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The Fascination
People always like mysteries. And the Etruscans present one of the most interesting mysteries in history. Because their language is mostly lost, we can only guess at who they were and where they came from. Before the Romans in Italy, there as the Etruscans. "In an Italy of villages, Etruria alone had towns".
Origins
There are three theories on where these people come from. One, they are an indigenous group. Two, they migrated from the north, coming across the Alps to settle in Northern Italy. Or three, they sailed from the east. The third view is what the people believed in antiquity. Herotus (fifth century Greek Historian) called them Tyrrhenians that migrated from Asia Minor.
Language
We can read Etruscans because they use the Greek alphabet but the language itself is nothing like Greek. It is does not belong of the Indo-European languages. One theory is that the Etruscan language was a remnant of a once common language that was mostly extinct by the time of the Etruscans. In 1964, at Pyrgi near Rome, a gold tablet with bilingual texts of Etruscans and Punic was discovered near a temple site. Some hoped it would become the Rosetta Stone for the Etruscans, but unfortunately, linguists cannot understand the ancient Punic language either. The Zagreb Mummy is another discovery of the Etruscan language. The mummy was wrapped in a linen shroud that had 1,200 Etruscan words. Unfortunately, so many words were repeated that wasn't much help either. But we can count in Etruscan! Up to six anyway.
The Etruscans and the Romans
Of the seven kings of Rome, the fifth king Tarquinius Priscus was Estruscans, so was Tarquinus Superbus, the seventh and last king of Rome. Although none of the Roman historians mentioned this, the Etruscan kings probably indicate a long period of domination of the Etruscans over the Romans.
Temples
The Etruscan temples, unlike the Greek ones, are made of stone or marble only on the foundations. And the decorations are done in terracotta (a reddish stone form for volcanic ash). The temples have three chambers and can only be entered from one side; unlike the Greek temples which has stairs on all four sides. The later Roman temple got as much influence from the Greeks as they did from the Etruscans because their temple, too, can only be entered in one side.
Status of Women
Okay, the Greeks were basically misogynists, and the Romans were chauvinistic, but the Etruscans rather treated their women well. In fact, the Romans often accused the Etruscans of being too submissive to their wives. In the surviving tomb cities of the Etruscans, the sarcophagus of couples show both the husband and wife in equal positions. Often in affectionate gestures (sometimes perhaps even a little pornographic).
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