of real events as related by particular authors. There are no extant histories written in Etruscan by persons identifying themselves as Etruscan. Etruscan history is known nearly entirely from
Roman and
Greek authors; however, the Roman populace included descendants of Etruscans and Roman culture contained elements of formerly Etruscan culture. Etruscan inscriptions contain also a small amount of historical information.
Society
Main articles: Etruscan society
The Etruscan monuments provide a great deal of information about the
society of the Etruscans, such as
kinship and
government.
Religion
Main articles: Etruscan mythology
Architecture
Main articles: Etruscan architecture
The Etruscans made lasting contributions to the architecture of
Italy, which were adopted by the Romans and through them became standard to western civilization. Rome itself is a repository of Etruscan architectural features, which perhaps did not originate with the Etruscans, but were channeled by them into Roman civilization.
Some scholars also see in
Urartean art, architecture, language and general culture traces of kinship to the Etruscans of the Italian peninsula.
[19]
Art
Main articles: Etruscan art
Literature
Evidenced only in references in later Roman authors, no literary texts have survived, though this does not mean there was no Etruscan literature.
Theatre
Again, only Latin references are left of this area of Etruscan culture. One word is perhaps emblematic of this theatrical work - φersu (persona in Latin, person in English). This word, among others, passed into Latin.
Music
The instruments seen in Etruscan frescoes and bas-reliefs are essentially just different types of pipes, such as the
plagiaulos (the pipes of
Pan or
Syrinx), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the
tintinnabulum,
tympanum and
crotales, and later by stringed instruments like the
lyre and
kithara.
Heritage at Rome
Those who subscribe to an
Italic foundation of
Rome, followed by an Etruscan invasion, typically speak of an Etruscan “influence” on Roman culture; that is, cultural objects that were adopted at Rome from neighboring
Etruria. The prevalent view today is that Rome was founded by Etruscans and merged with Italics later. In that case Etruscan cultural objects are not influences but are a heritage.
The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and travelled 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 we find that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. They tell us outright that certain institutions and customs came from the Etruscans.
The question of the founding population
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. Certainly, the history of Rome before that date is not as secure as it later becomes, but enough material remains to give a good picture of the development of the city and its institutions.
Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Tuscus vicus, the “Etruscan quarter”, and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek,
Demaratus the Corinthian) which succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians would argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, prove that Rome was founded by Etruscans - or at least came under Etruscan domination. The true picture is rather more complicated, not least because the Etruscan cities were separate entities which never came together to form a single Etruscan state. Furthermore, there were strong Latin and Italic elements to Roman culture, and later Romans proudly celebrated these multiple, 'multicultural' influences on the city.
Foundation of Rome
Rome was located on the edge of Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome. As it stands now, the settlements are known to have preceded Rome.
Greeks also landed on Etruscan soil, at a conventional date of about 1000 BC.
Etruscan settlements were frequently built on a hill, the steeper the better, and surrounded by thick walls. When
Romulus and Remus founded Rome, they did so on the
Palatine Hill according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a ''pomoerium'' 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 believed by some to be Etruscan, occurring in a standard form stating “place from which”: ''Velzna-χ'', “from Velzna”, ''Sveama-χ'', “from Sveama”, ''Ruma-χ'', “from Ruma”. We do not know what it means however. If Tiberius is from ''θefarie'', then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar river.
Populus Romanus
Under Romulus and Numa the people were said to have been divided into thirty
curiae and three tribes. Very few words of Etruscan entered the
Latin language, 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, sceptre, the ''toga palmata'' (a special robe), the ''sella curulis'' (curule chair), 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
lictors. Chance has thrown an example of the fasces into our possession. Remains of bronze rods and the axe come from a tomb in Etruscan
Vetulonia. Now that its appearance is known, the depiction of one was identified 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. ''Populus'' seems to mean the people assembled in a military body, rather than the general populace, however.
Etruscan cities
Main articles: Etruscan cities
The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities. They were entirely assimilated by
Italic,
Celtic or
Roman ethnic groups, but the names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central
Italy.
Notes
1. According to Félix Gaffiot's ''Dictionnaire Illustré Latin Français'', Tusci was used by the major authors of the Roman Republic: Livy, Cicero, Horace, etc. A number of related words developed: Tuscia, Tusculanensis, Tusculanus, Tusculum, Tusce, Tuscana, etc. This was clearly the major word used for things Etruscan. Etrusci and Etrūria were used less often mainly by Cicero and Horace, and without the development into adjective, adverbs, etc. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English use of Etruscan dates from 1706.
2. Gaffiot's.
3. Rasenna comes from Dionysius of Halicarnassus I.30.3. The syncopated form, Rasna, is inscriptional and is inflected. The topic is covered in Pallottino, page 133. Some inscriptions, such as the cippus of Cortona, feature the Raśna (pronounced Rashna) alternative, as is described in Gabor Z. Bodroghy's site, ''The Palaeolinguistic Connection'', under ''Origins''.
4. A good map of the Italian range and cities of the culture at the beginning of its history can be found at [1], the mysteriousetruscans.com site. The topic of the "League of Etruria" is covered in Freeman, pages 562-565. The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy, Book V, Section 33. The passage also identifies the Raetii as a remnant of the 12 cities "beyond the Apennines." The Campanian Etruscans are mentioned (among many sources) by Polybius, Book II, Section 17. The entire subject with complete ancient sources in foornotes was worked up by George Dennis in his ''Introduction.'' On Bill Thayer's site links to the references in the footnotes open the Latin texts, but the reader may quickly find the English of most 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.
5. Science - Page 99 by American Association for the Advancement of Science
6. Paper entitled ''Cui Bono? The Beneficiary Phrases of the Third Iguvine Table'' by Michael Weiss and published on-line by Cornell University at [2].
7. Carl Darling Buck (1904), ''A Grammar of Oscan and Umbian'', Boston: Gibb & Company, Introduction, available online at [3], the forumromanum.org site.
8. Eric Partridge (1983), ''Origins'', New York: Greenwich House, under "tower."
9. Partridge.
10. Chapter 2.
11. Pages 68-69.
12. Page 52. Pallottino attributes this theory in modern times to the historian, Eduard Meyer, with Ugo Antonielli later associating the Villanovan and the natives. But Mayer soon adopted the oriental theory and Antonielli the northern. Drews in ''The End of the Bronze Age'', page 59, available as a preview on Google Books at [4], reports on Meyer and the views of Antonielli are stated in a review by R. A. L. Fell of ''Studi Etruschi''. Vol. I. Rassegna di Etruscologia by A. Neppi Modona, the first page of which is found at [5].
13. Page 3.
14. Pallottino, page 52, who says that he relies on Alfredo Trombetti and Giacomo Devoto.
15. ''Histories'' 1.94
16. Cristiano Vernesi and others, ''The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study'', The American Journal of Human Genetics, 2004 April; 74(4): 694–704, published online at [6], the PubMed Central site.
17. DNA Boosts Herodotus’ Account of Etruscans as Migrants to Italy
18. M. Pellecchia and others including Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, ''The mystery of Etruscan origins: novel clues from Bos taurus mitochondrial DNA,'' Proceedings of the Royal Society, February 2007, summary available online at [7] on the PubMed Central site.
19. A History of Armenia by Vahan M. Kurkjian p.19
Bibliography
;'Ancient sources'
;'Modern sources'
★ The Etruscans, , G., Barker, Blackwell, 1998,
★ The ancient civilization of the Etruscans, , Raymond, Bloch, Cowles Book, 1969,
★ Etruscan Life and Afterlife: a Handbook of Etruscan Studies, , Larissa, Bonfante, Aris and Phillips, 1986,
★ Etruscan, , Larissa, Bonfante, University of California Press, 1990, ISBN 0-520-07118-2
★ The Etruscan Language. An Introduction, , , Bonfante, G., Manchester University Press, 2002,
★ Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, , L. (editor), Bram, Funk & Wagnalls, 1975,
★ Etruscan art, , , Brendel, Yale University Press, 1995,
★ Available in the Gazeteer of Bill Thayer's Website at ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>/home.html
★ History of Federal Government in Greece and Italy, Freeman, Edward Augustus, , , Macmillan and Co, ,
|
★ A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate, , A. H. J., Greenidge, , 2003,
★ The Religion of the Etruscans, , Nancy & Erika Simon(editors), de Grummond, University of Texas Press, 2006, ISBN 0-292-70687-1
★ The Etruscans and the survival of Etruria, , C., Hampton, Victor Gollancz, 1969,
★ Etruscan Civilization, , S., Haynes, The J. Paul Getty Trust, 2000,
★ The Art of the Etruscans, , Guglielmo, Maetzke, , ,
★ Everyday Life of the Etruscans, , E., Macnamara, B. T. Batsford, 1973,
★ The Etruscans, , Aldo, Massa, Editions Minerva, 1989,
★ The Etruscans, , , Pallottino, M., Penguin Books, 1975,
★ The Etruscans: Their Art and Civilization, , Emeline, Richardson, University of Chicago Press, 1964,
★ Historia de Roma, , José Manuel, Roldán Hervás, Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2000,
★ Etruscan Italy, , N., Spivy, Batsford, 1990,
★ Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, , Richard, ed., Stillwell, , 1976,
★ Gli Etruschi, , Mario, ed., Torelli, Bompiani, 2000,
|
See also
★
Chimera of Arezzo
★
Etruria
★
National Etruscan Museum
★
Sarcophagus of the Spouses
★
Tomb of the Roaring Lions
External links
General
★
Etruscan News Online, the Newsletter of the American Section of the Institute for Etruscan and Italic Studies.
★
Mysterious Etruscans, community dedicated to the preservation of Etruscan culture.
★
Etruscan Origins, online article by Morris Weiss, M.D., at innominatesociety.com.
Genetics
★
The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study
★
DNA Boosts Herodotus’ Account of Etruscans as Migrants to Italy
Cities and sites
★
(Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria) "The Cai Cutu Etruscan tomb" An undisturbed late Etruscan family tomb, reused between the 3rd and 1st century BC, reassembled in the National Archeological Museum of Perugia
★
Etruscan Splendors from Volterra in Tuscany
Art
★
Etruscan Lion Plaque Pendant, article on a piece of Etruscan art.
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
![Daily flights from NYC to Mont Tremblant\](images/articles/thumbs/nytremblantthumb.jpg "Daily flights from NYC to Mont Tremblant\")
