The Etruscan alphabet. Etruscan. The most famous monuments of Etruscan writing

The Etruscan alphabet is a collection of symbols from which the Etruscan language is composed, the most mysterious language in the world that can be read but impossible to understand. Despite the large number of well-known monuments of Etruscan writing, numbering thousands of copies, scientists around the world have still not been able to solve this puzzle.

Who are the Etruscans?

The Etruscans are a powerful people who lived in Italy since the 9th century. BC. E., Even before the appearance of the Romans. The state of Etruria had a federal structure and consisted of 12 independent cities. In every city, the king reigned, but in the 4th century. BC. E. The aristocracy came to power.

The state of the Etruscans maintained trade and industrial relations with Ancient Greece (Corinth), as evidenced by drawings and monuments of writing. The clay urns and vessels with drawings found next to Tarquinius show a close connection between the art of the Etruscans and the Greeks. According to some information, one of the skilful Greek draftsmen brought the alphabet to the country. The fact that the Etruscan alphabet originated from the Greek language is also spoken by the form and meaning of its letters.

The heyday of the state of Etruria

The state of the Etruscans widely developed trade and industrial activities. Territory from the seaside of Tarquinia to the bay near Vesuvius was convenient for seafarers, so the Etruscans tried to oust Greeks from trade in the Mediterranean. In the state, agriculture and crafts were well developed. Evidence of the development of building art are the ancient remains of structures and tombs, roads and canals.

The ruling nobility - lukumony - led the construction of cities, engaged in gaining fame through battles and raids on neighbors.

Much of what is now considered to be originally Roman, in fact, made and founded the Etruscans: for example, the ancient temple on Capitol Hill was built by masters from Etruria. The kings of ancient Rome also came from the Tarquinive family, many Latin names are borrowed from Etruscan, and many historians also attribute the origin of the alphabet to the Roman Empire to the Etruscans.

The heyday of the state of Etruria falls on 535 BC. E., When the army of the Carthaginians and the Etruscans defeated the Greeks, but in a few years because of the disunity of the state, Rome successfully conquers all the new Etruscan cities. By the middle of the 1st century BC. E. Roman culture completely absorbs the local, and the Etruscan language is no longer used.

Language and art in Etruria

The Etruscans had an excellent art: making marble sculptures, the technique of bronze casting. The famous statue of a she-wolf feeding the founders of the city of Romulus and Remus was created by Etruscan masters who studied with the Greeks. Painted terra cotta sculptures preserved the facial features of Etruscan people: slightly slanting almond-shaped eyes, large nose, plump lips. The inhabitants of Etruria are very reminiscent of the inhabitants of Asia Minor.

Religion and language strongly distinguished the Etruscans from neighboring nationalities due to alienity. Even the Romans themselves could not understand this language. To this day, the Roman proverb "Etruscan is not readable" (etruscum non legitur), which predetermined the fate of the Etruscan alphabet, has reached.

Most of the Etruscan texts that have been found by archaeologists during the last centuries are funerary and dedicatory inscriptions on tombstones, vases, statues, mirrors and ornaments. But there are no scientific papers or medical (according to some sources, medicine and medication treatment were highly developed in Etruria) most likely, will not be found.

Attempts to decipher the Etruscan language have been undertaken for more than 100 years. Many scientists tried to do this by analogy with Hungarian, Lithuanian, Phoenician, Greek, Finnish and even Old Russian. According to recent data, this language is considered to be isolated from all other languages of Europe.

Early Russian alphabet

In order to decipher words in an unknown language, scientists first find recognizable words (names, titles, titles), and then, after making a transfer from a known language, they try to find repetitions in words or grammatical forms. Thus, the syntax, vocabulary and composition of an unknown language are comprehended.

For today in museums and storehouses of the whole world there are more than 10 thousand inscriptions (on dishes, on plates, etc.) using the Etruscan alphabet. The origin of it by various scientists is interpreted differently. Some researchers call it the Pelasgian (Proto-Tyrrhenian) and believe that it originated from pre-Greek, others - Doric-Corinthian, the third - Chalcis (West-Greek).

Some scholars suggest that prior to it there was a more ancient alphabet, which is conditionally called "proto-Russian", but no written confirmation or finds were found. The archaic Etruscan alphabet, according to the scientist R. Carpenter, was most likely composed of "several Greek" and invented in the 8th-7th centuries. BC. E.

The entries are read in Etruscan horizontally from right to left, sometimes there are inscriptions made by Bustrofedon (the lines are read by "snake", alternately one from right to left, and the other from left to right). Words were often not separated from each other.

This alphabet is also called North Italian and is considered to have originated from Phoenician or Greek, and some of its letters are very similar to Latin.

The Etruscan alphabet with a translation was reconstructed by scientists in the 19th century. How each of the letters of the Etruscan alphabet is pronounced is known, and any student can read it. However, nobody has yet been able to decipher the language.

The Martian alphabet

The writing of the Etruscans appeared in the middle of the 7th century. BC. E., And it is found on some household objects during archaeological excavations: these are scratched inscriptions on vessels, on valuable objects from tombs.

The most complete example of the alphabet appeared when a sign from Marciliana de Albénia was found during excavations of the necropolis (now in the Archaeological Museum in Florence). It is made of ivory 5x9 cm in size and covered with wax remnants with embossed letters. On it you can see 22 letters of the Phoenician (Middle Eastern) alphabet and 4 Greek letters at the end, from them 21 consonant letters and 5 vowels. The very first letter of the alphabet - the letter "A" - stands on the right.

According to the researchers, the tablet served as a primer for the person who learned to write. After investigating it, scientists came to the conclusion that the Marsilian alphabet comes from the Greek alphabet. The font of these letters is very similar to Chalkis.

Another confirmation of this alphabet is its presence on the vase that was found in Formello, and another one found in the tomb in Chervetri (now in the museums of Rome). Both finds are dated to the 7th-6th centuries. BC. E. The inscription on one of them even has a list of syllables (syllabary).

Development of the alphabet

To answer the question as to how the Etruscan alphabet changed, how many signs it had in the beginning and whether their number changed later, it is necessary to trace this by the "exhibits with writing" found and described by the researchers.

Judging by the archaeological findings of a later period (to the 5th-3rd centuries BC), it changed gradually, which can be seen by comparing samples on plates from Viterbo, Colle, and others, as well as the alphabets from Ruzell and Beaumarcho.

In the 5th century BC. E. The Etruscan alphabet already had 23 letters, because some of them were no longer used. By the year 400 BC. E. A "classical" alphabet was formed, consisting of 20 letters:

• 4 vowels: letter A, then E, I, AND;
• 16 consonants: G, U-digamma, C, H, Th, L, T, N, P, S (an), R, S, T, Ph, Kh, F (eight).

Late-Russian inscriptions have already begun to be done differently: after the method "from right to left" bustrophedon was used, later, under the influence of Latin, the method was used "from left to right." Then there are inscriptions in 2 languages (Latin + Etruscan), and some Etruscan letters become similar to the Latin alphabet.

The New Turkish alphabet has been in use for several hundred years, his pronunciation even influenced the Tuscan dialect in Italy.

Figures in the Etruscan alphabet

Identifying Etruscan figures was also a challenge. The first step in determining the figures was the discovery in Tuscany in the mid-19th century. Two dices with 5 words on the faces: math, thu, huth, ci, sa. Trying to compare the inscriptions with other bones that have points on the edges, the scientists could not determine anything, because the points were dealt chaotically.

Then began to survey the tombstones, which always contain figures, and it was found out that the Etruscans wrote the figures by summing up tens and ones, and sometimes took smaller digits from larger ones (20-2 = 18).

A scientist from Germany, G. Stoltenberg, made a systematization of gravestones and found out that the figure "50" is determined by the word muvalch, and "5" is mach. Likewise, verbal designations 6 and 60 were found, and so on.

As a result, Stoltenberg concluded that the Etruscan alphabet served as a prototype of the Roman numerals.

Plates from Pirgia

In 1964, between the slabs of the temple, not far from the ancient port of Pirgi, which belongs to the Etruscan town of Pere, archaeologists found 3 plates of the 6th-5th century. BC. E. Of gold with letters, one of them in Phoenician, and two in Etruscan. The very presence of these plates indicates the connection between Carthage and the Etruscan town of Pirgi. At first, the scientists cheered up, suggesting that this was bilingual (identical text in 2 languages), and they would be able to read the Etruscan inscriptions. But alas ... The texts were not exactly the same.

After the attempt to decipher these tablets by two well-known scientists Pallotino and Garbini, the conclusions were drawn that the inscription was made at the dedication of the statue or temple to the goddess Uni-Astarte. But on the smaller plate she kept mentioning Teferi Velinas and described the ritual of sacrifice. It turned out that both Etruscan texts have similar places, but they could not be fully decoded.

Attempts to decipher texts on these plates were done many times by scientists of many countries, but each time the meaning of the text turned out to be different.

The connection between the Etruscan language and the Middle Eastern analogues

One of the oddities of the Etruscan alphabet is very little use, and sometimes the lack of vowel letters. According to the letters, it can be seen that the Etruscan letters are identical with the Phoenician letters.

The ancient writings of the Middle East are very similar to the "Phoenician" and are made in a language that used the Etruscans. From which we can conclude that in the period from the 13th century onwards, And up to 3-2 centuries. BC. E. Written language in Italy, the coast of the Middle East, north-west Africa was the only one and similar to Etruscan.

At the beginning of our era, Etruscan inscriptions on these territories disappear, they are replaced by Greek and Aramaic. Most likely, this was due to the historical era of strengthening power in the Roman Empire.

"The Book of the Mummy" and other texts

One of the largest Etruscan texts was found in the 19th century, a Croatian tourist brought to Zagreb a mummified woman from Egypt. Later, having unwound strips of linen cloth from her, the scientists discovered inscriptions, which later were identified as Etruscan. Linen book consists of 12 pieces of fabric, combining which, received a scroll length of 13.75 m. The text consists of 12 columns, read from right to left.

After many years of research, it was concluded that the "Book of the Mummy" is a calendar that prescribes the commission of various religious ceremonies.

Another similar Etruscan large text was found during construction work in Cortona, which was earlier one of the main cities of Etruria. The Cortonian text was investigated by the famous linguist V. Ivanov, who came to the conclusion that the Etruscan and North Caucasian languages are related.

One of the conclusions of the scientist was the assertion of the powerful influence of Etruscan culture and writing on Roman and Latin.

Comparison of the Etruscan and Lezgin languages

In 2013. another version of the origin and reading of the Etruscan language was published by linguists J. Yaraliev and N. Osmanov, entitled "The History of Lezgins. Etruscans. " They claim that they were able to decipher the Etruscan alphabet and, most importantly, to translate texts, using the Lezgin language, one of the modern languages of the Dagestan branch.

They were able to read all available Etruscan texts, including 12 pages from the Mummy Book and another 320 tablets with Etruscan texts. The data obtained, according to them, make it possible to uncover ancient historical ties between the Middle East and the Caucasus.

"Slavic" theory of the origin of the Etruscans

Pro-Slavic originators of the Etruscans believe that the Etruscans called themselves "races" or "dews", which is consonant with the word "Russians". They also give other evidence of the closeness of these cultures and languages.

Deciphering the tablets from Pirga attracted the attention of supporters of the Slavic theory of the origin of the Etruscan language. One of the researchers interested in Etruscan writing was the Russian scientist V. Osipov. He made an attempt to rewrite the Etruscan text with the usual letters of the Russian alphabet in the standard direction (from left to right) and even divided into words. And received ... a description of the ancient ritual of erotic games on Solstice Day.

Osipov draws analogies with the Slavic holiday of Ivan Kupala. After his discovery, the scientist sent out a translation of the text from Pirga and his explanations to the scholars dealing with Etruscan writing in different countries. Subsequently, he translated a few dozen inscriptions with his method, but so far scientists have not reacted to such a breakthrough in research.

Another Russian scientist V. Shcherbakov put forward a theory that for deciphering the writing of the Etruscans it is possible to use bronze mirrors, which they placed in tombs. Using mirrors, the text can be read in different directions, and some letters can be reversed.

Historians explain this by the fact that the masters who made the inscriptions did not own the letter, but copied the letters from the mirrors, while the images of the letters in the mirrors turned out to be turned or inverted. Moving the mirrors, Shcherbakov made his own version of deciphering the text.

Studies Z. Mayan and others

Attempts to read and translate Etruscan plaques, comparing the Etruscan alphabet and Old Albanian, was made by the French scientist Z. Maiani, who in 2003 published the book "Etruscans begin to speak", which became popular throughout Europe. He conducted 300 etymological comparisons between the dictionaries of these languages (Etruscan and Illyrian), but did not receive support from linguists.

According to the finds of writing, scientists also identified several types of late-Estonian alphabets, which include the North-Etruscan and Alpine, Venetian and Rutian alphabets. It is universally accepted that the early Etruscan alphabet served as their basis. And all these written languages were used by the inhabitants of Tuscany and Italy at the beginning of the 1st century BC. E., After the disappearance of the Etruscan original. When people can understand the Etruscan language, it remains a mystery of the last millenniums.