The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

Armando C h eric i

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Figure 34.3 The four prevailing positions of Ursa Major form a swastika pattern in the sky.

These are fascinating areas of possible further inquiry, which one could explore only with an
interdisciplinary approach,19 or at least one that is not exclusively art-historical. Thus we
discover that fluid dynamics were known not only for what concerned the great hydraulic
works mentioned above, but also in the behavior of water moving under pressure through
pipes: a series of vessels with internal baffles or vent holes were arranged to distribute
liquid selectively, or to prevent the formation of bubbles; bucchero cups with internal
tubes allowed one to suck the liquid by creating a vacuum with the mouth,20 or to mix
fluids by the principle of communicating vessels that allowed water to pour into isolated
above-ground monumental fountains.21 Late Etruscan anatomical votives document a
remarkable knowledge of the internal organs, accessible only with surgical techniques.22
We are on the threshold of science, in the empirical and cognitive phase, but the Etruscan
culture always shows a marked ability to abstract and render these observations concrete,
and useful: in the practice of trade in Etruria there was created the economic concept of
“tare” (Festus 129; T L E 844), today still an essential concept in mercantile science.

NOTES

1 See now also results of Near Eastern borrowing in the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar (Turfa
2012, chapter 8).
2 On which: Van Der Meer 1979; Stevens 2009.
3 The episode of the victim’s entrails stolen at Veii (Livy 5.21.8) is significant: it is not devotion
that influences the outcome of the sacrifice, but he who physically completes a specific act; cf.
also the story of the Caput Oli (Servius, ad Aen. 8.345).
4 Vitruvius’ original text: “Maiores enim pecoribus immolatis, quae pascebantur in is locis, quibus
aut oppida aut castra stativa constituebantur, inspiciebant iocinera, et si erant livida et vitiosa primo,
alia immolabant dubitantes, utrum morbo an pabuli vitio laesa essent. Cum pluribus experti erant et
probaverant integram et solidam naturam iocinerum ex aqua et pabulo, ibi constituebant munitiones; si
autem vitiosa inveniebant, iudicio transferebant item humanis corporibus pestilentem futuram nascentem
in his locis aquae cibique copiam, et ita transmigrabant et mutabant regiones quaerentes omnibus rebus
salubritatem.” (De architectura 1.4.9).

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