Etruscan inscriptions are rare, so each find creates a small - or large - sensation in the historical community. Despite the fact that the total number of identified Etruscan inscriptions is approaching 13,000, not all of them are "equally useful" for deciphering the language of a vanished civilization. The overwhelming majority of the finds are epitaphs, that is, rather short and monotonous inscriptions: from them you can find out the name, life time, sometimes occupation and brief information about the family of the deceased.
Out of almost 13 thousand Etruscan inscriptions, only a few (units, not thousands) can be called a text containing any amount of words and information that is significant for linguists. Largely for this reason, the language of the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that had a huge impact on their future destroyers, the Romans (and through the Romans, the entire Western culture), still defies final decoding.
The inscription, found during excavations of an Etruscan settlement in Poggio Colla (Mugello Valley in Tuscany, Italy), is already called the rarest find. The stone with letters carved on it was found by archaeologists back in August 2015, but it was only in March of this year that they announced their discovery to the general public.
A sandstone slab measuring approximately 120 by 60 centimeters was found at the base of an Etruscan temple built on the site of an older sanctuary. The attention of archaeologists was attracted by the unusual shape of the stone: the carefully processed slab with rounded edges did not resemble ordinary building materials in any way.
Upon examination, the researchers noticed Etruscan letters worn out from time to time on the surface of the sandstone.
According to archaeologists, they discovered a stone stele from an ancient Etruscan sanctuary, and the inscription on it relates to the cult of a deity worshiped by the Etruscans in the 6th century BC (around this time, scientists dated the inscription on the stone).
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The surface of the sandstone - apparently mined from one of the local Tuscan quarries - is badly worn. On one side, the stone has acquired a reddish tint. Perhaps this is a trail of a strong fire.
It is known that the Etruscans inhabited Poggia Kolla from the 7th to the 3rd century BC, and archaeological finds indicate that during this time the city experienced serious shocks, it was destroyed and rebuilt. In the 3rd century BC, residents left the city forever.
In March 2016, scientists reported that the inscription on the Poggio Coll stele contains about 70 readable letters and punctuation marks. For comparison, the longest text in the Etruscan language, Liber Linteus ("Linen Book"), contains 1200 readable words. Nevertheless, the inscription on the stele from Pogja Coll is considered quite long, and most importantly, it can prompt scientists with new information.
The study of the stele and the inscription on it will take several months: researchers will conduct detailed photogrammetry and three-dimensional scanning of the stone in the hope of revealing the full text of the inscription.
“Perhaps this is a sacred text, in this case we can learn more about the early belief system of an extinct civilization, whose culture formed the basis of many Western traditions. This will be an outstanding achievement,”said archaeologist Gregory Warden, co-leader of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project.
The stele from Poggio Colla has already aroused great interest among specialists in the Etruscan civilization. Both the stone and the inscription on it are unusual for many reasons, says Jean MacIntosh Turfa, an Etruscan culture specialist at the University of Pennsylvania: “Etruscans very rarely put inscriptions longer than a few words on durable media. Rather, they are characterized by the use of fragile materials such as linen or wax tablets. A stone stele from Poggio Kolla, created between 525 and 480 BC, indicates the existence of a long-lasting religious cult and monumental dedication to the deity. The re-use of the stele as building material for a later temple may be a sign of the profound changes that took place in this Etruscan city."
She is echoed by Ingrid Edlund-Berry, professor of archeology at the University of Texas at Austin: “Any Etruscan text, especially this long one, adds exciting new details to our knowledge of Etruscan civilization. Poggio Kolla was located in the north of Etruria, while most of the inscriptions we know come from more southern regions. It is no less curious that a stele from the early period of development of the Etruscan settlement was found at the base of the walls of another building, that is, it was used repeatedly and not for its intended purpose."
Archaeologist Gregory Warden does not dig so deeply yet, he focuses more on the inscription itself - for 20 years of excavations in the Mugello Valley, this is the first find of this kind. “The stone stele was once a monumental symbol of power designed to impress believers. We hope that the inscription on the stele will help us to advance a little further in understanding the Etruscans and their language. Long Etruscan inscriptions are rare, especially as long as ours. We are almost sure that we will be able to learn a few new words that have not been found anywhere before, since this inscription is not a funeral epitaph,”Warden said.
First of all, scientists hope to find out the name of the Etruscan deity to whom the sanctuary was dedicated. This discovery will be a real sensation. The inscription will be studied by Rex Wallace, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a recognized expert on the Etruscan language.
“Apart from the sanctuary in the Etruscan port of Pyrgi, where the famous golden tablets with the text in two languages were discovered, we can rarely confidently determine in honor of which deities the Etruscans built their sanctuaries and temples. If the inscriptions from Pogjo Call contain the names of the deities, we will receive valuable information about this advanced society, all members of which - aristocrats, commoners and even freed slaves - could offer their gifts and vows to the deities,”explains Gene McIntosh Turfa.
The name of the deity worshiped by the Etruscans at an early stage in the development of their civilization, new words in the inscription, new knowledge - all this will allow one step closer to solving the main secret: the origin of the Etruscans and their language. Nobody is counting on more yet.
Scientists - many of whom are former Soviet and Russian specialists - have been wrestling with this riddle for two centuries and have made great strides, but there is still a long way to go. The Etruscan heritage is striking in quality, but not quantity - archaeologists know thousands of Etruscan tombs (such as the recent discovery in Vulci), all finds speak of the Etruscan ramified trade ties, the highest level of development of art and engineering skills, but all this is not enough to answer the question of the origin of the mysterious people. There is not enough variety of materials and artifacts for comparison, written sources are virtually absent, the language is not fully deciphered - in other words, all "evidence" is only indirect, and hypotheses remain hypotheses.
Even modern technologies capable of discovering the secret rooms in the tomb of Tutankhamun or finding the modern descendants of the "ice man" Oetzi cannot yet give a clear answer to the "Etruscan question."
Geneticists agree that the ancestors of the Etruscans came to the territory of modern Italy from the east, but further the opinions of scientists differ. The ancestral home of the Etruscans is called Anatolia (modern Turkey), Armenia, Georgia, the North Caucasus … However, many researchers believe that such a migration took place about 5000 years ago, so the Etruscans should be considered an aboriginal people, because the development of their civilization took place in isolation from the ancient roots and practically offline.
A study of the origin of the language and beliefs of the Etruscans would help to reconcile the available scientific data, but scientists again run into the absence of a sufficient number of written sources.
Only two theories have almost universal support: that the Etruscan language is not Indo-European and that the Etruscans borrowed the archaic Western Greek alphabet for their writing. In practice, this means that it is easy to read almost any Etruscan inscription, but it is difficult to understand the meaning of what it has read. “We know some of the rules of Etruscan grammar, we can determine where the verb is and where the noun is, we know the meaning and translation of dozens of Etruscan words,” says Greg Warden. Perhaps this is an exhaustive summary of modern knowledge about the language of an extinct civilization.
All this explains the significance of the half-erased inscription on a piece of sandstone and the delight of American archaeologists who have been excavating at Poggio Kolla for 20 years.
The Mugello Valley Archaeological Project has been in existence since 1995, funded by Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas and the University of Pennsylvania. One of the project leaders, Greg Worden, is a professor at SMU and president of Swiss Franklin University in Lugano. With such support, you don't have to worry about the fate of the inscription - it will be investigated by all available means and will certainly report the results.
During many years of excavations in Poggio Kolla, fortress walls, a necropolis, the already mentioned temple, residential buildings, workshops, kilns, ceramics, gold jewelry, coins, bronze figurines of the 6th century BC, household and votive objects were discovered.
Before the discovery of a unique stele with an Etruscan inscription, the most famous find in Poggio Colla was a relief depicting childbirth, the oldest in Western European art.