Etruscans

period 6 

GovernmentBy Shannon Beauregard and Connor O'Brien

 • The Etruscan Government was a

theocracy• A theocracy is a government in

which all the people believe the supreme ruler is a God

• The Governement was the central authority over all the tribal and clan organizations in the area

• The Government was said to hold the power of life and death;the gorgon, an ancient symbol of that power, appears in Etruscan decoration

• The political unit of Etruscan society is a city-state

Government  Cont. 

• The People in the tribes were called the mech, and the ruler was called the Zilach

• Each king had Lictors to help enforce his policies

• There were a total of three leagues for the city-states, and each league had twelve states

• Once a year, the states met at a Fanu, or a scared holy place to talk about military and political affairs

• They also then chose a "Lucumo", or ruler, who ruled for one year

• What he did was decribed by the infinitive "Lucair" meaning to rule

• The Etruscan confederacy met at the Fanum Voltumnae, the shrine

of "voltumna"   

Government Cont.  

• This confederacy league was called the "duodecim populi Etruriae" meaning the "12 peoples of Eutria"

• The family of the Lucomones was a famous ruling family who combined civil with religious ideas to rule

• Important city state centers were Clusium(Chiusi), Turquinii(Tarquinia), Caere(Cerveteri), Veii(Veio), Volterra, Perusia(Perguia), and Volsinii(Orvieto) 

• Etruscan texts name quite a number of magistrates, without any hint as to what they did

• They were called the Camthi, the Parnich, the purth, the Tamera, the macstrev and more

ARTby Teresa and

IsabelPottery and statues.

The Etruscans worked a lot with pottery. It was one of their specialties. They painted on the pottery and put

pictures of people and animals telling stories.  The pottery has beautiful

ordinate designs on them. Sometimes, if wealthy, there would be gold and silver detailing.  Statues and

sculptures were also a part of their culture. There were many statues of

many sizes.  The statues represented important figures including heroes

and Gods.

ARTby Teresa and Isabel

 Gold work• had the most gold• mostly found in tombs• many gold smiths in their culture• jewelry, highlight frescos and pottery• granulation - precise technique for for

        gold workingFrescos - wall painting• manipulation of scales• knowledge of frescos was from Greeks• stong allusion and form, lifesize• tell stories, entertainment, key figures, enjoyment of

lifeCanopic Urns• are mainly made of terracotta with some bronze• head scultpures• 6th and 7th century B.C.

The Etruscan Language

By Hannah Basile and Mattie Jacox

Basic Facts About The Etruscan Language

• The Etruscan language has never been proved to be related to any other language in the Indo-European family of languages, let alone the world.The only know language that is some what similar to the Etruscan language was spoken in Lemos and other extinct, rare languages.

• The Etruscans were the first people living in Italy to learn to write.

• It is the ancestor of the modern day Latin alphabet.• The commercial and cultural interaction with the Greeks

is reflected in some of the Etruscan vocabulary.• Was spoken by the Entruscans until the first century AD,

and it was continued to be used in religious ceremonies until the 5th century AD after Rome became a power.

• Most of our understanding coming from the Etruscan language comes from incriptions on tombs and vases.

Etruscan Language Continued

Gold tablets from Pyrgi in 500 BCE. In creibed in Phoenician (left) and

Etruscan (center and right)

 Etruscan Numbers

• The basic writing system of Roman Numerals was greatly influenced by the Etruscans and their number system.

History

  - Controversy over origins:  the Etruscans were either indigenous, or immigrated from Asia Minor - Appeared around 1000 BC in what is now Tuscany - Original land between Tiber and Arno Rivers - Compete with Greek expansion - Bordered by Umbrian and Picenes peoples on South and East - Expands borders northward, controls between Mantua and Campania - Tarquin (Estruscan) Dynasty controls Rome 616-509 B.C. - Begins a thalassocracy- naval rule of the immediate area - Clash with Greek forces at Cumae, and Etruscan expansion was finally checked by Aristodemus 

History cont'd

 - the Etruscans make a coalition with the Carthaginians i 540 B.C. - Etruscan rule imposed on Corsica after a naval battle in the Sardinia Sea - 510 B.C. Etruscan monarchy in Rome falls and the Republic replaces it -

Etruscan Lifestyle& Social Structure

Liv&Grace

• The social elite is equal to the rich and famous • Banquets were important to show off high status with the

aristocrats• The upperclass memebers were the highest citizens of the city-

states• The rulers of the etruscans were called lucremones and wore

purple robes• aristorcracy execised strict control over the political, military,

economic, and religious aspects of lives• Many people, Lucius Priscus and Lucius Superbus, were

accomplished warriors- giving them leader positions in rome

...continued 

• they had a  complicated set of rituatals for divining the future• Gender did not matter• Etruscans posses military strength among the city-states• Civilization and urbanization were attributed by them• Independant fortified city-states ruled by monarchs • sophisticated people• had their own alphabet based on greek alphabet• they lived a very luxurious life

Religion: Offerings By Michaela and Sam

  

-Made offerings to the gods to show that they were grateful. -One example is sculptures of body parts when healing was seeked. They would also make offerings of jewelry, prized possessions, and figurines.

Religion: Gods 

- Etruscan religion was believed to be a "revealed religion" so that the the gods spoke to them through events in nature. - They learned what these signs meant by communicating with prophets.- These gods were also sometimes depicted in human form.

Religion: Legend

  

"One day, says the legend, in a field near the river Marta in Etruria, a strange event occurred. A divine being rose up from the newly ploughed furrow, a being with the appearance of a child, but with the wisdom of an old man. The startled cry of the ploughman brought lucomones, the priest kings of Etruria hurrying up to the spot. To them, the wise child chanted the sacred doctrine, which they reverently listened to and wrote down, so that this most precious possession could be passed on to their successors. Immediately after the revelation, the miraculous being fell dead and disappeared into the ploughed field. His name was Tages, and he was believed to be the son of Genius and grandson of the highest God, Tinia (or Jupiter as he became known to the Romans). This doctrine was known to the Romans as the disciplina etrusca"  

  http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/religion.html

Religion: Gods

Apulu (Apollo) | god of the arts (esp. poetry and music), archery, and divination Artames (Diana) | goddess of the hunt Fufluns (Bacchus) | god of wine and fertility Menarva (Minerva) | goddess of wisdom, war, and crafts Tinia (Jupiter) | god of the sky; ruler of the Etruscan pantheon Turan (Venus) | goddess of love and beauty Turms (Mercury) | god of merchants Uni (Juno) | goddess of marriage

Tombs and Archeological Sites-obsession with elaborate burials, similar to Egyptian belief that a part of the soul remains with the body in the afterlife -earliest tombs were Cremations where the ashes were placed in biconical urns (urns meant to represent huts) -tombs found underground with Stuccoes (a form of plaster used to create a decorative atmosphere for the tombs)  

Tombs and Archeological Sites (cont.)-the tombs give insight into Etruscan culture (ex. the remains of murals on some walls depict a commonly recurring theme of banquets) -each tomb could hold many people (relatives were usually kept together) and Etruscans included in tombs any necessities for their next life such as pots and pans, plates, pitchers, ropes, knives, oil lamps, Greek vases -people not able to afford such elaborate chambers were buried in plainer tombs, cut right into walls  http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/cerveteri.htm,

Tombs and Archeological Sites (cont.)-the tombs of Caere spanned a long period of time (6th to 7th Century) and included over 400 tombs.  -the tombs of Tarquinia show the earliest remnants of the first cremation sites. Contains about 150 tombs created during the 4th to 9th Century -the tombs of Vulci from the 8th century include the most lavish and ordained burials. Most of the ceramics and paintings recovered came form these tombs.

Negotiation, Tomb of the Baron, Tarquinia. Note the wreath hanging over the black horse

Various Tomb Siteshttp://forum.stirpes.net/antiquity/2112-etruscan-paintings.html

 

The End.

Period 6 is lolsome.(as are the Etruscans of course)