Etruscan Culture Research Articles

Archaeology and the Etruscan countryside

The Etruscan city states flourished in westcentral Italy from the late 8th century BC until their conquest and absorption by the emergent state ofRome in the 4th century BC. In 1985 Italy celebrated the century or so of work on its oldest civilization with a series of major exhibitions under the slogan, ‘Buongiorno Etruschi’ (‘Good morning, Etruscansi!’). There were eight major exhibitions in Tuscany displaying over 5000 objects from all the major collections in the region, designed to cover most aspects of Etruscan culture – settlement systems, domestic and religious architecture, religion, everyday life, crafts, and artistic achievement. As the sponsors FIAT wrote in their preface to the splendid catalogues produced for the project (e.g. Camporeale 1985; Carandini 1985; Cristofani 1985; Stopponi 1985), the intention of this massive undertaking was to convey to the Italian public that the Etruscans were not just a dead civilization known above all for the way of death of its élite, but ‘a lively culture of ordinary people, merchants, and craftsmen’.

Problems of the Urbanization of Pompeii: Excavations 1980–1981

Excavations conducted in 1980–81 for the Soprintendenza Archeologica at Pompeii, by the writer, revealed considerable information about conditions in and around the forum from the sixth century B.C. onwards. The results are briefly described and used to indicate hypotheses as to the development of the site. Already in the sixth century the whole 63 ha. appear to have been enclosed by a wall circuit. It is argued that the enceinte may have protected a port of trade sited at a threshold point between Greek, Etruscan and indigenous culture systems, and that the forum area, also possibly enclosed or demarcated, represented the site of formal market activity.Towards the close of the fourth century, in a changed political milieu, the fortifications were strengthened and evidence of Black Glaze kiln waste indicates the production of consumer commodities, taking the site a stage further from the simple agricultural and market centre suggested. However, it is not until the late third or second century, with its involvement in the ever more complex and expanding Mediterranean market system, that the evidence is clear enough to allow for the application of the term town to the site.

Seeds for the Flowers of Tuscany

C OMMONLY it is said that Western culture had its rebirth in Tuscany during the fourteenth succeeding centuries. This is a reasonable statement if one remembers that Renaissance flowers did not spring up in a patch of weeds but came from cultivated stocks in a soil long tilled fertilized. In Florence, a half century ago, at the first national congress of Etruscologists, one speaker exhorted the assembly never to forget that the homeland of the Renaissance was also the region of the Etruscans. Since the time of his admonition archaeologists have produced information to justify the further statement, and that of even earlier cultures. If the natives of that territory were excluded from Italian culture historyincluding agriculture, engineering, metallurgy, architecture, urbanism, the fine arts-the record would be drastically shortened. Recognizing that fact, a geographer must ask the question What inheres in this region that has, in several periods of time, pulsed with creative energy? Too often has vigorous growth appeared on this soil, in this air of Tuscany, for one to doubt cultural congeniality. Is there a repetitive afflatus here? Are certain techniques attitudes with inherent affinities for each other so germane to a given physical situation that even after long desuetude resulting from war, economic collapse, or any number of other reasons, they will be reborn if the social ambience again becomes meet? Or is such repetitive flowering the product of deeply rooted, periodically dormant plants? Or is it a matter of coincidence? An understanding of the phenomenon is elusive, largely because one can no more define the genius of Tuscany by attempting to give a list of its qualities than one can parse Dante to a similar purpose; but possibly understanding may be furthered by recognizing the recurrence encouragement of productive individualism. Tuscans, Tuscan cities, formed personalities according to their own prescriptions; yet all have been parts of a recognizable unit (Fig. i). Personal urban traits of character, stimulating diversity yet creating unity, seem to have been present for 3,000 years in this portion of land, unique in its physiognomy, to which its inhabitants, more like each other than like other Italians, are emotionally intellectually bound. A historical geographer must decide on a period of time to which he will confine his inquiries. His decision is based on the presence or absence of pertinent material. In Tuscany that terminus ante quem seems to be the period of full development of Etruscan culture. Who the Etruscans were... where they came from, when they arrived, if they arrived was unknown to Luisa Banti;' one who knows so much less about the matter than she must leave it there. The items contributed to

A View of Etruscan Origins

In recent years there have appeared a number of books about the Etruscans. These have for the most part been devoted to Etruscan art and culture of the historical period, and touch only lightly on the so-called mystery of Etruscan origins. This mystery is a peculiar thing, for no one regards the origin of other ancient peoples such as the Greeks or the Romans as mysterious. It is simply assumed that they developed where they are found at the beginning of history out of various prehistoric elements that had already arrived.The Etruscan mystery arises in part from the remarkable differences both in language and in civilization between the Etruscans and the other peoples of pre-Roman Italy. The ancients also speculated about it, and the puzzle is in part due to contradictory statements made by them. Herodotus in the 5th century B.C. said that the Etruscans came from Lydia, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the 1st century B.C. said that they did not come from anywhere but originated in Italy. The aim of much discussion in recent times has been to determine which was right. I should say at once that it seems to me that there is something in both views. But the statement of Herodotus can hardly be taken literally, since there is insufficient specific connexion between the ancient language and culture of Lydia and anything in Etruria. I shall return to that part of the story later.

Etruscan Culture, Land and People. By Axel Boethius, Carl Fries, Einar Gjerstad, Krister Hanell, Carl Eric Ostenberg, Vagn Poulsen, Bengt Thordeman, Erik Welin, Erik Wetter, and Nils G. Sahlin.

<i>Etruscan Culture, Land and People</i>. By Axel Boethius, Carl Fries, Einar Gjerstad, Krister Hanell, Carl Eric Ostenberg, Vagn Poulsen, Bengt Thordeman, Erik Welin, Erik Wetter, and Nils G. Sahlin.

Etruscan Culture, Land, and People. Archeological Research and Studies Conducted in San Giovenale and Its Environs by Members of the Swedish Institute in Rome

Etruscan Culture, Land, and People. Archeological Research and Studies Conducted in San Giovenale and Its Environs by Members of the Swedish Institute in Rome

Etruscan Forgery in the British Museum

MEMORIES of an ancient controversy are revived by the action of the Trustees of the British Museum in withdrawing from exhibition in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at Bloomsbury the widely known ” Cervetri Sarcophagus”. The revived and extended interest in Etruscan antiquity, marked especially by the recent publication of Dr. D. Randall-Maclver's researches in the history and affinities of Etruscan culture, is, no doubt, largely responsible for the removal of a piece of which the antiquity and authenticity can no longer be held to be a matter of question, in view of the more critical examination to which details of design, structure and style can now be submitted in the light of greatly extended knowledge. Doubt as to the genuine character of the sarcophagus, indeed, was raised very soon after its acquisition by the British Museum as part of the Castellani collection in 1873; and it was pointed out in March of the following year that the inscription on its lid was derived in part from a gold brooch in the Louvre, while another inscription, which had been misread, was indicated later as another possible source. The spurious character of the inscription has been admitted even by some who were prepared to argue for the sarcophagus as a genuine ancient example of Etruscan art. Now, however, the recognition of anachronistic and incongruous details in form and design stamp it as a forgery beyond dispute. There can be little doubt that the story to which reference is made in The Times of November 2 embodies the truth which came out in the quarrel between the brothers Pennelli, of whom Enrico, employed at the Louvre, boasted that he had made the sarcophagus, while Pietro had sold it to Castellani, stating that he had excavated it at Cervetri. It is unfortunate that the inquiry demanded by Sir Charles Newton, keeper of the Department at the time, was not pressed home.

The Faith of a Humanist

Previous articleNext article FreeThe Faith of a HumanistGeorge SartonGeorge Sarton Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Isis Volume 3, Number 1Jan., 1920 Publication of the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/357888 Views: 76Total views on this site Citations: 6Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:James C. Ungureanu RELOCATING THE CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION AT THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE, Zygon® 53, no.44 (Nov 2018): 1106–1130.https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12470By Lewis Pyenson and Christophe Verbruggen Ego and the International: The Modernist Circle of George Sarton FOCUS, Isis 100, no.11 (Jul 2015): 60–78.https://doi.org/10.1086/597572Lewis Pyenson What is the Good of History of Science?, History of Science 27, no.44 (Jul 2016): 353–389.https://doi.org/10.1177/007327538902700402Christoph Meinel Sarton, Science, and the End of History, Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 8, no.33 (Jan 1985): 173–179.https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.19850080307 George Sarton Ninth Critical Bibliography of the History, Philosophy and Organization of Science and of the History of Civilization, Isis 3, no.33 (Oct 2015): 451–497.https://doi.org/10.1086/357970Frederick E. Brasch The History of Science Section and the Progress of Science, Science 52, no.13541354 (Dec 1920): 559–562.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.52.1354.559.c