- Jean MacIntosh Turfa –
There is an unconscious element prompting denial in all of us: if history could fail to
preserve even basic information on such a major culture, once dominant in a large sector
of the Mediterranean, and the source of so much technology and cultural achievements,
what does that say for our posterity? The fact is that the Etruscan language was lost, and
in the absence of some unforeseen discovery, we may never have the literature that they
produced and it didn’t take a deliberate campaign by Rome to ensure its disappearance,
all it took was a reliance on fl imsy recording media (linen books, papyrus etc.) and the
acquiescence of the descendants of native speakers (but do see Chapters 22 and 23 for how
much has actually been rediscovered and restored).
It seems as if there is something about the Etruscans that makes everyone want to take
sides. Romans and Greeks acted shocked that the Etruscans raised all the offspring of
noble families (having implied that the paternity of said children was in question. In fact,
we know what the Romans would have done to their illegitimate offspring, see Chapter
20). There are hints of human sacrifi ce, yet the Romans, who sacrifi ced a pair of Gauls
and a pair of Greeks during the Hannibalic War, did not press this issue, either (Livy
22.57.6). The Etruscans could serve as symbols for all sorts of beliefs. D.H. Lawrence saw
them as vibrant foils to the gray juggernaut of Roman fascism, and Annius of Viterbo
claimed them as descendents of Noah – and his own ancestors (see Chapter 61). Today,
familiarity with Etruscan culture sets a select group of archaeologists and historians apart
from the general audience who know only the “mysterious Etruscans.” The “mystery” is
in our own minds, and the information offered in this volume will show that the reality
of Etruscan culture is even stranger – and also more familiar, since much of it can be
discerned in our own heritage.
Until now, for very many topics, key publications have only been available in Italian
or otherwise less readily accessible to general audiences. For instance, the excavated
fi nds of Etruscan and Italic chariots were never before compiled until Adriana Emiliozzi
coordinated an exhibition “Carri da Guerra dei Principi Etruschi,” (“War chariots of the
Etruscan princes”) in 1997 (catalogue published in Italian). Her latest fi ndings appear
here in Chapter 41. Likewise, many recent excavations and research discoveries have been
presented here in English for the fi rst time.
This book is not intended to replace the major recent works in English on Etruscan
culture (see note 3), but rather to supplement and augment them with in-depth studies
of special fi elds, and to present the very latest discoveries and analyses. It is plotted into
major areas of inquiry where its authors have been able to make new contributions to
our knowledge or to restore to the Etruscans developments that may have been credited
elsewhere (Etruscan metallurgy, engineering, and surveying were admired by even their
most severe enemies, and their monumental construction programs and safe, comfortable
housing exceeded most standards of their day, yet there is no mention of the Etruscans
in a major handbook of ancient (Classical) technology, published in 2008.) Some studies
presented here are by the experts who actually discovered and/or excavated them; others
synthesize the current picture of life in ancient Etruria from artistic, archaeological, and
epigraphic evidence.
Certain topics were simply too big and complex to treat in the scope of one short
article among many, and the state of the art is such that, already, complete volumes could
be written to cover the relations of the Etruscans with their Italic neighbors, especially
the Latins (including the Romans), with whom they had a variegated relationship over at
least a full millennium. (A beginning for this study would be the works of Anna Maria