Etruscan civilization
Rasenna Rasna | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 768–264 BC | |||||||
 Extent of Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities. | |||||||
| Capital | Velzna- (Orvieto) | ||||||
| Common languages | Etruscan language | ||||||
| Religion | Etruscan | ||||||
| Luchume | |||||||
• Unknown | Tyrrhenus | ||||||
• Unknown | Tarchon | ||||||
| Legislature | Etruscan League | ||||||
| Historical era | Ancient | ||||||
| 768 | |||||||
• Roman conquest of Volsinii | 264 BC | ||||||
| |||||||
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Latium. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci.[1] Their Roman name is the origin of the terms Tuscany, which refers to their heartland, and Etruria, which can refer to their wider region.
In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Τυρρηνοὶ (Tyrrhēnioi), earlier Tyrsenoi, from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēni (Etruscans), Tyrrhēnia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhēnum (Tyrrhenian Sea).[2] The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna.[3]
As distinguished by its unique language, this civilization endured from the time of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions (ca. 700 BC)[4] until its assimilation into the Roman Republic in the late 4th century BC.[4] At its maximum extent, during the foundational period of Rome and the Roman kingdom, it flourished in three confederacies of cities: of Etruria, of the Po valley with the eastern Alps, and of Latium and Campania.[5]
Culture that is identifiably 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 7th century to a culture that was influenced by Greek traders and Greek neighbours in Magna Graecia, the Hellenic civilization of southern Italy. After 500 BC the political destiny of Italy passed out of Etruscan hands.[6]
The etruscan were in the congo. Their leader was Benjie T. George
Society
Government
The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms. In this they were different from the surrounding Italics, who had chiefs and tribes. Rome was in a sense the first Italic state, but it began as an Etruscan one. 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.
The Etruscan state government was essentially a theocracy. The government was viewed as being a central authority, 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 methlum, “district”. Etruscan texts name quite a number of magistrates, without much of a hint as to their function: the camthi, the parnich, the purth, the tamera, the macstrev, and so on. The people were the mech. The chief ruler of a methlum was perhaps a zilach.
Family
The princely tombs were not of individuals. The inscriptional evidence shows that families were interred there over long periods, marking the growth of the aristocratic family as a fixed institution, parallel to the gens at Rome and perhaps even its model. There is no sign of such a hereditary aristocracy in the preceding Villanovan culture.[citation needed] The Etruscans could have used any model of the eastern Mediterranean. That the growth of this class is related to the new acquisition of wealth through trade is unquestioned. The wealthiest cities were located near the coast. At the centre of the society was the married couple, tusurthir. The Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing.
Similarly the behaviour 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 civilization as an apotropaic device, 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 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. 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.
Military and Etruscan cities
The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals in Etruscan culture, warfare was a considerable economic boon to Etruscan civilization. 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. It is also likely individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs as an honor to fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by Achilles for Patrocles.[7][8][9]
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. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age, marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. 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.[7]
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.[8]
Culture
Religion
The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism;[10] 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. How to understand the will of deities and how to behave had been "revealed" to the Etruscans by two "initiators", Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land and immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure. Their "teachings" were kept in a series of sacred books. Three layers of deities are evident in the extensive Etruscan art motifs. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous nature: Catha and Usil, the sun; Tivr, the moon; Selvans, a civil god; Turan, the goddess of love; Laran, the god of war; Leinth, the goddess of death; Maris; Thalna; Turms; and the ever-popular Fufluns, whose name is related in some unknown way to the city of Populonia and the populus Romanus. Perhaps he was the god of the people.[11][12]
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 the Greek gods were taken into the Etruscan system: Aritimi (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva), Pacha (Dionysus). The Greek heroes taken from Homer also appear extensively in art motifs.[11][12]
Architecture
The Architecture of the ancient Etruscans adapted the external Greek architecture for their own purposes, which were so different from Greek buildings as to create a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. The Etruscans absorbed Greek influence, apparent in many aspects closely related to architecture. The Etruscans had much influence over Roman architecture.[13]
Etruscan architecture 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.
Art, music and literature
Etruscan art was the form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in northern Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly life-size on sarcophagi or temples) and cast bronze, wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors). There was also a tradition of Etruscan vase painting. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.[14]
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. With the exception of the Liber Linteus, the only written records of Etruscan origin that remain are inscriptions, mainly funerary. The language is written in a script related to the early Euboean Greek alphabet.[15] Etruscan literature is evidenced only in references by later Roman authors.
Language and etymology
Knowledge of the Etruscan language is still far from complete. The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a non-Indo-European language;[16] the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which in itself is an isolate family, that is, unrelated directly to other known language groups. Since Rix (1998) it is widely accepted that the Tyrsenian family groups Rhaetic and Lemnian are related to Etruscan.
No etymology exists for Rasna, the Etruscans' name for themselves. The etymology of Tusci is based on a beneficiary phrase in the third Iguvine tablet, which is a major source for the Umbrian language.[17] The phrase is turskum ... nomen, "the Tuscan name", from which a root *Tursci can be reconstructed.[18] A metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis produce E-trus-ci.[19] A common hypothesis is that *Turs- along with Latin turris, "tower", come from Greek τύρσις, "tower."[20] The Tusci were therefore the "people who build towers"[20] or "the tower builders."[21] This venerable etymology is at least as old as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who said "And there is no reason that 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."[22]
Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante (Bonfante 2002) 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.
References
Notes
- ^ According to Félix Gaffiot's Dictionnaire Illustré Latin Français, the term Tusci was used by the major authors of the Roman Republic: Livy, Cicero, Horace, et al. A number of cognate words developed, including Tuscia and Tusculanensis. Tusci was clearly the principal term used to designate things Etruscan. Etrusci and Etrūria were used less often, mainly by Cicero and Horace, and they lack cognates. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English use of Etruscan dates from 1706.
- ^ Gaffiot's.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b Rix, Helmut. "Etruscan." In The Ancient Languages of Europe, ed. Roger D. Woodard. Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 141-164.
- ^ 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, (II.17). 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.
- ^ Cary, M.; Scullard, H. H., A History of Rome. Page 28. 3rd Ed. 1979. ISBN 0-312-38395-9.
- ^ a b Mario Torelli. The Etruscans. Rizzoli International Publications.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Trevor Dupey. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History. Rizzoli Harper Collins Publisher.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Dora Jane Hamblin. The Etruscans. Time Life Books.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Leslie Ross, Art and Architecture of the World's Religions: Prehistoric belief systems, p.75, Greenwood Press, 2009
- ^ a b De Grummond and Nancy Thomson (2006). Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Erika Simon. The religion of the Etruscans. Google Books. ISBN 978-0-292-70687-3. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
{{cite book}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Axel Boëthius, Roger Ling and Tom Rasmussen (1994). Etruscan and early Roman architecture. Yale University Press.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Spivey, Nigel (1997). Etruscan Art. London: Thames and Hudson.
- ^ "Etrusca". The Culture Traveler.com. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Richard Bodley Scott, Lost Scrolls: The Ancient and Medieval World at War, Greenwood Press, p.75, 2009
- ^ Paper entitled Cui Bono? The Beneficiary Phrases of the Third Iguvine Table by Michael Weiss and published on-line by Cornell University at [2].
- ^ Carl Darling Buck (1904), A Grammar of Oscan and Umbian, Boston: Gibb & Company, Introduction, available online at [3] the forumromanum.org site.
- ^ Eric Partridge (1983), Origins, New York: Greenwich House, under "tower."
- ^ a b The Bonfantes (2003), page 51
- ^ Partridge
- ^ Book I, Section 30.
Bibliography
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External links
- Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, the book by George Dennis at LacusCurtius
- 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 Studies, a Journal of the Etruscan Foundation from University of Massachusetts Amherst
- "In Our Time" Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Etruscan civilization, With: Phil Perkins, Professor of Archaeology at the Open University; David Ridgway, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Classical Studies at the University of London; and Corinna Riva, Lecturer in Mediterranean Archaeology at University College London.
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
- Hypogeum of the Volumnis digital media archive (creative commons-licensed photos, laser scans, panoramas), data from a University of Ferrara/CyArk research partnership
Art
- Etruscan Lion Plaque Pendant, article on a piece of Etruscan art
