Etruscan

Etruscan

Any member of an ancient people of Etruria, whose urban civilization reached its height in the 6th century BC. Their origins are obscure. By the 7th century they had incorporated all of Tuscany into their territory, and in the 6th century they pushed north to the Po River valley and became rulers of Rome. The Etruscans gave the city its first public works, including walls and a sewer system. By the end of the 6th century, pressure from other peoples in the region, including Greeks, Romans, and Gauls, weakened Etruria. The Romans expelled their dynasty in 509 BC. The Etruscans had a commercial and agricultural civilization and left a rich cultural heritage, including wall frescoes and realistic tomb portraits. Many features of their culture were adopted by the Romans. See also Etruscan language; Etruscan religion.

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Etruscan 

the language of the Etruscans.

Etruscan, a Mediterranean language, is attested by more than 10,000 inscriptions, on various objects, written in a phonetic alphabet similar to the Greek alphabet. The most important texts are fragments of a sacred book, of which some 1,200 words have been preserved, that were written on the wrappings of a mummy now housed at the National Museum in Zagreb. Other important texts are an inscription of 300 words on a tablet found at Capua and a dedicatory inscription with a parallel text in Phoenician found at Pyrgri. Also known are 60 glosses preserved in works by classical and early medieval authors, loanwords in Latin, and numerous toponyms (seeTOPONYMY).

The meaning of approximately 150 Etruscan words has been established. Etruscan, whose historical relation to other languages is unclear, most closely resembles the language of an inscription on a stele found on the island of Lemnos. Attempts by such scholars as V. Georgiev to prove a relationship between Etruscan and the Hittite-Luwian languages have been criticized by specialists.

REFERENCES

Kharsekin, A. I. “Ob etrusskom iazyke.” In the collection Tainy drevnikh pis’men. Moscow, 1976. (Translated from English, German, French, and Italian.)
Pallottino, M. “Problema etrusskogo iazyka.” Ibid.
Pallottino, M. Testimonia linguae Etruscae, 2nd ed. Florence, 1968.
Pfiffig, A. J. Die etruskische Sprache. Graz, 1969.
Georgiev, V. Etruskische Sprachwissenschaft, vols. 1–2. Sofia, 1970–71.

V. P. NEROZNAK