Re: Etruscan numerals

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Marco Moretti"
> <marcomoretti69@...> wrote:
> >
> > It's far more probable that /huth/ =4 and /s'a/ = 6. The rule of
> sum
> > of each of the two opposite sides of the die added up to seven

WAS

> BY
> > NO MEANS OF GENERAL USE IN ANCIENT WORLD. More probably Etruscan
> > followed another rule: difference between numbers of the two
> opposite
> > sides of the die was three.
> > We have a picture portraying FOUR Charons, and one of them is
> called
> > HUTHS, apparently 'the Fourth One'.
> > If you assume /s'a/ to be 'four', you find no matchup at all in
> the
> > whole planet, if you assume /s'a/ is 'six', you are immediately
> able
> > to see that Etruscan was not from Mars, but had the same

borrowing

> > from Afro-Asiatic found also in IE, in Kartvelian, in Basque.
> >
> > Marco
> ************
> Re s'a, huth, four, six:
> 1)I've never heard of a die except this one(?) that has words
> for numbers instead of pips or at most numerals. Is it unique? If
> so, its ordering is likely to have been nonstandard too.
> 2) Is anyone aware of a demographic study of Etruscan
> tombstones, which I understand commonly give the age of the
> deceased? I would expect more people died in their 60's or in
> their 40's -- I really don't know which in the ancient world. Also
> the portraits are supposed to be realistic. Sexagenanarians show
> their extra decades (as I'm shocked to find personally). Has any
> looked for a match here?
> Dan Milton

Yes, demographic statistical studies about occurrences of /huth/ -
/s'a/ has been carried out, although I've got no direct reference of
any of them. The results were: /huth/ is 'four' and /s'a/ is 'six'.
These studies are rather complicated, because Etruscan sometimes used
to write numearls by means of letters, but often they used a system
quite similar to the one used by Romans. When I'll have some
references I'll make you know.

Marco