The Etruscan alphabet is the set of characters that make up the Etruscan language, the most mysterious language in the world that can be read, but impossible to understand. Despite the large number of famous monuments of Etruscan writing, numbering thousands of copies, scientists around the world still have not been able to solve this riddle.
Who are the Etruscans
Etruscans - a powerful people who lived in Italy since the 9th century. BC e., even before the advent of the Romans. The state of Etruria had a federal structure and consisted of 12 independent cities. Each city ruled its king, but in the 4th century. BC e. the aristocracy came to power.
The Etruscan state maintained commercial and industrial relations with Ancient Greece (Corinth), as evidenced by drawings and written monuments. Clay urns and vessels with drawings found near Tarquinia show a close connection between the art of the Etruscans and the Greeks. According to some reports, one of the skilled Greek draftsmen brought the alphabet to the country. The fact that the Etruscan alphabet descended from the Greek is also indicated by the form and meanings of its letters.
The heyday of the state of Etruria
The state of the Etruscans widely developed trade and industrial activity. The territory from the coast of Tarquinia to the bay near Vesuvius was convenient for sailors, so the Etruscans tried to oust the Greeks from trade in the Mediterranean Sea. Agriculture and crafts were well developed in the state. Evidence of the development of building art are the ancient remains of structures and tombs, roads and canals.
The ruling nobility - lukumons - led the construction of cities, engaged in gaining fame through battles and raids on neighbors.
Much of what is now considered primordially Roman was actually done and founded by the Etruscans: for example, an ancient temple on Capitol Hill was built by craftsmen from Etruria. The kings of ancient Rome also came from the family of Tarquinians, many Latin names are borrowed from the Etruscan, and many historians also attribute the origin of the alphabet in the Roman Empire to the Etruscans.
The heyday of the state of Etruria falls on 535 BC. e., when the army of the Carthaginians and the Etruscans defeated the Greeks, but after a few years, due to the fragmentation of the state, Rome successfully conquered all new Etruscan cities. By the middle of the 1st century BC. e. Roman culture completely absorbs the local, and Etruscan is no longer used.
Language and Art in Etruria
The Etruscans had a well-developed art: the manufacture of marble sculptures, the technique of bronze casting. The famous statue of the she-wolf feeding the founders of the city of Romulus and Remus was created by Etruscan masters who studied with the Greeks. Painted terracotta sculptures preserved facial features of Etruscan people: slightly slanting almond-shaped eyes, large nose, puffy lips. The inhabitants of Etruria are very reminiscent of the inhabitants of Asia Minor.
Religion and language strongly distinguished the Etruscans from neighboring nations due to their alienness. Even the Romans themselves could no longer understand this language. The Roman proverb “Etruscan is not readable” (etruscum non legitur) has survived to this day, which predetermined the fate of Etruscan writing.
Most Etruscan texts that archaeologists have found over the past centuries are funerary and dedicatory inscriptions on tombstones, vases, statues, mirrors and decorations. But any scientific works or medical ones (according to some reports, medicine and drug treatment were strongly developed in Etruria) most likely will not be found.
Attempts to decipher the Etruscan language have been undertaken for more than 100 years. Many scholars have tried to do this by analogy with the Hungarian, Lithuanian, Phoenician, Greek, Finnish, and even Old Russian languages. According to recent reports, this language is considered isolated from all other languages ​​of Europe.
Early Etruscan alphabet
In order to decipher words in an unknown language, scientists first find recognizable words (names, titles, titles), and then, making a transfer from a known language, try to find repetitions in words or grammatical forms. Thus comprehend the syntax, vocabulary and composition of an unknown language.
Today in museums and vaults around the world there are more than 10 thousand inscriptions (on dishes, on tablets, etc.) using the Etruscan alphabet. Its origin by various scholars is interpreted in different ways. Some researchers call it Pelasgian (Protothyrrhenian) and believe that it came from the pre-Greek, others - the Dorian-Corinthian, and others - the Chalkidian (Western Greek).
Some scholars suggest that before him there was a more ancient alphabet, which is conventionally called “proto-Etruscan”, but no written evidence or finds were found. The archaic Etruscan alphabet, according to the scientist R. Carpenter, most likely was composed of "several Greek" and invented in the 8-7th century. BC e.
Records in Etruscan are read horizontally from right to left, sometimes there are inscriptions made by bustrofedon (the lines are read by “snake”, one by one from right to left, the other from left to right). Words often did not separate from each other.
This alphabet is also called Severnaya Thalian and consider it to have descended from Phoenician or Greek, and some of its letters are very similar to Latin.
The Etruscan alphabet with translation was reconstructed by scientists in the 19th century. How each of the letters of the Etruscan alphabet is pronounced is known, and any student can read it. However, no one succeeds in deciphering the language.
Marsilian alphabet
The writing of the Etruscans appeared in the middle of the 7th century. BC e., and it was found on some household items during archaeological excavations: these are scratched inscriptions on vessels, on valuable objects from tombs.
The most complete example of the alphabet appeared when a tablet was found from Marsiliana de Albenia during excavations of the necropolis (now located in the Archaeological Museum in Florence). It is made of ivory 5x9 cm in size and covered with remnants of wax with extruded letters. On it you can see 22 letters of the Phoenician (Middle Eastern) alphabet and 4 Greek at the end, of which 21 are consonant letters and 5 vowels. The very first letter of the alphabet - the letter "A" - is on the right.
According to researchers, the tablet served as a primer for a person who was learning to write. After examining it, scientists came to the conclusion that the Martian alphabet comes from the Greek. The font of these letters is very similar to Chalkidian.
Another confirmation of this alphabet is its presence on a vase, which was found in Formello, and another one found in the tomb in Chervetri (now located in museums in Rome). Both finds are dated 7-6 centuries. BC e. The inscription on one of them even has a list of syllables (syllabary).
Alphabet development
In order to answer the question of how the Etruscan alphabet changed, how many characters were in it at the beginning and whether their number changed later, it is necessary to trace this by the “exhibits with writing” found and described by the researchers.
Judging by the archaeological finds of a later period (to the 5-3 centuries BC), it changed gradually, which can be seen by comparing the samples on tablets from Viterbo, Colle and others, as well as alphabets from Roosell and Bomarzo.
In the 5th century BC e. the Etruscan alphabet already had 23 letters, because some of them were no longer used. By 400 BC e. formed a "classic" alphabet, consisting of already 20 letters:
- 4 vowels: letter A, then E, I, And;
- 16 consonants: G, U-digamma, C, H, Th, L, T, N, P, S (an), R, S, T, Ph, Kh, F (eight).
Late Etruscan inscriptions have already begun to be done differently: after the “right to left” method, boostrofedon was used, and later, under the influence of the Latin language, the “left to right” method was used. Then there are inscriptions in 2 languages ​​(Latin + Etruscan), and some Etruscan letters become similar to the Latin alphabet.
The New Etruscan alphabet has been in use for several hundred years, its pronunciation even influenced the Tuscan dialect in Italy.
Figures in Etruscan writing
Identifying Etruscan numbers has also proved challenging. The first step in determining the numbers was the find in Tuscany in the middle of the 19th century. two dice with 5 words on the edges: math, thu, huth, ci, sa. Trying to compare the inscriptions with other bones with points on the edges, the scientists could not determine anything, because the points were drawn randomly.
Then they began to examine the tombstones, which always contain numbers, and it turned out that the Etruscans wrote numbers by summing tens and units, and sometimes subtracted smaller numbers from large ones (20-2 = 18).
German scientist G. Stoltenberg systematized gravestone inscriptions and found out that the number “50” is defined by the word muvalch, and “5” by mach. Similarly, verbal designations 6 and 60 were found, etc.
As a result, Stoltenberg concluded that Etruscan writing served as a prototype of Roman numerals.
Pirgi plates
In 1964, between the plates of the temple, not far from the ancient port of Pirgi, which belongs to the Etruscan city of Pere, archaeologists found 3 plates of the 6-5th century. BC e. in gold with inscriptions, one of them in Phoenician, and 2 in Etruscan. The very presence of these plates indicates the connection of Carthage and the Etruscan city of Pirgi. Initially, scientists perked up, suggesting that it was a bilingua (identical text in 2 languages), and they could read Etruscan inscriptions. But alas ... The texts were not exactly the same.
After trying to decipher these plates by two famous scientists Pallotino and Garbini, conclusions were drawn that the inscription was made at the dedication of the statue or temple to the goddess Uni-Astarte. But on a smaller tablet it contained a reference to Teferi Velinas and described the ritual of sacrifice. It turned out that both Etruscan texts have similar places, but they could not be completely deciphered.
Attempts to decipher texts on these plates were made repeatedly by scientists in many countries, but each time the meaning of the text turned out to be different.
The relationship of the Etruscan language and Middle Eastern counterparts
One of the oddities of the Etruscan alphabet is very little use, and sometimes the lack of vowels. From the inscription of the letters you can see that the Etruscan letters are identical to the Phoenician.
The ancient writings of the Middle East are very similar to the "Phoenician" and are made in the language used by the Etruscans. From which we can conclude that in the period from the 13th century. and up to 3-2 centuries. BC e. the written language on the territory of Italy, the coast of the Middle East, north-west of Africa was the only and similar to Etruscan.
At the beginning of our era, Etruscan inscriptions in these territories disappear, replaced by Greek and Aramaic. Most likely, this was due to the historical era of strengthening power in the Roman Empire.
The Mummy Book and other texts
One of the largest Etruscan texts was found in the 19th century. A Croatian tourist brought a mummified woman from Egypt to Zagreb. Later, after unwinding strips of linen from it, scientists discovered inscriptions that were later identified as Etruscan. The linen book consists of 12 pieces of fabric, combining which gave a scroll length of 13.75 m. The text consists of 12 columns, read from right to left.
After many years of research, it was concluded that the “Mummy Book” is a calendar that prescribes the performance of various religious ceremonies.
Another similar Etruscan large text was found during construction work in the city of Cortona, which was previously one of the main cities of Etruria. The Corton text was studied by the famous linguist V. Ivanov, who came to the conclusion that the Etruscan and North Caucasian languages ​​were related.
One of the scientist's conclusions was the assertion of the powerful influence of Etruscan culture and writing on Roman and Latin.
Comparison of Etruscan and Lezgin Languages
Another version of the origin and reading of the Etruscan language was published in 2013 by linguistic researchers Y. Yaraliev and N. Osmanov under the title “History of Lezgins. The Etruscans. " They claim that they were able to decipher the Etruscan alphabet and, most importantly, make translations of texts using the Lezgi language, one of the modern languages ​​of the Dagestan branch.
They were able to read all available Etruscan texts, including 12 pages from the “Book of the Mummy” and another 320 tablets with Etruscan texts. The data, according to their claims, allows us to reveal the ancient historical ties between the Middle East and the Caucasus.
"Slavic" theory of the origin of the Etruscans
Proponents of the Proto-Slavic origin of the Etruscans believe that the Etruscans called themselves “races” or “rosens,” which is consonant with the word “Russians.” They provide other evidence of the proximity of these cultures and languages.
The decoding of the tablets from Pyrgi attracted the attention of supporters of the Slavic theory of the origin of the Etruscan language. One of the researchers who were interested in Etruscan writing was the Russian scientist V. Osipov. He made an attempt to rewrite the Etruscan text with the usual letters of the Russian alphabet in the standard direction (from left to right) and even divided it into words. And he received ... a description of the ancient ritual of erotic games on the Solstice.
Osipov draws analogies with the Slavic holiday of Ivan Kupala. After his discovery, the scientist sent out a translation of the text from Pirgi and his explanations to scientists involved in Etruscan writing in different countries. Subsequently, he made the translation of several dozen inscriptions with his own method, but so far, scientists have not responded to such a breakthrough in research.
Another Russian scientist V. Shcherbakov put forward the theory that for deciphering the writing of the Etruscans, you can use the bronze mirrors that they put in the tombs. Using mirrors, the text can be read in different directions, and some letters may be inverted.
Historians attribute this to the fact that the masters who made the inscriptions themselves did not own a letter, but copied letters from mirrors, while the images of letters in the mirrors turned upside down or upside down. Moving the mirrors, Shcherbakov made his own version of the decryption of the text.
Research by Z. Mayiani and others
Attempts to read and translate Etruscan tablets, comparing the Etruscan alphabet and the Old Albanian, were made by the French scientist Z. Mayiani, who in 2003 published the book "Etruscans are beginning to speak," which has become popular throughout Europe. He conducted 300 etymological comparisons between the dictionaries of these languages ​​(Etruscan and Illyrian), but did not receive the support of linguists.
According to the finds of writing, scientists also identified several types of Late Etruscan alphabets, which include North Etruscan and Alpine, Venetian and Ruthenian alphabets. It is generally recognized that the early Etruscan alphabet served as the basis for them. Moreover, all these scripts were used by the inhabitants of Tuscany and Italy at the beginning of the 1st century BC. e., after the disappearance of the Etruscan original. When people can understand the Etruscan language, it remains a mystery of the last millennia.