Sergei's name should have been spelled Arutiunov.

Gerry

--- In nostratic@..., "Gerry Reinhart-Waller" <waluk@...> wrote:
> 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 -----
> From: Glen Gordon
> To: nostratic@...
> 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.