Etruscan (/ ɪ ˈ t r ʌ s k ən /) was the language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany plus western Umbria and Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania.Etruscan influenced Latin but eventually was completely superseded by it. Thank you all for helping us reach our goal of 1,000 donors. [citation needed], The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. [58][59] According to British archeologist Phil Perkins, "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".[60][61]. “Serbs and Kosovars, and North Africans who live in Vescovado di Murlo were clapping and honking horns.”. Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Vicus Tuscus,[77] 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. The term Tusci is thought by linguists to have been the Umbrian word for “Etruscan,” based an inscription on an ancient bronze tablet from a nearby region. Eventually the king, “divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country.”. Others were colonized by Etruscans who Etruscanized the name, usually Italic. [65] Therefore, Etruscans had also Steppe-related ancestry despite speaking a non-Indo-European language. [53], 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 (11th–10th century BC) to the Iron Age (9th–8th century BC). In this, they were different from the surrounding Italics, who had chiefs and tribes. 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. [10] It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the Mycenaean world at the end of the Bronze Age. Their teachings were kept in a series of sacred books. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Under Romulus and Numa Pompilius, the people were said to have been divided into thirty curiae and three tribes. 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. According to Herodotus, the story goes something like this: Around 800 BC, there was a famine in Lydia (in what is now western Turkey). Most of it comes second hand from the Romans, as they conquered them. The earliest known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700 BC. [78] It is worth noting that 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. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under Pons Sublicius). Etruscan civilization 800BC 88BC Etruscan tomb Etruscan 600 BC Plaid mantle Etruscan 650 BC Plaid or checkered mantle Men If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. Etruscan influence on ancient Roman culture was profound. [79], That many Roman cities were formerly Etruscan was well known to all the Roman authors. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. Etruscan homes were mud-brick, with timber on stone foundations, some with upper stories. Etruscan temples were heavily decorated with colourfully painted terracotta antefixes and other fittings, which survive in large numbers where the wooden superstructure has vanished. only written records in the Etruscan language, "The origins of the Etruscans: new evidence for an old question", "A good map of the Italian range and cities of the culture at the beginning of its history", "Etruscan origins in a prehistoric European context", "The Etruscans: A population-genetic study", "The Etruscan skulls of the Rostock anatomical collection – How do they compare with the skeletal findings of the first thousand years B.C.? Rome is located on the edge of what was Etruscan territory. [citation needed]. [84], Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills – the steeper the better – and surrounded by thick walls. [4], The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. Other than this burial genealogy, most writing about the Etruscans is from later sources, including the Romans. For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.[85]. In this phase, there was a heavy influence in Greece, most of Italy and some areas of Spain, from the most advanced areas of the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. A late fourth-century BCE writer, Anticleides, agre… At the height of Etruscan power, elite Etruscan families grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, and they filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries. [53] The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in the area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, which is a Continental European practice, derived from the Urnfield culture; there is nothing about it that suggests an ethnic contribution from Asia Minor or the Near East. 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'. The author of this book found both linguistic and historical evidence that the Lydians occupied the whole area up to the coast of the Sea of Marmara in earlier times. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) JT (subclades of J and T) and U5, with a minority of mtDNA H1b. And the Etruscans shared some unique customs with the Lydians and Louvians as well — like the practice of Herosposy, which Gorbachov describes as “a form of divination from inspection of entrails. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months, raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating piracy as a means of acquiring valuable resources, such as land, prestige, goods, and slaves. The first of these attested contacts relate to the Greek colonies in Southern Italy and the consequent orientalizing period. [52], Several archaeologists 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, that can support a migration theory. In this interpretation, Etruscan cultural objects are considered influences rather than part of a heritage. [11], Etruscan texts, written in a space of seven centuries, use a form of the Greek alphabet due to close contact between the Etruscans and the Greek colonies at Pithecusae and Cumae in the 8th century BC (until it was no longer used, at the beginning of the 1st century AD). Each autonomous city, originally ruled by a powerful, wealthy king, had a sacred boundary or pomerium. [35], The 5th-century BC historians Thucydides[36] and Herodotus,[37] and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo[38][full citation needed], did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of the Greek island of Lemnos. Is it purely a linguistic question?” Tuck asks. [29] This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. 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. [64] 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%). [30] The proposed etymology has a long history, Dionysius of Halicarnassus having observed long ago, "[T]here is no reason that the Greeks should not have called [the Etruscans] by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers."[31]. [42] 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.[42]. The Etruscans were a people who lived to the north of Rome in Etruria, what is now called Tuscany. It is believed that the Etruscan government style changed from total monarchy to oligarchic republic (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th century BC, although it is important to note this did not happen to all the city-states. While the four samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups U5a1, H, T2b32, K1a4. Some inscriptions, such as the cippus of Cortona, feature the Raśna (pronounced Rashna) alternative, as is described at. Etruscan influence on ancient Roman culture was profound and it was from the Etruscans that the Romans inherited many of their own cultural and artistic traditions, from the spectacle of gladiatorial combat, to hydraulic engineering, temple design, and religious ritual, among many other things. His contemporary Hellanicus thought the Etruscans originally were Pelasgians, the legendary nation that lived in Greece before the arrival of the Greeks.note[Quoted by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquites 1.28.3.] Thus, the freedom of women within Etruscan society could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. Studying paternally inherited DNA from people living in three formerly Etruscan communities, Piazza discovered a residual genetic link to Turkey. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic. Biden tackles the coronavirus; Twin suicide bombings in Baghdad; Migrant shipwreck off Libyan coast, 'Even as we grieved, we grew': Poet Amanda Gorman gives powerful performance at inauguration. 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. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies and Privacy Policy. Only recently has archaeology begun to unravel the mystery of the Etruscans. According to Livy, the twelve city-states met once a year at the Fanum Voltumnae at Volsinii, where a leader was chosen to represent the league.[73]. 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 device, appearing finally on the figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. Your donation directly supported the critical reporting you rely on, the consistent reporting you believe in, and the deep reporting you want to ensure survives. The Greek heroes taken from Homer also appear extensively in art motifs. Tuck says the Tuscans had “kind of a scratchy” relationship with these immigrants. Turkish women could have circulated too — sold or bartered in ancient chattel markets. [25] The inscription contains the phrase turskum ... nomen, literally "the Tuscan name". Strabo[38] added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros then followed Tyrrhenus to the Italian Peninsula. You can read more about that here. Roman temples show many of the same differences in form to Greek ones that Etruscan temples do, but like the Greeks, use stone, in which they closely copy Greek conventions. Each week on The World in Words, Patrick Cox and Nina Porzucki tell stories about languages and the people who speak them. They spoke their own language, unrelated to any indo-European language. Its homeland was in the area of central Italy, just north of Rome, which is today called Tuscany.In ancient times there was a strong tradition that the Etruscans had emigrated from Lydia, on the eastern coast of present-day Turkey. The Lemnos Stele bears inscriptions in a language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans. The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs are 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. To learn more, review our Cookie Policy. 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. (Since most Etruscan cities are still inhabited, they hide their Etruscan art and architecture under Roman, Medieval and Renaissance layers). [11][18] The Etruscans developed a system of writing which uses symbols borrowed from Euboean Greek script, but the Etruscan language remains only partly understood, making modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals, warfare was a considerable economic advantage to Etruscan civilization. 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. 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):[44]. The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 750 BC, during the foundational period of the Roman Kingdom. Created by. [41] The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a "Tyrrhenian language group" comprising Etruscan, Lemnian, and the Raetic spoken in the Alps. 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 chair), and above all the primary symbol of state power: The fasces. The adherents to this state power were united by a common religion. Modern historians have largely discounted this idea, and believe that the Etruscans were an indigenous population – a … Though Herodotus relates that the Etruscans came from Lydia, there was nothing to confirm this until now. In 2013, another study that was conducted with the same groups, only using maternally inherited DNA, showed no genetic link to Turkey. However, 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. There are three theories about the Etruscans origin: 1. [80], The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of divine power and that power was subdivided into deities that acted continually on the world of man and could be dissuaded or persuaded in favour of human affairs. And, 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.[40]. [50][51] He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration. And no one is more obsessed with the Etruscans than the Italians themselves. The Etruscans cared very much about equipping the deceased with everything necessary for the afterlife—from lively tomb paintings to sculpture to pottery that they could use in the next world. Successors of the early Iron Age Villanovans (900–700 BCE), Etruscans built such cities as Tarquinii, Vulci, Caere, and Veii. [citation needed]. Sarcophagus and lid with husband and wife, Etruscan, 350–300 B.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast. Adjoining these the (Alpine) Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. 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. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the height of the Etruscans was from the 7th-6th centuries BCE. [55], A mtDNA study in 2004 stated that the Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity, and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European, but only a few haplotypes were shared with modern populations. [14][15][16] 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.[17]. According to a legend the Etruscan League of twelve cities was founded by Tarchon and his brother Tyrrhenus. Etruscans period in the Italy history began around the VIII century BC. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. Then, they proceeded to the walls. [45][46][47] Modern etruscologists and archeologists, such as Massimo Pallottino (1947), have shown that early historians’ assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless. The only knowledge of the Etruscans has come from archaeological evidence together with the writings of Greek and Roman authors, making the latest discovery all the more significant as it promises to reveal new insights on one of the ancient world’s most fascinating cultures. In the Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual small cities, and probably in its prominent individual families. Unlike the more recent arrivals, Tuck is not convinced the Etruscans really were from Turkey. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. But many of Herodotus' stories don't add up, says Gorbachov. If Tiberius is from θefarie, then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar (Tiber) river. The majority of our knowledge about Etruscan art comes largely from their burials. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age, marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization,[5][6][7][8][9] which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region. Herodotus , for example, argued that the Etruscans descended from a people who invaded Etruria from Anatolia before 800 bce and established themselves over the native Iron Age inhabitants of the region, whereas Dionysius of Halicarnassus believed that the Etruscans were of local Italian origin. But all isn't exactly settled. The most widely used theory was – they came from the east by sea and they settled on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402. 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. The prevailing view is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. Some modern authors include Rusellae. They were a very advanced culture for the age. An ancient Etruscan bronze statuette of Herakles dating from the 6th or 5th Century B.C. Survivors say it’s not enough. [48] In 2000, the etruscologist Dominique Briquel explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek historians’ writings on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents. “It was amazing,” Tuck recalls. In modern times, all the evidence gathered so far by etruscologists points to an indigenous origin of the Etruscans. [79][80][81], The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities. The houses of the wealthy were evidently often large and comfortable, but the burial chambers of tombs, often filled with grave-goods, are the nearest approach to them to survive. However 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. But most archaeologists have seen a thorough continuity between a local Italian culture known as the Villanovan that emerged around 900 B.C. [citation needed], The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms. In 2019, the evidence proving the origins of Etruscans is overwhelming, to say the least. 30-40% steppe ancestry. Their language may be dead, but people are still using Etruscan words today — words like “people.” And linguistics is just one tool scholars are using to figure out whether the ancient historian Herodotus may have been right about how the Etruscans first reached Italy. The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe, carried by the king's lictors. [23][24] Their Roman name is the origin of the terms "Toscana", which refers to their heartland, and "Etruria", which can refer to their wider region. 2.) The topic of the "League of Etruria" is covered in Freeman, pp. Alhambras pocket encyklopedi, 99-1532610-6; 88 (1. In turn, ancient Roman architecture began with Etruscan styles, and then accepted still further Greek influence. Anthony Tuck, a professor of archeology at UMass Amherst who has studied Etruscan civilization for 27 years, was in the ancient Etruscan town of Vescovado di Murlo the day news of Piazza’s DNA discovery broke. [ 80 ] [ 81 ], the people were said to have been placed on the World words... And was perhaps a zilach northern Etruscan provinces of history 's most debated topics of.! Around 540 BC, Syracuse 's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at centre. Alien tongue and strange customs lent his name to the loss of the Etruscans were a people who speak.! Sure where they came from called Tuscany just doesn ’ t see any hard proof the! From tombs, including the Romans [ 13 ] the Etruscan most of our knowledge about the etruscans has come from, script. 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Generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources a residual genetic link with Turkey the Tyrrhenian sea teachers of our,...