The origins of the Etruscans will likely never be
determined but by their own tradition it is possible they came out of
Lydia. Herodotus and Strabo tell of Lydians landing at the mouth of the Po
and crossing the Apennines into Etruria. Thus it seems certain that
although the earliest immigrants may have come down from the north, they were
joined by a migration from the east before they had developed a civilization of
their own.
To date the origins of the Etruscan civilization is
quite difficult; however, we know that a great migration from Greece to Italy
occurred ca 1000 BC (is is supported by imported Greek objects found in
tombs). The religion of the Etruscans consisted of worshipping various
divinities. They believed in frequent sacrifice thus indicating a belief
in good and bad with bad more predominant.
Storms, earthquakes, the birth of deformities etc.
gave evidence of evil powers which could be appeased only by human
sacrifice. Their pantheon of gods and goddesses was somewhat similar to
the Greeks but also had an indigenous component. Along with the pantheon
was an extremely detailed hierarchy of divine powers which resulted in a large
and powerful priesthood who became so famous that they were sent for from
distant lands to interpret the sacrifices and oracles. A large stone has
been discovered with the Etruscan language on one side and a Greek translation
on the other. However, Etruscan texts still cannot be read. Etruscan
was not Indo-European. According to Artuiunov, most probably Etruscan was
related to Hurri-Urartic and migrated from Asia Minor.
Gerry
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2001 11:38
PM
Subject: Re: [nostratic] And
finally...
I am very much satisfied that Etruscan, along with Rhaetic
and
Lemnian (and possibly Camunic and EteoCypriot), are part of
a
Tyrrhenian family of languages which relate closely to the
IndoEuropean
languages. Essentially, Tyrrhenian and IE are
sister languages that I feel
derive from an ancestral language
spoken some time around 7000 BCE north of
the Black Sea.
Bomhard feels the same way but he doesn't go into as
much detail
as I strive to do nor does he get into the fun stuff
like
reconstructing IndoTyrrhenian. Speaking of which, I gotta
drastically
update my online glossary. Some important things have
changed.