Buried Cities And Lost Tribes: Old World

Mesa Community College

The Etruscans

ASB222: Buried Cities and Lost Tribes: Old World
Colleen Strawhacker, M.A.
December 6, 2012

The inhabitants of the stone and bronze ages of Northern Italy, the region known as modern day Tuscany, eventually developed into the people that are known by others as the Etruscans (Nardo pg.8). The ancient Greeks had other names for them, including the Tyrsenoi or Tyrrhenoi and the Romans moniker for the Etruscans was the Tusci or Etrusci, but the Etruscans called themselves the Rasna or Rasenna. (Barker and Rasmussen pg. 85) If this confusion over a simple name seems odd, it is only the beginning of the mystery concerning this enigmatic culture. The land mass
of the Italian peninsula where these ancient people lived has two mountain ranges, the Alps in the north, and the Apennines that run through its center. The volcanic soil found there is richly fertile and is capable of supporting dense forests and grassy meadows. The Mediterranean climate offers long summers and short mild winters (Kalman pg. 7). The region in which the Etruscans lived was called Etruria. It was located in on the western coast of central Italy, bounded on the north by the Arno, and on the south and east by the Tiber Rivers. At the height of their society in the seventh and sixth centuries BC, the Etruscans were a major power in Italy and wielded as much influence over the central and western Mediterranean as the Greeks (Barker and Rasmussen pg.1). An influential ancient culture of this caliber should be well documented and have left a wealth of archaeological evidence behind to paint a clear picture of its people and history, but unfortunately that is not the case. Modern day researchers have come up against some serious issues in trying to unravel Etruria’s past. The first is that there appears to be an unsolved mystery of just where the Etruscans originated from. This question goes back to the ancient times, when writers suggested that the Etruscans came to Italy from somewhere in the exotic “East”, most likely Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey. This myth was given further authenticity in the 18th century by the Greek poet Hesiod in his epic poem about the origins of the world in which he named the Etruscans the Tyrsenians, but then failed to give the details as to why he did so. Herodotus, a Greek historian, claimed that the Etruscans were immigrants from Lydia who had taken the name the Tyrrhenians after their leader, Tyrrheni. In fact, the waters off of Italy’s western coast are still referred to as the Tyrrhenian Sea to this day ( Nardo ppg. 14,15). Archaeology tells us a different story, however, according to studies done by physical anthropologists on Etruscan skulls and a preliminary study of the mitochondrial DNA found in modern Tuscans. No ‘differentness’ could be found in the Etruscans and the people who lived there before them. Scholars Barker and Rasmussen claim that, “The overwhelming evidence of the archaeological record is that the origins of Etruscan society lie fundamentally in the later prehistoric communities of Etruria” (ppg. 82, 83). There is no way to tell exactly when the scattered villages across prehistoric Etruria came to recognize themselves as a single society, but perhaps the first and strongest cultural factor that linked them together was language (Nardo pg.19). That language represents another obstacle and mystery for modern historians. The Etruscan language has not been fully deciphered, and even if it was it would be of limited worth due to the fact that only a few, mostly short, examples of Etruscan writing have been found (Nardo pg. 10). The Etruscan language is unrelated to any of the other ancient languages that were being used in Italy. In fact, it does not share any common word stems with any of the others in the ‘family’ of related Indo-European languages, and the closest known dialect that shares any similarity at all was being spoken on the Aegean island of Lemmos (Bonfante;1990; Bonfante and Bonfante, 1993). The Etruscan culture developed alongside that of the Greeks, and through trade relations and intermarriage was heavily influenced by the more advanced Greek civilization. The Etruscans in their turn also played a role in influencing the growing Roman Empire. One would then assume that the interactions of the Etruscans with these well known and documented societies would have been recorded in their histories, but once again that is unfortunately not the case. Although the Greeks and Romans did write about the Etruscans, the tracts that have survived are superficial, unkind or mean-spirited, or highly biased (Nardo pg. 11). Yet another problem that is faced by modern day archaeologists is overbuilding. The sites selected by the Etruscans to build their towns upon were so strategic and well chosen that they were never abandoned. A great majority of their ruins and artifacts lie buried deep beneath several layers of habitation, including modern day streets and houses, inaccessible to archaeological researchers (Nardo pg. 10). How then, one might ask, do the archaeologists go about learning anything about the Etruscans when they are plagued by so many difficulties? The answer comes in the form of their burials; most of the evidence for their culture comes from their tombs (Nardo pg. 9) and each Etruscan town has one or more cemeteries surrounding it. Etruscans, like the Egyptians, seemed to have conceived these tombs as homes for the dead. The cemetery of La Banditaccia at Cerveteri was even laid out like a small town with “streets” running between the grave mounds. The grave mounds were partially or entirely excavated below ground into the bedrock of volcanic tufo, and then they were roofed over and covered with dirt and stones (Stokstad and Cotheren pg. 160). Sadly enough, although these tombs are nearly all that we have in the way of interoperating the Etruscans culture, they have not been immune to the universal plague of archaeology; looters. One modern day looter, Luigi Perticarari, admits to making a handsome living by hawking the items he has looted from some four thousand Etruscan gravesites (Nardo pg. 11). Fortunately, there have been scattered excavations throughout the countryside that have turned up faunal evidence and some artifacts from farms and villages that were found by field walking practices. An ancient mining town called Accesa that had not been overbuilt upon has also been found near the town of Massa Marittima in southern Tuscany. Several acres have been unearthed so far and have revealed actual Etruscan houses and streets, the information that has been discovered there is invaluable because there are no other sites comparable to it. Researchers are calling it the “Etruscan Pompeii” (Nardo pg. 12). By putting all of these bits and pieces of evidence together researchers have been able to form a rudimentary picture of the Etruscans and their culture, including this timeline: Early and Middle Bronze Age 2000 BC – 1300 BC Late and Final Bronze Age 1300 BC – 900 BC Early Iron Age (Villanovan) 900 BC – 700 BC Orientalizing Period 700 BC – 570 BC Archaic Age 570 BC – 470 BC Classical Age 470 BC – 300 BC Hellenistic Age 300 BC – 31 BC (Barker and Rasmussen Pg. 6) Archaeologists can tell with reasonable certainty that the region of Italy was inhabited as early as 200,000 years ago during the Stone Age and that the inhabitants there were nomadic and lived as hunters and gatherers. In approximately 5000 BC the Etrurians adopted agriculture and began to settle down in permanent villages. Faunal evidence shows that they grew mostly cereal grains and raised sheep and pigs. The first communities were small with only a few families living together. The archaeological evidence shows us that they lived in one or two room huts made of branches, reeds, straw, and mud with dirt floors. Large fields were rare since the area was still heavily forested, but small gardens were found to be spaced around the perimeter of the huts (Nardo pg 20).
At least some of their dead were placed to rest in caves; excavators have discovered the remains of several Stone Age people in Grotta Patrizi located in the mountains of northwest Rome. Grave goods accompanying the bodies included stone knives, ceramic pots, and primitive jewelry (Nardo pg. 20). No evidence has been found to suggest any social order or special status among these earliest sites. In the years 2000BC to 900 BC, during the Bronze Age, the Etruscans began smelting copper first until they learned to mix it with tin, which was a rarer metal, to create bronze which is harder and more durable than copper alone. The possession of metal made individuals wealthy and respected, thus we began to see ‘elites’ begin to appear in Etruscan society and the emergence of chiefdom societies. Larger communities in Etruria began absorbing or gaining control over the smaller villages surrounding them and began forming rudimentary political states. In the following years the increased economic activity in combination with the growth of populations and communities set the stage for the emergence of Etruscan state societies, each of which would have its own ruling families (Nardo pg. 21). The Villanovan Period, or Etruscan Iron Age, began in 900 BC.
This period received its name from the modern village of Villanova where archaeologists found the first remnants of the Iron Age culture in 1953 (Nardo pg. 21). Studies of cemeteries and pottery from this period indicate that about ten to twelve major towns came into power during this period, the five largest of which would later become leading Etruscan cities; Caere, Tarquinii, Veii, Volsinii, and Vulci. One important change that occurred within this society was the beginnings of cremation of the dead versus inhumation, or burial. This practice inadvertently left a boon to modern day researchers in the form of pottery urns found in Villanovan cemeteries. These urns were shaped to resemble houses, and have provided researchers with a clear idea of what sort of architecture and possible materials may have been employed during this time period. At Tarquinii and Vulci, for example, these urns show that houses were either rectangular or oval shaped with conical roofs. They were still made from mostly thatch and dried mud, but now the mass of interwoven branches and reeds were often strengthened by pieces of timber and/or had a stone foundation. There is also evidence of small porches extending outward and protecting the single doorways. At some of the sites where researchers excavated actual dwellings there is evidence of some stone floors, hearths, and even shallow basements, most likely for food storage or
to keep valuables. During this time period archaeologists estimate that the largest towns had a population in the hundreds to low thousands. These towns remained separate political and social entities and did not coalesce into a central state or nation. In fact, such widespread centralization never occurred in Etruria, even when the civilization was at its height. Much like the city-states of ancient Greece, the major urban centers of Etruria remained fiercely independent and saw themselves as tiny separate nations (Nardo pg 23-24). Etruria’s growing prosperity soon caught the attention of outsiders and in the late 800’s BC the Phoenicians as well as the Greeks began a vigorous maritime trade with its inhabitants.
Male traders from these outside cultures soon established small trade towns on the coasts and soon afterwards the practice of intermarriage followed. In return for their metals, agricultural goods, and pottery the Etruscans received wine, olive oil, textiles, glasswork, and much more including the introduction of foreign customs and artistic and religious ideas which began to steadily transform the Etrurian culture (Nardo 24). Archaeologists were able to follow this process by comparing known religions, customs, styles of production and artistic styles of these foreign cultures and comparing them to the artifacts of the Etruscans. Evidence found in their tombs, such as paintings on the walls and the quality of trade goods found therein indicates a massive inflow of goods, especially luxury items, and the introduction of Greek mythology finding its way into the ideology of the Etruscan beliefs. The Etruscan temples themselves were made of wood and little archaeological evidence has been found except for their basic architectural layout (Barker and Rasmussen pg. 153). The Etruscan religion is believed to have been animistic and required no monuments; it wasn’t until Grecian influence entered their culture that their gods became anthropomorphic. “…most of what little is known about Etruscan
religious beliefs and practices comes from scattered remarks by Greek and Roman writers. That so little is known about Etruscan religion is unfortunate because it appears that the Etruscans were an unusually pious people whose religious beliefs permeated all levels of their society.” Don Nardo (pg. 51). Whatever class distinctions that existed in the Bronze and early Iron Ages were now heightened as a few people in each town became increasingly rich and powerful and exerted more authority over the lower classes. At the same time these classes were further divided as people began to split into groups of specialization and new kinds of artisans and merchants joined the farmers, miners, metal smiths, traders, and sailors. Despite all of these seeming advancements of society offered to the Etruscans by the Greeks, the most profound were yet to come, including military ones that would facilitate the rise of these powerful Etruscan city-states (Nardo pg. 25) and eventually their fall. As the Greek nation expanded, it opened trade farther and farther afield, including into the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Trade items from these exotic places made their way into Etruria and thus began what is known as the Orientalizing Period which lasted from 700 BC to 570 BC. The Etruscans were becoming major players in the Mediterranean’s economic sphere (Nardo pg. 26) and their growth as a nation exploded as evidenced by the rich and diverse nature of grave goods found in their tombs. Following the Orientalizing period was the Archaic Age, which lasted roughly from 600 BC to 480 BC during which the Etruscans reached the height of their power and prosperity as a people (Nardo pg. 39). As its culture burgeoned and grew it began to feel confined by the commercially strong nature of its neighbors and geographic boundaries of its home region. In the century of 500 BC a commercial rivalry began between the Etruscans and the Greeks and led to an aggressive expansion into the Po River valley and the northeast. The Greeks ultimately won this power struggle due to superior military forces. By the Classical Age in 400 BC the Etruscans were being politically subordinated to the Romans as well and thus began their slow, but steady decline and eventual absorbsion into the Roman Empire in the Hellenistic Age (The origins of the Etruscans). Despite the challenges of uncovering the truth of the Etruscans and their culture, modern archaeology has done an admirable job in helping us to gain some understanding of them. It has been a difficult and laborious process, especially when dealing with surrounding cultures that are entwined in so much mythology. Speaking of challenges faced by these resilient researchers I did not mention the fact that it is a treacherous process when interoperating the artifacts found within the tombs themselves. Art in itself can be very subjective; it does not always necessarily mirror life or accurately portray real events. There is also a limit to which we can learn from these tombs. An undetermined amount of the grave goods could be ceremonial in nature and death related and may not accurately portray the customs and practices of the living (Nardo pg.29). The good news is that due to a resurgence of recent interest in the Etruscan culture and improved archaeological technologies authorities in a number of Italian towns are allowing limited excavations at selected urban sites (Nardo pg. 12).
Works Cited
1. Nardo, Don. “The Etruscans”; Lost Civilizations Series. USA. Thompson Gale, a part of the Thomson Gale Corporation. Lucient Books 2005. Print.

2. Barker, Graeme, and Tom Rasmussen. “The Etruscans”, Peoples of Europe. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers. 1998. Print.

3. Kalman, Bobbi. “Itlay the land”. The lands, peoples, and cultures series. Crabtree Publishing Company. 2001. Found on Google Books: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=gPJpErRrC70C&printsec=frontcover&dq=italy+the+land&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Zgm8UOC2DYv_qAHBw4GoBQ&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA 4. Bonfante, L. “Reading the Past: Etruscan” London. British Museum. 1990

5. Stokstad, Marilyn and Michael W. Cothren. “Art History” fourth edition volume 1. New Jersey. Pearson Education Inc. Lawrence King Publishing. 2011. Print

6. “The origins of the Etruscans” San Jose State University. http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/etruscans.htm