National Geographic History - USA (2022-05 & 2022-06)

ENIGMAS

Body of Evidence
Before being torn into ban-
dages, the Linen Book of Za-
greb was a sheet about 11 feet
long covered with 12 columns
of text. The part recovered
from the bandages is thought
to correspond to about 1,
words— about 60 percent of
the original text. Prior to the
linen book’s discovery,
Etruscan experts had only

been able to study the ancient

language based on some

10,000 short inscriptions,

but Krall’s identification of

the linen book’s language in

1891 greatly increased the

amount of available text.

At first, scholars believed

the linen book was a funerary

work, which led to speculation

that it was somehow linked to

the body it once wrapped. The

mummy had been purchased

in the 1840s in Alexandria by

a Croatian man named Mihail

Baric. He kept the mummy in

his Vienna home. After his

death, the mummy and its

wrappings were donated to

the museum in Zagreb.

The Etruscan linen book

was not the only text that

formed part of the mum-

my’s wrappings. A papyrus

of the Egyptian Book of the

Dead was also used to wrap

the body. This Egyptian work

references a female figure,

named Nesi-Khons (“the

mistress of the house”),

whom scholars now believe

to be the woman whose body

was mummified. In the late

20th century, it was estab-

lished that she lived some-

time between the fourth and

the first centuries b.c. and

died in her 30s.

The linen book’s black ink

was made from burnt ivory,

with titles and rubrics in red

written in cinnabar, a scarlet

ore used in pigments. The

Etruscan text was obscured

in many places by the balsam

The book refers to Usil, the

Etruscan sun god, equivalent

to the Greek god Helios.

USIL, ETRUSCAN CARRIAGE DECORATION, FIFTH CENTURY B.C.

SACRIFICES

AND LIBATIONS

THE EXPERTS translating the

Linen Book of Zagreb needed

profound knowledge of the

Etruscan calendar and gods.

The following examples are

taken from the first lines of the

book’s eighth column:

ƧXFWHFLŋŋDULŋHVYLWD

YDFOWQDP

“On [August] 13, conduct the

consecration according to the

rite.”

FXOŋFYDVSHWULHWQDPLF

HVYLWOHDPSQHUL

“Keep/Guard the doors [open?]

then, for the consecration.”

FHOLKXƧLŋ]DƧUXPLŋIOHUƵYD

QHƧXQVOŋXFULƧH]HULF

“On September 24th, sacrificial

victims for Nethuns [Neptune]

are to be presented.”

TERRA-COTTA VESSEL, PERHAPS USED FOR POURING

OUT RITUAL LIBATIONS. ATTIC, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF TARQUINIA, ITALY

ALBUM/AKG-IMAGES/NIMATALLAH

ERICH LESSING/ALBUM