Thought The Etruscan Language example essay topic

email: title: The Mysterious Etruscans The Etruscans were a very mysterious civilization. We do not know exactly who they are, and where they came from is a large controversy that goes back the time of Herodotus, the father of history. Also, their language is still yet to be deciphered. Still, they are a fascinating society. Living some 2,000 years ago, they flourished for a relatively brief time in modern day Italy, which was called Vi telia in earlier days.

Nobody is quite sure of the origin of the Etruscans. There are different theories, but we do not know which one to believe because the Etruscans have always had numerous myths about them, and truths were usually mixed with falsehoods. Many people believe that they emigrated from Lydia, or Asia Minor. Herodotus tells that there was a great famine in Lydia and that after trying to combat the hunger for eighteen years, Atys, the king, made a decision to split up his people. They drew lots, so that half of them would stay in Lydia, under the rule of Atys, and the others would follow his son, Tyrrhenus. They left the country on ships, and sailed off to find what they could.

They then called themselves the Tyrrhenian's, after their leader. From this we got the name ofthe Tyrrenhian sea which is along the western coast of Italy. The Romans called them theEtrusci, which is where the term Etruscans comes from. 1 Another common theory is that the Etruscans were indigenous to Italy.

The main early supporter of this idea was Dionysius of Halicarnassus. He noted that they did not have the same language as Lydians. They also did not worship the same gods or in fact have any traits which might have been derived from their so-called homeland. People who believe this theory claim that the Etruscans were there first, and that they had been taken over by Indo-European invaders, and that their birth in the 600's B.C. E wasmerely a re-emergence. They slowly had re-conquered their land. 2 I ancient times there were only those two theories about the origins of theEtruscans.

In modern times, yet another one has been added. This one states that they came from the north, over the Eastern Alps. One of the main supporters of this belief was Dr. Zach arie Mayan i of the University of Paris. He did research comparing the phonetic, morphological and semantic similarities of the Albanian and Etruscan languages. He felt that it seemed as thought the Etruscan language was essentially Indo-European. He also thought they did not come from one place, but instead half came from the Danube, and the other half from Anatolia.

They then formed a heterogeneous people in the new land which we called Etruria. The Language of the Etruscans is also a great mystery, but we are slowly learning their language. It is only known through sporadic words cited by Greek and Latin authors. There are thousands of inscriptions, but most of them are simple epitaphs. It is improbable that they did not have some type of literature, but none has survived. The origins of the Etruscan language have long been a controversy.

Numerous and occasionally outlandish theories had been made, but it was not until Massimo Pallottino that any real progress was made in deciphering any of the texts. Pallottino adopted a newcombinatory approach. Instead of trying and force a connection between Etruscan and another language, like previous historians, he compared the inscriptions with each other and set them in a cultural context. The process of deciphering the Etruscan language continues to this day, and thanks to Pallottino's methods and a certain amount of educated guesswork, some of thelanguages' vocabulary and basic grammar have been revealed.

The discovery of the Pyrgitablets in the 1960's was an important advancement. They were written in Etruscan and Phoenician. We have deciphered Phoenician, so it was possible to compare the two texts, and even though the Phoenician turned out not to be an exact translation of the Etruscan, the content was similar enough to prove useful. As more and more is discovered about Etruscan, there is more evidence that it i snot related to any known living language.

In particular, Etruscan does not belong to the Indo-European group of languages, so it cannot be connected to Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, oran y other languages of that branch. There are only 2 that show any resemblance at all to Etruscan: Rhaetia, and a language recorded on some inscriptions and pottery from the Greek island of Lemnos. Still, these do not help to put Etruscan in it's place in the array ofthe world's languages. From what we know, it seems as thought Etruscan was probably an eastern Mediterranean language.

If Herodotus theory of the Etruscans emigrating from Asia Minor, then they may have picked up parts of their language from tribes that they passed on the way to the Italian peninsula. 3 Most of what we know about Etruscans religion is information obtained through materials surrounding death. Images painted on the walls of tombs, and the artifacts found in the tombs provide the largest clues to Etruscan religion. Because the Roman religion inherited many of these aspects, a study of Roman religion could be helpful. The mainstream Etruscan religion believed in a wide array of gods, probably around 45. These ranged from Menrva, whom the Romans called Minerva (and the Greeks called Athena) to water and forest gods.

They also believed in demons, who were usually depicted as blue and squat. Religion was integral part of life for the Etruscans. 4 Their main god was called Tini a. He was equivalent to the Greeks Zeus or the Romans Jupiter. He was believed to have been the creator of all things. Their belief of creation is in a way similar to that of the Judaism.

The believed that in the first two thousand years, heaven and earth were separated. In the second, The land was made. Inthe third, the sea and other waters were formed. In the fourth two thousand years, the celestial lights were formed- the sun, the moon, and the stars.

In the fifth, the birds, reptiles, and four-footed animals were made. In the sixth two thousand year period, man was created. 5 The Etruscans also were rather optimistic about death. They felt that death meant the opening of a door into another life that was to be as joyous as the one left behind.

They had another belief that different peoples each had an existence of predetermined duration. The Etruscans began to flourish in the 8th century B.C. E, around the same time when the Greeks started colonizing in Italy. At that time, the two civilizations were friends with each other. The Etruscans gave some of their metals to the Greeks, who gave some luxuries to the Etruscans. Some people think that the Greeks also taught them howto write.

Later on, however, their relationship worsened for a few reasons. First, they were becoming trade rivals, trying to trade with the same people. Second, the Etruscans had become allies with the Carthaginians, who were the Greeks bitter enemies. Most of all, however, was that both of them were trying to expand at the same time. TheEtruscans controlled many places including Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Lazio, Campania and Corsica. Around 535 B.C. E, the Greeks tried to conquer the island of Corsica.

TheEtruscans fought back against this, and gained total control of the sea between Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, which is know as the Tyrrhenian Sea. 6 The downfall of the Etruscans started in the 6th century B.C. E when the Romans banished all of the Etruscan kings. As a result of this, the Etruscans were often in continuous war with the Romans, and Etruscans were usually stronger. Once, however, the Greeks helped the Romans, and they beat Etruscans in the sea battle of Cumae in 474 B.C. After this defeat Etruscans basically submitted.

Their once enthusiastic art became pessimistic and showed fear of death. By the end of 5th century Corsica and Campania were conquered by Greeks, Lazio had been taken by Romans, Umbria was conquered by the Umbrians themselves, and Celtics got Emilia-Romagna. Most of these cities had not been difficult to conquer, because the Etruscans had all but given up. When the Romans conquered Veii, their 1st major Etruscan city, in 406-396, the other Etruscan cities did not help their compatriots. If all the Etruscan cities had united and attacked Rome, they would have certainly defeated them.

There would have possibly been no such thing as the almighty Roman Empire. The Etruscans were still were much stronger together than Romans. It took the Romans 10 years to conquer Veii which wasmerely a medium-sized Etruscan city. But the Etruscans had lost their trademark optimism. Only once did they fight together against Romans. This was in the battle ofSentinum in 295 B.C.E. but then it was too late.

The Romans had already become too powerful, and they conquered all of Etruria by 265 B.C. 7 They did not measure the passage of time the same way that we do. They measured in indefinite eras called saeculum. A saeculum, someone once explained, lasted from the end of the preceding one till the death of the last of all those who hadbeen alive at it's beginning. It is rather mysterious, but the Etruscans predicted the time of their down fall from the beginning of their civilization.

They believed that they hadbeen assigned eight specula. Supposedly the year 88 B. C was the last year of the last saeculum, and it was in this year that almost all of the Etruscans had become Roman citizens. 8 The civilization of the Etruscans was a fascinating one. Many of the ideas that we associate with the ancient Romans, such as togas, gladiator fights, and their religion, we retaken from the Etruscans. The Romans greatly respected the Etruscans culture. One ofthe very first etruscologists was an emperor of Rome, Tiberius Claudius NeroGermanicus.

He wrote 20 volumes on the history of the Etruscans, none of which, unfortunately, have been recovered. It is a shame that they died out like they did, because they could not reunite. It was a very interesting civilization, even if it was only around fora relatively short period of time.