Thanks Sabine for that Etruscan artwork attachment. It, more than
any other input, has caused me to back up on thoughts that the insurgent
colonists that would become the Etruscans (when mixed with what was already
there) were primarily unassociated with the
EBA Aegean sphere, or perhaps were distinct from Pelasgic influence. Every
point of that drawing goes directly to early Aegean, proto Greek, and
Pelasgic. We have horse warriors, the only weapon represented: javelin.
The forehead to nose point as a single line, the birds on the
sheilds..before even considering the labyrinth
symbol.
Birds as group, unit and perhaps tribal identity goes all the way back to
Pelasgic Dodona: "Peleiades" (storks) as older priestesses, and a general
reference to old men and women (of the Pelasgic population in Thessaly) as
"peliai" and "pelioi"...also= pigeons. The Classic writers in several cases
refer to the use of the Pelasgian bird symbology...in their quess..as based
on their rapid bird like movement..to dominate everywhere.
Sabine added about her vase attachment:
>...... Etruscan vase showing the traditional connection labyrinth-
>Troy (tracing from the Tragliatella Oinochoe, Rome, 7th cent. BC.,
>see attachment). This could have taken the way via Greece, though
>(there was e.g. one similar labyrinth on the back of a LB tablet from
>Pylos, 13th cent. BC., the Knossian labyrinth-depictions(!) are later, >as
far as I know)......(snip re Mythological connections:)
>....but>whoever is interested will see the connections easily.
I am interested in how/why we assign this vase/art to Etruscan?
What devices (or find context) put it in that category and seperate it from
non-Etruscan proto- Roman? The time attested means to me that the devices
came with the colonists (if certainly Etruscan) and were not assimiliated
from preexisting influences on the Tryyhenian coast. I would remind all
that the ancient traditions do not associate Etruscans with Troy..but do
place Troy refugees in the proto-Roman
group, and have non-Etruscan "Tuscans" participating in the Aegean sphere as
early as c1200. (Virgil)
Sabine: What are your thoughts on the "Labyrinth" symbol (both on the vase
and in the Aegean). I have always thought it was a post Minoan symbol
picked up by the wider Aegean "culture" via the
Achaean/Mycenean..as a recognition of the sea/trade marketing
aspects of the culture acquired through the Minoan culture. Sort of an
Aegean mythologizing of the Minoan storehouse in company with the Ariadne
and Minotaur story?
Re early discussions of the peopling of the Troad: There was a city in the
Troad (as far as I can tell from limited references here) which
was contemporary with the epic battle: called "Palaiscepsis". !!
La Revedere;
Rex H. McTyeire
Bucharest, Romania
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rexbo@...>