Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Etruscan mural of Typhon, from Tarquinia

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

The Mars of Todi, a life-sized Etruscan bronze sculpture of a soldier making a votive offering, most likely to Laran, the Etruscan god of war, late 5th to early 4th century BC

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Ara Etrusca di Pieve a Socana

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Etruscan mural of Typhon, from Tarquinia

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Reconstruction of an Etruscan temple, Museo di Villa Giulia, Rome, which is heavily influenced by studies of the Temple of Apollo at Portonaccio (Veio)

Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, originating in the 7th century BC from the preceding Iron Age Villanovan culture, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greeceand Phoenicia, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the Etruscan civilization was assimilated into the Roman Republic in the 4th century BC, the Etruscan religion and mythology were partially incorporated into classical Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands.

Beliefs

The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be manifestations of divinepower, and that power was embodied in deities who acted continually on the world but could be dissuaded or persuaded by mortal men.

Long after the assimilation of the Etruscans, Seneca the Youngersaid^[1] that the difference between the Romans and the Etruscans was that

Whereas we believe lightning to be released as a result of the collision of clouds, they believe that the clouds collide so as to release lightning: for as they attribute all to deity, they are led to believe not that things have a meaning insofar as they occur, but rather that they occur because they must have a meaning.

Spirits and deities

Main article: List of Etruscan mythological figures

Main article: List of Etruscan names for Greek heroes

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

The Mars of Todi, a life-sized Etruscan bronze sculpture of a soldier making a votive offering, most likely to Laran, the Etruscan god of war, late 5th to early 4th century BC

Around the mun or muni, or tombs^{[citation needed]}, were the man or mani (Latin Manes), the souls of the ancestors. In iconography after the 5th century BC, the deceased are shown traveling to the underworld.^[2] In several instances of Etruscan art, such as in the François Tombin Vulci, a spirit of the dead is identified by the term hinthial, literally « (one who is) underneath ».

A god was called an ais (later eis), which in the plural is aisar. The abode of a god was a fanu or luth, a sacred place, such as a favi, a grave or temple. There, one would need to make a fler (plural flerchva), or « offering ».

Three layers of deities are portrayed in Etruscan art. One appears to be lesser divinities of an indigenous origin: Catha and Usil, the sun; Tivr, the moon; Selvans, a civil god; Turan, the goddess of love; Laran, the god of war; Leinth, the goddess of death; Maris, Thalna, Turmsand the god Fufluns, whose name is related in some unknown way to the city of Populonia and the populus Romanus.

Ruling over them were higher deities that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), and Cel, the earth goddess.

As a third layer, the Greek gods were adopted by the Etruscan system during the Etruscan Orientalizing Period of 750/700-600 BC.^[3]Examples are Aritimi (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva; Latin equivalent of Athena), and Pacha (Bacchus; Latin equivalent of Dionysus), and over time the primary trinity became Tinia, Uni and Menrva.

Seers and divinations

The Etruscans believed their religion had been revealed to them by seers,^[4] the two main ones being Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land who was immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure.

The Etruscans believed in intimate contact with divinity.^[5] They did nothing without proper consultation with the gods and signs from them.^[6] These practices were taken over in total by the Romans.

Etrusca Disciplina

The Etruscan scriptures were a corpus of texts termed the Etrusca Disciplina. This name appears in Valerius Maximus,^[7] and Marcus Tullius Cicero refers to a disciplina in his writings on the subject.

Massimo Pallottino summarizes the known (but non-extant) scriptures as the Libri Haruspicini, containing the theory and rules of divination from animal entrails; the Libri Fulgurales, describing divination from lightning strikes; and the Libri Rituales. The last was composed of the Libri Fatales, detailing the religiously correct methods of founding cities and shrines, draining fields, formulating laws and ordinances, measuring space and dividing time; the Libri Acherontici, dealing with the hereafter; and the Libri Ostentaria, containing rules for interpreting prodigies. The revelations of the prophet Tages were given in the Libri Tagetici, which included the Libri Haruspicini and the Acherontici, and those of the prophetess Vegoia in the Libri Vegoici, which included the Libri Fulgurales and part of the Libri Rituales.^[8]

These works did not present prophecies or scriptures in the ordinary sense: the Etrusca Disciplina foretold nothing itself. The Etruscans appear to have had no systematic ethics or religion and no great visions. Instead they concentrated on the problem of the will of the gods: questioning why, if the gods created the universe and humanity and have a will and a plan for everyone and everything in it, they did not devise a system for communicating that will in a clear manner.

The Etruscans accepted the inscrutability of their gods’ wills. They did not attempt to rationalize or explain divine actions or formulate any doctrines of the gods’ intentions. As answer to the problem of ascertaining the divine will, they developed an elaborate system of divination; that is, they believed the gods offer a perpetual stream of signs in the phenomena of daily life, which if read rightly can direct humanity’s affairs. These revelations may not be otherwise understandable and may not be pleasant or easy, but are perilous to doubt.

The Etrusca Disciplina therefore was mainly a set of rules for the conduct of all sorts of divination; Pallottino calls it a religious and political « constitution »: it does not dictate what laws shall be made or how humans are to behave, but rather elaborates rules for asking the gods these questions and receiving answers.

Cicero said^[9]

For a hasty acceptance of an erroneous opinion is discreditable in any case, and especially so in an inquiry as to how much weight should be given to auspices, to sacred rites, and to religious observances; for we run the risk of committing a crime against the gods if we disregard them, or of becoming involved in old women’s superstition if we approve them.

He then quipped, regarding divination from the singing of frogs:

Who could suppose that frogs had this foresight? And yet they do have by nature some faculty of premonition, clear enough of itself, but too dark for human comprehension.

Priests and officials

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan religion

Rare Etruscan fanu located at Orvieto.

Divinatory inquiries according to discipline were conducted by priests whom the Romans called haruspices or sacerdotes; Tarquinii had a college of 60 of them.^[8] The Etruscans, as evidenced by the inscriptions, used several words: capen (Sabinecupencus), maru (Umbrian maron-), eisnev, hatrencu (priestess). They called the art of haruspicy ziχ neθsrac.

A special magistrate, the cechase, looked after the cecha or rath, sacred things. Every man, however, had his religious responsibilities, which were expressed in an alumnathe or slecaches, a sacred society. No public event was conducted without the netsvis, the haruspex, or his female equivalent, the nethsra, who would read the bumps on the liver of a properly sacrificed sheep. We have a model of a liver made of bronze, whose religious significance is still a matter of heated debate, marked into sections which perhaps are meant to explain what a bump in that region would mean.

Afterlife

Etruscan beliefs concerning the hereafter appear to be an amalgam of influences. The Etruscans shared general early Mediterranean beliefs, such as the Egyptian belief that survival and prosperity in the hereafter depend on the treatment of the deceased’s remains.^[10] Etruscan tombs imitated domestic structures and were characterized by spacious chambers, wall paintings and grave furniture. In the tomb, especially on the sarcophagus (examples shown below), was a representation of the deceased in his or her prime, often with a spouse. Not everyone had a sarcophagus; sometimes the deceased was laid out on a stone bench. As the Etruscans practiced mixed inhumation and cremation rites (the proportion depending on the period), cremated ashes and bones might be put into an urn in the shapes of a house or a representation of the deceased.

• 

  Funerary home at Banditaccia with couches

• 

  Funerary home at Populonia

• 

  Sarcophagus from Siena

• 

  Sarcophagus from Chiusi

• 

  Sarcophagus

• 

  Burial urn

• 

  Urn from Chiusi

In addition to the world still influenced by terrestrial affairs was a transmigrational world beyond the grave, patterned after the Greek Hades^{[citation needed]}. It was ruled by Aita, and the deceased was guided there by Charun, the equivalent of Death, who was blue and wielded a hammer. The Etruscan Hades was populated by Greek mythological figures and a few such as Tuchulcha, of composite appearance.

Roman Conquest

After the Etruscan defeat in the Roman–Etruscan Wars, the remaining Etruscan culture began to be assimilated into the Roman. The Roman Senate adopted key elements of the Etruscan religion, which were perpetuated by haruspices and noble Roman families who claimed Etruscan descent, long after the general population had forgotten the language. However, in the last years of the Roman Republic the religion began to fall out of favor and was satirized by such notable public figures as Marcus Tullius Cicero. The Julio-Claudians, especially Claudius, who claimed a remote Etruscan descent, maintained a knowledge of the language and religion for a short time longer^[11], but this practice soon ceased. A number of canonical works in the Etruscan language survived until the middle of the first millennium AD, but were destroyed by the ravages of time, decree of the Roman Senate, and by fire.^{[citation needed]}

Sources

The mythology is evidenced by a number of sources in different media; for example, representations on large numbers of pottery, inscriptions and engraved scenes on the Praenestine cistae (ornate boxes; see under Etruscan language) and on specula (ornate hand mirrors). Currently some two dozen fascicles of the Corpus Speculorum Etruscorum have been published. Specifically Etruscan mythological and cult figures appear in the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae.^[12] Etruscan inscriptions have recently been given a more authoritative presentation by Helmut Rix, Etruskische Texte.^[13]

• Interpretatio graeca
• List of Etruscan mythological figures
• List of Etruscan names for Greek heroes

Notes

1. Jump up^ Seneca the Younger. « II.32.2 ». Naturales Quaestiones.
2. Jump up^ Krauskopf, I. 2006. « The Grave and Beyond. » The Religion of the Etruscans. edited by N. de Grummond and E. Simon. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 73-75.
3. Jump up^ Dates from De Grummond & Simon (2006), p. vii.
4. Jump up^ Cary, M.; Scullard, H. H. (1979). A History of Rome (3rd ed.). p. 24. ISBN 0-312-38395-9.
5. Jump up^ The religiosity of the Etruscans most clearly manifested itself in the so-called ‘discipline’, that complex of rules regulating relations between men and gods. Its main basis was the scrupulous search for the divine will by all available means; … the reading and interpretation of animal entrails, especially the liver … and the interpretation of lightning. (Pallottino 1975, p. 143)
6. Jump up^ Livius, Titus. « V.1 ». History of Rome. …a people more than any others dedicated to religion, the more as they excelled in practicing it.
7. Jump up^ Maximus, Valerius. « 1.1 ». Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilia.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b Pallottino 1975, p. 154
9. Jump up^ De Divinatione, section 4.
10. Jump up^ Pallottino 1975, p. 148
11. Jump up^ Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 42
12. Jump up^ « An illustrated lexicon about the ancient myths ». Foundation for the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
13. Jump up^ Rix, Helmut, ed. (1991). Etruskische Texte. ScriptOralia (in German and Etruscan). Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. ISBN 3-8233-4240-1. 2 vols.

References

• Bonfante, Giuliano; Bonfante, Larissa (2002). The Etruscan Language: an Introduction. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. ISBN 0-7190-5540-7.
• Bonnefoy, Yves (1992). Roman and European Mythologies. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-06455-7. Translated by Wendy Doniger, Gerald Honigsblum.
• De Grummond; Nancy Thomson (2006). Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. ISBN 1-931707-86-3.
• De Grummond, Nancy Thomson; Simon, Erika, eds. (2006). The Religion of the Etruscans. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70687-1.
• Dennis, George (1848). The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. London: John Murray. Available in the Gazetteer of Bill Thayer’s Website at [1]
• Pallottino, M. (1975). Ridgway, David, ed. The Etruscans. Translated by Cremina, J (Revised and Enlarged ed.). Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-32080-1.
• Richardson, Emeline Hill (1976) [1964]. The Etruscans: Their Art and Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-71234-6.
• Rykwert, Joseph (1988). The Idea of a Town: the Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-68056-4.
• Swaddling, Judith; Bonfante, Larissa (2006). Etruscan Myths. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70606-5.
• Thulin, Carl (1906). Die Götter des Martianus Capella und der Bronzeleber von Piacenza (in German). Alfred Töpelmann.

• Cicero, Marcus Tullius (1923) [44 BC]. W.A. Falconer, ed. Cicero on Divination. Loeb Classical Library. XX. Harvard University Press.
• William P. Thayer (2008). « Cicero on Divination ». Lacus Curtius. University of Chicago. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius (2009) [44 BC]. « De Divinatione ». The Latin Library (in Latin). Retrieved 25 June 2009.

https://www.casentino2000.it/perche-non-puntare-sugli-etruschi/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_religion

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

 

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

 

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

Date	Années 100 av. J.-C.
Type	statue en bronze
Technique	fonte à la cire perdue
Hauteur	179 cm
Mouvements	Art étrusque, sculpture hellénistique (d)
Localisation	Museo Archeologico, Florence (Italie)
Numéro d’inventaire	3
Inscription	Auleśi meteliś ve vesial clenśi cen flereś tece sanśl terine tuθineś χisvlicś

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

 

Inscription en étrusque sur le bord inférieur de la toge.

L’Arringatore (ou l’Orateur) est une sculpture étrusque en bronze de 179 cm, datée du début du i^er siècle av. J.-C.¹, découverte près du lac de Trasimène en Ombrie en 1566, et conservée au musée archéologique national de Florence.

Historique

Elle fut trouvée par un paysan dans le terrain de sa vigne (à Sanguineto sur la rive nord du lac de Trasimène ou à Pila près de Pérouse) en 1566^2,3 ; Giorgio Vasari la présenta lui-même au duc de Toscane (futur grand-duc Médicis Cosme I^er de Toscane)⁴, elle fut intégrée alors à ses collections privées, resta au Palais Pitti jusqu’en 1588 puis fut transférée dans la galerie des sculptures des Offices, et enfin au Musée archéologique national de Florence en 1871⁵(aujourd’hui, en 2010, dans la salle des grands bronzes avec la Chimère d’Arezzo).

Vasari la cite, en écrivant dans une lettre du 20 septembre 1566, à Borghini : « Il Duca ha avuto una statua di bronzo intera che non gli manca niente, d’uno Scipione Minore […] di braccia 3 incirca in atto di locuzione. »

Description

La statue mesure 179 cm. Elle est fondue en bronze, selon la technique de la cire perdue, et construite en sept parties (creuses sauf pour les jambes pour sa stabilité⁵). La statue est le portrait d’un personnage en tunique et en toge. Une inscription en étrusque, gravée sur la matrice avant la fonte⁶, y figure sur le bord inférieur de la toge : auleśi meteliś ve[luś] vesial clenśi / cen flereś tece sanśl tenine / tu θineś χisvlicś. Cette inscription honorifique et votive donne le nom du personnage qui a érigé la statue, Aule Meteli (en latin Aulus Metelus)¹, et le lieu de son érection, un sanctuaire de « Tece Sans ».

Si l’Arringatore appartient encore au milieu culturel étrusque, certains éléments comme le costume et le réalisme du visage sont propres au monde romain⁷. Cette statue pourrait montrer la romanisation progressive de l’aristocratie étrusque⁸.

La main du personnage debout, tendue vers le public, ou le ciel, est disproportionnée (une habitude stylistique de la statuaire étrusque) pour rendre l’intention plus évidente.

Interprétations

Sa désignation d’Arringatore (orateur ou harangueur) lui vient de sa posture : le bras gauche vers le bas de son vêtement et le droit levé la main en avant, à l’intention du public venu l’écouter.

Il pourrait également s’agir d’une posture de prière⁹ par l’aspect dédicatoire de l’inscription en faveur de Tece Sans et son emplacement dans un sanctuaire.

Notes et références

1. ↑ ^a et b Jean-Marc Irollo, Histoire des Étrusques, p. 152.
2. ↑ à Piancastagnaio pour Jacques Heurgon, La Vie quotidienne des Étrusques, Hachette, 1989
3. ↑ Les Étrusques et l’Europe, Réunion des Musées nationaux, 1992, notice 240, p. 155.
4. ↑ Antonio Giuliano, Giancarlo Buzzi, Herscher, Splendeurs étrusques, 1992, Milan (ISBN 2 7335 0204 2), p. 280
5. ↑ ^a et b Notice du musée archéologique de Florence
6. ↑ Jean-Marc Irollo, Histoire des Étrusques, p. 152-153.
7. ↑ Giovannangelo Camporeale, « La romanisation », dans Les Étrusques et l’Europe, Réunion des Musées nationaux, 1992, p. 105.
8. ↑ Jean-Marc Irollo, Histoire des Étrusques, p. 153.
9. ↑ Dominique Briquel, La Civilisation étrusque, p. 146

Sources

• Page de libero.it comportant les détails des noms des éléments vestimentaires [archive]

Annexe

Articles connexes

• Statuaire étrusque
• Esthétique étrusque
• Mars de Todi

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

Der Arringatore

Der Arringatore (ital. der Redner) ist eine etruskischeBronzestatue aus dem späten 2. Jahrhundert v. Chr. oder frühen 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr. und stellt Aule Meteli oder Metele (latinisiert Aulus Metellus oder Metellius) dar. Die Skulptur wurde im 16. Jahrhundert entdeckt und befindet sich heute im Archäologischen Nationalmuseum von Florenz. Die Statue ist ein bedeutendes Beispiel der späten etruskischen Bronzeskulptur und zeigt die allmähliche Romanisierung der etruskischen Kunst.

Beschreibung

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

 

Die Bronzeskulptur zeigt einen erwachsenen, älteren Mann in frontaler Pose mit ausgestrecktem rechten Arm und leicht geöffneten Mund. Das Gewicht der Figur ist auf das rechte Bein verlagert, das linke ist leicht abgewinkelt. Diese Haltung wird als Kontrapost bezeichnet. Die eingelegten Augen der Statue sind nicht erhalten geblieben, so dass die Augenhöhlen jetzt leer sind.

Aule Meteli trägt eine Tunika, über der eine kurze Toga exigua drapiert ist, was der formellen Kleidung eines Magistrats entspricht. Die Toga ist um den Körper gewickelt und lässt den rechten Arm frei. Seinen linken Arm, um den die Toga geschlungen ist, hat Aule Meteli eng an den Körper angelegt. An der linken Hand trägt er einen kostbaren, vermutlich goldenen Skarabäenring. Seinen Zeigefinger drückt er leicht auf den nach vorne gestreckten Daumen, so dass der Eindruck von Sammlung und Konzentration entsteht. Er trägt hohe Schnürstiefel (calcei), wie sie gewöhnlich von römischen Senatoren getragen wurden. Der untere Rand der Toga wird durch einen breiten Saum begrenzt.

Die selbstbewusste Körperhaltung scheint die eines Redners zu sein, der sich anschickt, zu einer größeren Menschenmenge zu sprechen. Daher rührt auch die Bezeichnung der Statue als Der Redner, italienisch L’Arringatore, englisch The Orator. Mit der erhobenen Hand will er offenbar für Ruhe und Aufmerksamkeit sorgen. Aule Meteli ist als Herr des Geschehens dargestellt, der sich dank seiner Autorität mühelos Gehör verschafft und mit seiner Redekunst die Menge führen kann. Die selbstsichere Haltung beruht dabei nicht auf körperlicher Makellosigkeit, Kraft oder Stärke. Aule Meteli ist eher von gedrungener Statur, neigt zur Beleibtheit, besitzt ein deutlich von Falten geprägtes Gesicht, das aber zugleich reiche Erfahrung und Einsicht, Besonnenheit und Klugheit vermittelt. Hinzu tritt die besondere öffentliche Stellung, die dem Dargestellten einen deutlich erkennbaren Anspruch auf Führung der Bürgerschaft verleiht.

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

• 

  Kopf der Bronzestatue

   

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

• 

  Linke Hand mit Ring

  Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

   

• 

  Saum mit Inschrift

Inschrift

Der untere Saum der Toga trägt eine etruskische Inschrift, die entsprechend den Schreibgewohnheiten der Etrusker von rechts nach links mit spiegelverkehrten Buchstaben verfasst ist:

Die transkribierte Lesung lautet:

AULEŚI METELIŚ VE[LUS] VESIAL CLENŚI CEN FLEREŚ TECE SANŚL TENINE TUTHINEŚ CHISVLICŚ^[1]

AULEŚI METELIŚ ist die Dativform des Namens Aule Meteli oder Metele. Es folgen die Genitivformen des Männernamens Vel und des Frauennamens Vesi. Daran schließt sich die Genitivform CLENŚI von CLEN (Sohn) an. CEN FLEREŚ ist die Akkusativ und steht für diese Votivstatue. TECE ist ein Verb in der dritten Person Perfekt mit der Bedeutung er hat aufgestellt.

Allerdings ist unklar, wer diese Statue gestiftet hat. Aule Meteli könnte selbst der Spender sein. Sofern TENINE eine Person bezeichnet, kommt auch diese als Stifter in Betracht. SANŚL ist eine Genitivform und dürfte die Gottheit SANŚ bezeichnen, der die Statue offenbar geweiht war. Die beiden letzten Wörter TUTHINEŚ CHISVLICŚ könnten darauf hindeuten, dass die Bürgerschaft nach einer Beratung der Errichtung der Statue zugestimmt hat. Insgesamt ergibt sich als mögliche Übersetzung:

Zu Ehren von Aule Meteli, dem Sohn von Vel und Vesi, hat Tenine diese Statue aufgestellt als Votivgabe für Sans nach Beratung der Bürgerschaft.

Der Buchstabe M in der Inschrift entspricht dem phönizischen Buchstaben Sadéh oder Zade und steht vermutlich für einen Sch-Laut. Dieser Buchstabe, der als Ś transkribiert wird, fand vor allem in Nordetrurien Anwendung.

Deutung

Giacobbe Giusti, L’Arringatore

Römische Bronzeskulptur aus republikanischer Zeit

Aule Meteli scheint eine bedeutende Person aus den nordetruskischen Städten Cortona (etruskisch Curtun) oder Perugia (etruskisch Persna) gewesen zu sein, da seine Heimatstadt ihm diese lebensgroße Ehrenstatue widmete. Wahrscheinlich war diese Statue an seinem Grab oder an einem Heiligtum öffentlich ausgestellt. Kleidung und Haltung deuten darauf hin, dass er ein wichtiges politisches Amt innehatte oder sogar als Princeps die Bürgerschaft anführte. Aufgrund von besonderen Verdiensten um die Stadt könnte er durch die Errichtung dieser Statue geehrt worden sein. Die Städte Nordetruriens, die im Gegensatz zu einigen Städten des Südens nicht von den Römern erobert worden waren, darunter Cortona und Perugia, erlebten in der 2. Hälfte des 2. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. eine letzte bescheidene Blüte.

Die Bronzeskulptur des Aule Meteli bietet einen Einblick in die sich verändernde soziopolitische Landschaft der italienischen Halbinsel in den letzten Jahrhunderten vor der Zeitenwende. Als sich das Territorium Roms vom fünften bis zum ersten Jahrhundert v. Chr. ausbreitete, wurden ihre Nachbarn allmählich in die Sphäre des römischen kulturellen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Einflusses aufgenommen. Manche Gruppen widersetzten sich dem römischen Hegemonialstreben, während andere sich durch politische und militärische Verträge dem römischen Lebensstil anschlossen. Dieser Prozess der Akkulturation bzw. Romanisierung führte dazu, dass die ursprüngliche kulturelle Heterogenität durch ein homogeneres kulturelles Modell ersetzt wurde.

Dementsprechend steht der Arringatore für die etruskischen Handwerkskunst, die dem deutlichen Einfluss der römischen Welt unterworfen ist. Die Statue trägt eindeutig Senatorenstiefel und die kurze und schmale Toga exigua, die beide aus der römischen Kultur stammen. Ebenso stimmt sein Haarschnitt mit denen römischer Eliten überein. Haltung und Gesichtsausdruck vermitteln eine Natürlichkeit und Wahrhaftigkeit, wie sie in der Porträtkunst der mittleren Republik anzutreffen sind. Auch die Ehrung des Aule Meteli durch ein Standbild lehnt an Gebräuche der römischen Aristokratie an. Die Statue trägt aber auch eine Inschrift mit etruskischen Buchstaben und die Bronzeverarbeitung entspricht den Traditionen etruskischer Handwerkskunst. Die Statue reflektiert somit die Balance zwischen alter etruskischer und neuer römischer Identität und den Übergang hin zu einer vollständigen Auflösung der etruskischen Kultur und Sprache.

Geschichte

 

Archäologisches Nationalmuseum von Florenz im Palazzo della Crocetta

Die Bronzestatue wurde 1566 in der Gegend zwischen Cortona und Perugia gefunden und verstärkte das gerade wiedererwachte Interesse an den Etruskern. Aus der Renaissance sind als Fundorte Sanguineto im Norden des Trasimenischen Sees und Pila 8 km südöstlich von Perugia überliefert. Das Funddatum lässt sich auf den Zeitraum zwischen dem 15. September und 21. Oktober 1566 eingrenzen.

Das Standbild wurde, obwohl es in Umbrien und damit auf dem Territorium des Kirchenstaates gefunden worden war, von Cosimo I. de’ Medici in Besitz genommen. Vermutlich wurde damals als Fundort die Gegend am Trasimenischen See verbreitet, um die päpstlichen Ansprüche zu umgehen. Cosimo verfügte bereits über eine große Sammlung von Antiken, darunter die 1553 entdeckte Chimäre von Arezzo, und setzte damit das Mäzenatentum seiner Familie fort. 1569 wurde er Großherzog der Toskana und nannte sich Magnus Dux Etruriae, wodurch er ausdrücklich auf die etruskischen Vorläufer Bezug nahm.

Zunächst wurde die Bronzestatue des Arringatore zusammen mit anderen etruskischen Fundstücken öffentlich im Palazzo Vecchio im Saal Leos X. ausgestellt. Im Jahr 1581 veranlasste Cosimos Sohn Francesco I. de’ Medici die Umwandlung des Obergeschosses der Uffizien in Galerien für die Ausstellung der mediceischen Kunstsammlung. Die 1560 maßgeblich von Giorgio Vasari gestalteten Uffizien hatten zunächst ausschließlich für die Unterbringung von Ministerien und Ämtern gedient. Ab 1588 konnte der Arringatore zusammen mit antiken und zeitgenössischen Skulpturen in der Galleria delle Statue besichtigt werden. 1789 bezeichnete Luigi Lanziin seinem Werk Saggio di lingua Etrusca e di altre antiche d’Italia(Abhandlung über die etruskische und andere alte Sprachen Italiens) erstmals die Bronzestatue als Arringatore.

Mit der Vereinigung Italiens zu einem Nationalstaat setzte sich KönigViktor Emanuel II. dafür ein, dass in Florenz, 1864 bis 1871 Hauptstadt des neuen Staates, ein etruskisches Museum entstehen sollte, um diesen wichtigen Aspekt des italienischen Erbes darzustellen. Das etruskische Museum wurde mit einem ägyptischen Museum kombiniert, das im 18. Jahrhundert vom habsburgischen Großherzog Leopold II. gegründet worden war. Die Sammlungen wurden zunächst im Cenacolo di Fuligno in der Via Faenza ausgestellt. 1881 verlegte man die Museen in den Palazzo della Crocetta in der Via della Colonna. Schließlich entstand dort das Archäologische Nationalmuseum von Florenz, in dem sich heute das Standbild des Arringatore zusammen mit anderen antiken Bronzen befindet.

Anmerkungen

1. Hochspringen↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum CIE 4196; Thesaurus linguae etruscae TLE 651

Siehe auch

• Mars von Todi
• Chimäre von Arezzo
• Etruskische Sprache
• Etruskische Schrift
• Etruskische Kunst

Literatur

• Giuliano Bonfante, Larissa Bonfante: The Etruscan Language. An Introduction. 2. Auflage. Manchester University Press, Manchester/New York 2002, ISBN 0719055407, S. 92 und 182–183.
• Friederike Bubenheimer-Erhart: Die Etrusker. Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 9783805348058, S. 10–13 und 136–138.
• Nancy Thomson de Grummond (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. Routledge, New York 1996, ISBN 188496480X, S. 86, 445 und 1137.
• Tobias Dohrn: Der Arringatore. Bronzestatue im Museo Archeologico von Florenz. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1968.
• Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli (Hrsg.): Enciclopedia dell’Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale. Treccani, Rom 1973, Band I, S. 681–682. (online)
• Peter Scholz, Johannes Süßmann (Hrsg.): Adelsbilder von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Oldenburg Verlag, München 2013, ISBN 9783486716320, S. 40–43

Commons: Arringatore – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arringatore

giacobbe giusti

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Tuscany, Monte Falterona, Bronze statue depicting warrior. Etruscan civilization V century b.C.

London, British Museum

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Kouros in bronze, from Monte Falterona

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Lake of the Idols Lago degli IdoliGiacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA
Lake of the Idols following restoration
Lake of the Idols Location in Italy
Location	Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy
Basin countries	Italy
Surface elevation	1,380 m (4,530 ft)

Lake of the Idols (Italian: Lago degli Idoli) is a lake located in Arezzo Province, Tuscany, Italy. It is located 1,380 metres (4,530 ft) above sea level atop Monte Falterona, about 600 metres from the source of the river Arno.^[1] Situated near an ancient road linking Etruria (including Tuscany and Umbria) with the Adriatic port cities of Romagna,^[2] it is known for one of the largest archaeological finds of the Etruscan civilization; over 600 bronze statuettes of Etruscan and Roman origin, along with thousands of other figurines from Cisalpine Gaul and Umbria, were discovered within the lake.^[3]

Name

The lake was originally known as Lago della Ciliegeta (eng. Cherry Grove Lake), named for the cherrygroves that grew around the lake.^[4] The name Lago degli Idoli (eng. Lake of the Idols) was applied after 1838 and refers to the Etruscan bronze statuettes found in the lake (see History). Another name for the lake is Buca del Tesoro (eng. Treasure Hole).^[5]

History

According to Alfredo Bresciani, the lake formed approximately 6,000 years ago (4th millennia BCE), based on radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology testing done on the lake.^[6]

The lake was used in ancient times by the Etruscans. They viewed it as a « holy spring of the river-gods » because of the healing qualities of the water, which contains a high concentration of tannin.^[7] The Etruscans would throw bronze statuettes into the lake as a form of votive offering. These statuettes depicted typically people or animals.^[8] Some artifacts in the lake depicted body parts, such as heads, arms and legs,^[9] suggesting the healing power of the lake. Other artifacts found at the lake were coins (including Etruscan aes rude), and fragments of arrow bits and pottery.^[10]It is believed that the lake was popular among soldiers based on the number of arrow fragments, and more importantly, the number of statuettes found depicting Hercle, the Etruscan version of Greek divine hero, Heracles.^[11] Artifacts found at the lake are dated between mid-6th to late-4th centuries BCE.^[12]

One of these statuettes was discovered by a local shepherdess in May 1838.^[13] The statuette was probably of Hercle, now kept in the British Museum.^[14][15] News of the find spread quickly, and a team of local amateur archaeologists from nearby Stia^[16]began excavating the site in June 1838.^[13] The lake was subsequently dried following several days of fruitful excavations.^[17] Over 600 statuettes and thousands of other artifacts were discovered between 1838–1839.^[13] Many of these artifacts at the time were presented to the Archaeological Institute of Rome in 1842, but without any buyers. Ultimately they were sold to a private collector, who resold them to a number of museums, notably among them the British Museum,^[18] the Hermitage Museum and the Louvre.^[19] Over time, treasure seekers looted the lake, stripping it of whatever artifacts remained within.^[20]

Official excavations were sparse following the 1838–1839 excavations. The next excavation, in 1972, led to the discovery of three artifacts within the lake.^[21]Previously, in 1971, five artifacts in the form of bronze statuettes were accidentally recovered from the site.^[22]

The last significant excavation of the lake was done in 2003. Eight trenches were dug into the lake center.^[23] Within the trenches, among the artifacts found were bronze statuettes, fragments of bronze weaponry, « two pieces of gold foil shaped into bull-headed protomes » and « two polychromebeads« .^[24] « In addition to the objects named above, other finds include nails, spear points, ceramics (including an intact bucchero grigio miniature cup), arrows and aes rude. » These artifacts were mostly dated between the 6th–5th centuries BCE.^[25]

Following the 2003 excavations, local authorities began rehabilitating the lake. In 2007, the lake was refilled using water from a nearby spring.^[26] Vegetation surrounding the lake was replanted to mimic its original form during the Etruscan period, using pollen samples recovered from the surrounding layers of earth.^[27]

Hydrology

The lake is widely perceived to be a pond, due to lack of inflow from any bodies of water, i.e. rivers and streams. Research done at the University of Florence – Faculty of Engineering suggests that there exists an underground spring that provides a continuous stream of water to the lake.^[28] It appears that the lake is sinkhole-like, sitting atop layers of sandstone.^[29]

Cultural impact

The lake and its history was heavily incorporated into the plot of the 2013 film Neverlake.^[30][31]

References

1. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « The Lake of Idols is about 1380 metres above sea level on the southern slope of Monte Falterona (1654 metres) near to the sources of the Arno, approximately 600 metres more to the north-west (1358 metres). »
2. Jump up^ Il lago sacro: « Passava da questo zona una importante viabilità che collegava l’Etruria toscana e umbra alle zone dell’attuale Romagna e relativi porti adriatici (viabilità utilizzata anche in epoca romana e per tutto il medioevo. »
3. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, pp. 78–79: « Well in excess of 600 Etruscan and Roman bronze figurines, up to 60 cm in height, were found buried in the mud, together with thousands of other artifacts, coming from a wide area of Etruria, Cisalpine Gaul, and Umbria. »
4. Jump up^ Ferrini & Arrivo al Lago degli Idoli: « Eccoci al Lago degli Idoli, fino al 1838 Lago della Ciliegeta per le molte piante di ciliegio che qui erano presenti. »
5. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 78: « Proceeding due south for about 1 km, a little above our path, we should be able to find the little, now refilled, basin of the famous Lago degli Idoli (Lake of the Idols), once known as Buca del Tesoro (the Treasure Hole) or Lago delle Ciliegeta (the Cherry Grove Lake). »
6. Jump up^ Meyers 2008: « The volume includes an interesting archaeological discussion by Alfredo Bresciani on Carbon-14 dating and dendochronology, which have been used to determine that the lake formed naturally c. 6000 years ago »
7. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 79: « People gathered at the pond which they regarded as the holy spring of the river-gods embracing the country of Etruria. The waters of the pond, containing a high quantity of tannin, were also a strong disinfectant […] »
8. Jump up^ Salsini: For centuries, people in the area believed that if an earthquake awakened the god, they would all be drowned. The Etruscans, in fact, threw thousands of small bronze statues, depicting people and animals, into a lake, called Lake of the Idols, to keep the god happy.
9. Jump up^ Marie-Bénédicte: « […] nearly 2,000 fragments of weapons and of depictions of the human body (heads, trunks, arms, legs, etc.); and a few coins. »
10. Jump up^ Ferrini & Il lago sacro: « Tra il 1838 e 39 furono portati alla luce migliaia di reperti tra cui oltre seicento bronzetti, un migliaio di Aes Rude (la prima monetazione etrusca), circa 2000 punte da freccia e molti frammenti di ceramica. »
11. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « This is highlighted by the existence in the votive offering of Hercle of Greek manufacture. It can be hypothesized that this offering was mainly associated with « soldiers » both on account of the statuette of Hercle (god connected to heroism and also to war) and that of the Warrior, not to mention the huge quantity of arrows. »
12. Jump up^ Pancani & Tocchi 2012, p. 2: « The finds dated from the middle of the VI and the late IV century BC […] »
13. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Pancani & Tocchi 2012, p. 2: « The Lake of Idols was discovered by chance in May 1838, the accidental discovery of a bronze statue of Heracles was followed by more in-depth investigations in the area and the excavations, which began in June of the same year, brought to light more than 600 figurines and thousands of other artifacts. »
14. Jump up^ Perhaps this one
15. Jump up^ Ferrini & Un lago sacro: « Casualmente in quell’anno una mandriana rinvenne sulla sponda del lago una statuetta bronzea raffigurante Eracle (oggi conservata nel British Museum di Londra). »
16. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « In Stia, a company was formed by a group of local amateurs, who started a dig (1838-‘39).
17. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « A few days later, due to the formidable amount of excavated material, it was decided to dry the lake. »
18. Jump up^ 8 pieces in the British Museum
19. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 79: « In 1842, secretary E. Braun, presented the finds to scholars in the hall of the Archaeological Institute of Rome. Since no public authority considered buying any of the finds, they were at once sold to a private buyer who, in his turn, sold them to various museums including the Museums of Berlin, the British Museum, the Louvre, the Boston Museum and the Hermitage. »
20. Jump up^ Caselli 2004, p. 79: « The extensive excavations, carried out from the summer of 2003 on-wards, demonstrated that the basin had been all but cleared of every possible interesting relic by generations of treasure hunters. »
21. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, pp. 175–176: « In 1972 three new bronze pieces were found at the same site, inspiring further excavation in the area.
22. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « In 1971, five statuettes were found by chance. »
23. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, p. 176: « Following the history and catalog of earlier excavations at the site of the Lago degli Idoli, Fedeli provides a brief account of the 2003 campaign. Based on information from the earlier work on the site, eight trenches were opened in the center of the ancient basin.
24. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, p. 176: « Several trenches yielded substantial deposits of archaeological finds—one in particular producing bronze votive statuettes, bronze heads, fragments of bronze weapons, two pieces of gold foil shaped into bull-headed protomes and two polychrome beads. »
25. Jump up^ Meyers 2008, p. 176: « Most of the finds are datable to sixth-fifth centuries B.C.[…] »
26. Jump up^ Ferrini & Il lago sacro: « Ultimati gli ultimi scavi, a fine 2007 la conca è stata riempita con l’acqua di una vicina sorgente. »
27. Jump up^ Caselli, p. 78: « The local authority and the Park authority have now refilled the anciend[sic] lake bed and are now replanting the origi-nal vegetation of the Etruscan period, as has been extrapolated by studying the pollen in the va-rious excavation layers. »
28. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « As to the widely debated origin of the lake, a hypothesis was recently formulated by a team of researchers and scholars of the Engineering Faculty of Florence University. Research, analyses and hydrogeological studies revealed that the lake originated from an underground spring capable of keeping up a constant flow of water.
29. Jump up^ InEtruria.it: « From research conducted, it turns out that the rocks in which the lake formed consist of layers of sandstone belonging to a « pseudo-doline ». »
30. Jump up^ Keats-Shelley House 2013: « Paoletti chose a place full of charm and mystery, ‘The Lake of the Idols’, a Tuscan location renowned for many discoveries of ancient Etruscan artifacts in its depths. »
31. Jump up^ Hough 2014: « The setting is the historic « Lake of the Idols, » which was beheld by ancient Etruscans as a place of healing and mysticism. It was believed that one could escape sickness by tossing objects into the center of the waters, and for thousands of years, artifacts have been discovered at the lake. »

Sources

• Caselli, Giovanni (2004), The Casentino History Anthropology Environment, Le Balze, ISBN 88-7539-035-5, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Salsini, Paul, A Tuscan Trilogy: The Flood of Florence, November 4, 1966, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Lago degli Idoli, InEtruria.it, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Pancani, Giovanni; Tocchi, Marco (November 2012), The archaeological area of Pieve a Socana (Tuscany – Italy) (PDF), Vienna: Museen der Stadt Wien – Stadtarchäologie, ISBN 978-3-200-03281-1, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Marie-Bénédicte, Astier, Lago degli Idoli, Louvre Museum, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Ferrini, Alessandro, Arrivo al Lago degli Idoli [Arriving at the Lake of the Idols] (in Italian), Il bel Casentino, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Ferrini, Alessandro, Il lago sacro [The Sacred Lake] (in Italian), Il bel Casentino, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Meyers, Gretchen E. (1 January 2008), « Review of M. Ducci, ed., Santuari Etruschi in Casentino », Etruscan Studies: Journal of the Etruscan Foundation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 11: 175–177, ISBN 978-0-9819692-1-3, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Neverlake, a new psychological thriller inspired by Shelley’s poetry, Keats-Shelley House, 20 December 2013, retrieved 12 June 2015
• Hough, Quinn Vincent (13 May 2004), Movie Review: Neverlake (2013), Critical Movie Critics, retrieved 12 June 2015

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

British Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Hermitage Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, Lake of the Idols, MONTE FALTERONA

Louvre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Idols

Giacobbe Giusti, MONTE FALTERONA, ‘IL LAGO DEGLI IDOLI’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_Museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Falterona

http://www.toscana.beniculturali.it/articoli/acque-sacre-culto-etrusco-sullappennino-toscano

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreste_Casentinesi,_Monte_Falterona,_Campigna_National_Park

Giacobbe Giusti, ETRUSCAN MAN

Giacobbe Giusti, ETRUSCAN MAN

Giacobbe Giusti, ETRUSCAN MAN

Chiusi_uomo_etrusco.jpg ‎(640 × 480 pixels, file size: 33 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Bronze Harness Trapping in the Shape of a Horse; Villanovan, 9th-8th century B.C. LACMA

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Elmo villanoviano (British Museum, Londra)

Villanovan culture

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Geographical range	Europe
Period	Early Iron Age
Dates	c. 1100 BC – 700 BC
Preceded by	Proto-Villanovan culture
Followed by	Etruscan civilization

Iron Age This box: view talk edit
↑ Bronze Age
Late Bronze Age collapse Ancient Near East (1200 BC – 500 BC) Anatolia Assyria, Caucasus, Cyprus, Egypt, Levant(Israel and Judah), Neo-Babylonian Empire, Persia South Asia (1200 BC – 200 BC) India (1200 BC – 200 BC) Painted Grey Ware Northern Black Polished Ware Maurya Empire Anuradhapura Kingdom Europe (1200 BC – 1 BC) Aegean Novocherkassk Hallstatt C La Tène C Villanovan C British Iron Age Thracians Dacia, Transylvania, Southeastern Europe Greece, Rome Scandinavia (600 BC – Germanic Iron Age (800 AD)) East Asia (600 BC – 300 AD) China (600 BC – 200 BC) Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period Japan (100 BC – 300 AD) Kofun period Yayoi period Korea (400 BC – 400 AD) Late Gojoseon period Proto-Three Kingdoms period Southeast Asia (1000 BC – 800 AD) Indonesia (400 BC – 500 AD) Buni culture Philippines (1000 BC – 200 AD) Jade Culture Sa Huyun culture Vietnam (1000 BC – 630 AD) Sa Huỳnh culture Óc Eo culture Sub-Saharan Africa (1000 BC – 800 AD) Nok Djenné-Djenno Igbo-Ukwu Urewe
Axial Age Classical antiquity Zhou dynasty Vedic period Ancient barangays Alphabetic writing Metallurgy
↓ Ancient history
Historiography Greek, Roman, Chinese, Islamic

The Villanovan culture was the earliest Iron Age culture of central and northern Italy, abruptly following the Bronze Age Terramare culture and giving way in the 7th century BC to an increasingly orientalizing culture influenced by Greek traders, which was followed without a severe break by the Etruscan civilization. The Villanovan culture and people branched from the Urnfield culture of Central Europe.^[1] The Villanovans introduced iron-working to the Italian peninsula; they practiced cremation and buried the ashes of their dead in pottery urns of distinctive double-cone shape.

The name Villanovan comes from the type-site, that of the first archaeological finds relating to this advanced culture, remnants of a cemetery found near Villanova (Castenaso, 8 kilometers south-east of Bologna) in northern Italy. The excavation lasting from 1853 to 1855 was made by the scholarly owner, count Giovanni Gozzadini, and involved 193 tombs, six of which were separated from the rest as if to signify a special social status. The « well tomb » pit graves lined with stones contained funerary urns; they had been only sporadically plundered, and most were untouched. In 1893, a chance discovery unearthed another distinctive Villanovan necropolis at Verucchio, overlooking the Adriaticcoastal plain.

The burial characteristics relate the Villanovan culture to the Central European Urnfield culture (c. 1300–750 BC), and Celtic Hallstatt culture (which succeeded the Urnfield culture), in such a way that it is not possible to tell them apart in their earlier stages. Cremated remains were placed in cinerary urns and then buried. A custom believed to originate with the Villanovan culture is the usage of « Hut urns », cinerary urns fashioned like small huts, and other advanced urn designs. Typical sgraffito decorations of swastikas, meanders and squares were scratched with a comb-like tool. Urns were accompanied by simple bronze fibulae, razors and rings.

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Villanovian double urn

Periodization

The culture is broadly divided into a Proto-Villanovan culture (Villanovan I) from c. 1100 BC to c. 900 BC and the Villanovan culture proper (Villanovan II) from c. 900 BC to c. 700 BC. This period came just before the foundation of Etruscan cities.

The later phase (Villanovan II) saw radical changes, evidence of contact with Hellenic civilization and trade with the north along the Amber Road: glass and amber necklaces on women, bronze armor and horse harness fittings, and the development of elite graves in contrast to the earlier egalitarian culture.^{[citation needed]} Chamber tombs and inhumation (burial) practices were developed side-by-side with the earlier cremation practices.

Range

Giacobbe Giusti, Villanovan culture

Bronze Harness Trapping in the Shape of a Horse; Villanovan, 9th-8th century B.C. LACMA

Generally speaking, Villanovan settlements were centered in the Adriatic Etruria, in Emilia Romagna (in particular, in Bologna and in Verucchio, near Rimini), in Marche (Fermo) and in Lazio. Further south, Villanovan cremation burials are to be found in Campania, at Capua, at the « princely tombs » of Pontecagnano near Salerno,^[2] at Capo di Fiume, at Vallo di Diano and at Sala Consilina. Small scattered Villanovan settlements have left few traces other than their more permanent burial sites, which were set somewhat apart from the settlements— largely because the settlement sites were built over in Etruscan times. This site continuity encourages modern opinion generally to follow Massimo Pallottino in regarding the Villanovan culture as ancestral to the Etruscan civilization.

Issues of identity

The traces of cultural evidence available suggest that there may not have been a single, widespread ethnic group directly equivalent to the Villanovan material culture, according to archaeologist Renato Peroni.^{[citation needed]}

Villanovan sites tend to underlie sites with both Celtic and Italicethnolinguistic provenance, adding to the difficulties in assessing a precise cultural identification. The many shared features of the Celtic and Italic languages have led most linguists to accept that they once formed a discrete Italo-Celticlanguage group, although there is no agreement as to whether this resulted from: a shared ancestral language with a specific geographical origin (i.e. « Proto-Italo-Celtic »), a series of areal features resulting from language contact, or both. (Hence the Villanovan sites cannot yet be accurately described as « Italo-Celtic ».)

Villanovian culture.

Notes

1. Jump up^ « Villanovan culture ». Encyclopædia Britannica.
2. Jump up^ Pontecagnano finds are conserved in the Museum of Agro Picentino.

Sources and further reading

• S. Gozzadini: La nécropole de Villanova, Fava et Garagnani, Bologna, 1870
• J. P. Mallory, « Villanovan Culture », Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, (Fitzroy Dearborn), 1997.
• G. Bartoloni, « The origin and diffusion of Villanovan culture. » in M. Torelli, (editor) The Etruscans, pp 53–74. (Milan), 2000.
• M.E. Moser, The « Southern Villanovan » Culture of Campania, (Ann Arbor), 1982.
• D. Ridgway, « The Villanovan Cemeteries of Bologna and Pontecagnano » in Journal of Roman Archaeology 7: pp 303–16 (1994)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanovan_culture

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Remains of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia.

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

A Roman navalbireme depicted in a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste (Palastrina),^[1]which was built c. 120 BC;^[2] exhibited in the Pius-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio-Clementino) in the Vatican Museums.

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Capitoline Triad

Palestrina
Comune
Comune di Palestrina
Coat of arms

Palestrina (ancient Praeneste; Ancient Greek: Πραίνεστος, Prainestos) is an ancient city and comune(municipality) with a population of about 21,000, in Lazio, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina.

It is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Geography

Palestrina is sited on a spur of the Monti Prenestini, a range in the central Apennines.

Palestrina borders the following municipalities: Artena, Castel San Pietro Romano, Cave, Gallicano nel Lazio, Labico, Rocca di Cave, Rocca Priora, Rome, San Cesareo, Valmontone, Zagarolo.

History

Ancient Praeneste

A Roman naval bireme depicted in a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste (Palastrina),^[1]which was built c. 120 BC;^[2] exhibited in the Pius-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio-Clementino) in the Vatican Museums.

Early burials show that the site was already occupied in the 8th or 7th century BC. The ancient necropolis lay on a plateau at the foot of the hill below the ancient town. Of the objects found in the oldest graves, and supposed to date from about the 7th century BC, the cups of silver and silver-gilt and most of the gold and amber jewelry are Phoenician (possibly Carthaginian), but the bronzesand some of the ivory articles seem to be of the Etruscan civilization.^[3]

Praenestine graves from about 240 BC onwards have been found: they are surmounted by the characteristic pineapple made of local stone, containing stone coffins with rich bronze, ivory and gold ornaments beside the skeleton. From these come the famous bronze boxes (cistae) and hand mirrors with inscriptions partly in Etruscan. Also famous is the bronze Ficoroni Cista^[4] (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Rome), engraved with pictures of the arrival of the Argonauts in Bithynia and the victory of Pollux over Amycus, found in 1738. An example of archaic Latin is the inscription on the Ficoroni Cista: « Novios Plautios Romai med fecid / Dindia Macolnia fileai dedit » (« Novios Plautios made me in Rome, Dindia Macolnia gave me to her daughter »). The caskets are unique in Italy, but a large number of mirrors of precisely similar style have been discovered in Etruria. Hence, although it would be reasonable to conjecture that objects with Etruscancharacteristics came from Etruria, the evidence points decisively to an Etruscan factory in or near Praeneste itself. Other imported objects in the burials show that Praeneste traded not only with Etruria but also with the Greek east.

The origin of Praeneste was attributed by the ancients to Ulysses, or to other fabulous characters variously called Caeculus, Telegonus, Erulus or Praenestus. the name derives probably from the word Praenesteus, referring to its overlooking location.

Praeneste was probably under the hegemony of Alba Longa while that city was the head of the Latin League. It withdrew from the league in 499 BC, according to Livy (its earliest historical mention), and formed an alliance with Rome. After Rome was weakened by the Gauls of Brennus (390 BC), Praeneste switched allegiances and fought against Rome in the long struggles that culminated in the Latin War. From 373 to 370, it was in continual war against Rome or her allies, and was defeated by Cincinnatus.

Eventually in 354 and in 338 the Romans were victorious and Praeneste was punished by the loss of portions of its territory, becoming a city allied to Rome. As such, it furnished contingents to the Roman army, and Roman exiles were permitted to live at Praeneste, which grew prosperous. The roses of Praeneste were a byword for profusion and beauty. Præneste was situated on the Via Labicana.

Its citizens were offered Roman citizenship in 90 BC in the Social War, when concessions had to be made by Rome to cement necessary alliances. In Sulla’s second civil war, Gaius Marius the Youngerwas blockaded in the town by the forces of Sulla (82 BC). When the city was captured, Marius slew himself, the male inhabitants were massacred in cold blood, and a military colony was settled on part of its territory. From an inscription it appears that Sulla delegated the foundation of the new colony to Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, who was consul in 73 BC. Within a decade the lands of the colonia had been assembled by a few large landowners.

From the late Republic to the late Empire, markets, baths, shrines and even a second forum were built in the lower city, near today’s Madonna dell’Aquila.^[5]

Under the Empire the cool breezes of Praeneste made it a favorite summer resort of wealthy Romans, whose villas studded the neighborhood, though they ridiculed the language and the rough manners of the native inhabitants. The poet Horace ranked « cool Praeneste » with Tibur and Baiae as favored resorts. The emperor Augustus stayed in Praeneste, and Tiberius recovered there from a dangerous illness and made it a municipium. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was at Praeneste with his family when his 7-year-old son Verus died.^[6] The ruins of the imperial villa associated with Hadrian stand in the plain near the church of S. Maria della Villa, about three-quarters of a mile from the town. At the site was discovered the Braschi Antinous, now in the Vatican Museums. Pliny the Younger also had a villa at Praeneste, and L. Aurelius Avianius Symmachus retired there.^[7] Inscriptions show that the inhabitants of Praeneste were fond of gladiatorial shows.

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Remains of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia.

The Forum of Praeneste

Archaeologists working in the 1950s were able to identify the area around the Cathedral and the Piazza Regina Margherita as the Forum of Ancient Praeneste.^[8] The buildings of the forum comprised a central temple, whose walls were re-used for the cathedral, and a two-storey civil basilica consisting of four naves separated by columns, once roofed but today an open space. The basilica was flanked by two buildings, the easternmost containing a raised podium (suggestus)^[9] and the public treasury, the aerarium, identified by an inscription dating it to ~150 BC. At some later date (perhaps around 110-100 BC^[10]), the buildings flanking the basilica were each embellished with a nymphaeum with a mosaic floor. The western mosaic represents a seascape: a temple of Poseidon on the shore, with fish of all kinds swimming in the sea. The eastern building was decorated with the famous mosaic with scenes from the Nile, relaid in the Palazzo Colonna Barberini ^[11] in Palestrina on the uppermost terrace (now the National Archaeological Museum of Palestrina).

In the forum area an obelisk was erected in the reign of Claudius, fragments of which can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Palestrina.

Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia

Praeneste was chiefly famed for its Temple of Fortuna Primigenia connected with the oracle known as the Praenestine lots (sortes praenestinae). The remains of the sanctuary still standing today were constructed sometime around 120 BC^[12] as a spectacular series of terraces, exedras and porticos on four levels down the hillside, linked by monumental stairs and ramps. The inspiration for this feat of unified urbanistic design lay not in republican Rome but in the Hellenistic monarchies of the eastern Mediterranean. Praeneste offered a foretaste of the grandiose Imperial style of the following generation.^[13]

Reconstruction of the temple of the Fortuna Primigenia by Palladio.

The sanctuary of Fortune occupies a series of five vast terraces, which, resting on gigantic masonry substructures and connected with each other by grand staircases, rise one above the other on the hill in the form of the side of a pyramid, crowned on the highest terrace by the round temple of Fortune, today incorporated into the Palazzo Colonna Barberini.^[13]This immense edifice, probably by far the largest sanctuary in Italy, must have presented a most imposing aspect, visible as it was from a great part of Latium, from Rome, and even from the sea.

The goddess Fortuna here went by the epithet of Primigenia (« Original »), she was represented suckling two babes, as in the Christian representation of Charity, said to be Jupiter and Juno, and she was especially worshipped by matrons.^[14] The oracle continued to be consulted down to Christian times, until Constantine the Great, and again later Theodosius I, forbade the practice and closed the temple.

Features of the temple influenced Roman garden design on steeply sloped sites through Antiquity and once again in Italian villa gardens from the 15th century. The monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome owes a lot to the Praeneste sanctuary complex.

Later history

The modern town is built on the ruins of the famous temple of Fortuna Primigenia. A bishop of Praenesteis first mentioned in 313.

In 1297 the Colonna family, who had owned Praeneste (then known as Palestrina) from the eleventh century as a fief, revolted against Pope Boniface VIII. In the following year the town was taken by Boniface’s Papal forces, razed to the ground and salted by order of Boniface.^[15]

In 1437 the rebuilt city was captured by the Papacy contractor Condottieri Giovanni Vitelleschi and once more utterly destroyed at the command of Pope Eugenius IV.^{[citation needed]} It was rebuilt once more and fortified by Stefano Colonna in 1448. It was sacked in 1527 and occupied by the Duke of Alba in 1556.^{[citation needed]}

Barberini Family

Barberini Palace.

Palestrina as it appeared in 1671 during Barberini administration.

 Barberini

In 1630, the comune passed by purchase into the Barberini family.^[16] It is likely the transfer was included as one of the conditions of the marriage of Taddeo Barberini and Anna Colonna. Thereafter, the famously nepotistic family, headed by Maffeo Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII), treated the comune as a principality in its own right.

Patriarchs of the Barberini family conferred, on various family members, the title of Prince of Palestrina. During the reign of Urban VIII, the title became interchangeable with that of Commander of the Papal Army (Gonfalonier of the Church) as the Barberini family controlled the papacy and the Palestrina principality.

The Wars of Castro ended (while Taddeo Barberini held both titles) and members of the Barberini family (including Taddeo) fled into exile after the newly elected Pope Innocent X launched an investigation into members of the Barberini family. Later the Barberini reconciled with the papacy when Pope Innocent X elevated Taddeo’s son, Carlo Barberini to the cardinalate and his brother Maffeo Barberini married a niece of the Pope and reclaimed the title, Prince of Palestrina.

Two members of the Barberini family were named Cardinal-Bishop of the Diocese of Palestrina: Antonio Barberini and Francesco Barberini (Junior), the son of Maffeo Barberini.

The Barberini Palace originally included the Nile mosaic of Palestrina.

Modern history

It was the scene of an 1849 action between Garibaldi and the Neapolitan army during his defence of the Roman Republic.

The centre of the city was destroyed by Allied bombings during World War II; but that brought the ancient remains of the sanctuary to light.

Main sights

An old street in the city.

The modern town of Palestrina is centered on the terraces once occupied by the massive temple of Fortuna. The town came to largely obscure the temple, whose monumental remains were revealed as a result of American bombing of German positions in World War II. The town also contains remnants of ancient cyclopean walls.

On the summit of the hill at 753 metres (2,470 ft), nearly 1.6 kilometres (1 mi) from the town, stood the ancient citadel, the site of which is now occupied by a few poor houses (Castel San Pietro) and a ruined medieval castle of the Colonna family. The view embraces the Monte Soratte, Rome, the Alban Hills, and the Pontinian Plain as far as the sea. Considerable portions of the southern wall of the ancient citadel, built in massive cyclopean masonry consisting of limestone blocks, are still visible; and the two walls, also polygonal, which formerly united the citadel with the town, can still be traced.

Capitoline Triad

A calendar, which according to Suetonius was set up by the grammarian Marcus Verrius Flaccus in the imperial forum of Praeneste (at the Madonna dell’Aquila), was discovered in 1771 in the ruins of the church of Saint Agapitus, where it had been used as building material.

The cathedral, just below the level of the temple, occupies the former civil basilica of the town, whose façade includes a sundialdescribed by Varro, traces of which may still be seen. In the modern piazza the steps leading up to this basilica and the base of a large monument were found in 1907; evidently only part of the piazza represents the ancient forum. The cathedral has fine paintings and frescoes. In the Church of Santa Rosalia (1677) there is a noteworthy Pietà, carved in the solid rock.

The National Archeological Museum of Palestrina is housed inside the Renaissance Barberini Palace, the former baronial palace, built above the ancient temple of Fortuna. It exhibits the most important works from the ancient town of Praeneste. The famous sculpture of the Capitoline Triad is exhibited on the first floor. The second floor is dedicated to the necropoli and sanctuaries, while the third floor contains a large polychrome mosaic depicting the flooding of the Nile (Nile mosaic of Palestrina).

Culture

Praeneste was the native town of the 3rd-century Roman writer Aelian, and of the great 16th-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Thomas Mann spent some time there in 1895 and, two years later, during the long harsh summer of 1897, he stayed over again, with his brother Heinrich Mann, in a sojourn that provided the backdrop, nearly half a century later, for Adrian Leverkühn’s pact with the Devil in Mann’s novel Doktor Faustus^[17]

In popular culture

Dante makes reference in the Inferno to advice given by Guido da Montefeltro to Pope Boniface VIII fraudulently enticing the surrender of Palestrina 1298 by offering the Colonna family an amnesty they never intended to honor, instead razing it to the ground afterward.^[18]

In Voltaire’s novel Candide a woman claims to be the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina.

A fictional account of the action at Palestrina in 1849 appears in Geoffrey Trease‘s novel Follow My Black Plume.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestrina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan language

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan language

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan language

 

Etruscan
mekh Rasnal
Native to	Ancient Etruria
Region	Italian Peninsula
Extinct	>AD 180[1]
Language family	Etruscan
Writing system	Old Italic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ett
Glottolog	etru1241[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Etruscan language(/ɪˈtrʌskən/)^[3] was the spoken and written language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscanyplus western Umbria and northern Latium) and in parts of Campania, Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna, where the Etruscans were later displaced by Gauls. Etruscan influenced Latin, but was eventually completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions which have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length, some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician, and a few dozen loanwords, such as the name Roma (from Etruscan Ruma),^{[citation needed]} but Etruscan’s influence was significant.

Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study, with it being referred to at times as an isolate, one of the Tyrsenian languages, and a number of other less well-known possibilities. Grammatically, the language is agglutinating, with nouns and verbs showing suffixed inflectional endings and ablaut in some cases. Nouns show four cases, singular and plural numbers, and masculine and feminine genders. Phonologically, Etruscan appears uncomplicated, with a four-vowel system and an apparent contrast between aspirated and unaspirated stops. The language shows phonetic change over time, with the loss and then re-establishment of word-internal vowels due to the effect of Etruscan’s strong word-initial stress.

Etruscan religion influenced that of the Romans and many of the few surviving Etruscan language artifacts are of votive or religious significance. Etruscan was written in an alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet; this alphabet was the source of the Latin alphabet. The Etruscan language is also believed to be the source of certain important cultural words of Western Europesuch as ‘military’ and ‘people’, which do not have obvious Indo-European roots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_language

http://www.lplnews24.com/2016/03/a-cortona-una-mostra-evento-per.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Lampadario etrusco – particolare, sec. V a.C.

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Dettaglio lampadario etrusco

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Giacobbe Giusti, Étrusque lustre en bronze

Le musée de l’Académie étrusque de Cortone (MAEC, Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona en italien), est le musée étrusque de la ville de Cortone, en Toscane.

Il est situé dans le Palazzo Casali, qui accueillait auparavant le Museo della Città Etrusca e Romana di Cortona, qui fut ensuite réuni au Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca (datant de 1727 à la suite du legs de l’abbé Onofrio Baldelli de sa collection et de sa bibliothèque), puis fondé en MAEC (Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona).

Malgré son nom précis (dû au passé historique de la ville), le musée n’est pas exclusivement consacré aux vestiges étrusques (on remarquera malgré tout le lustre étrusque à 16 brûleurs à huile à figuration d’Achéloüs et de dauphins ainsi que la Tabula Cortonensis^[1], une plaque en bronze en huit morceaux gravée d’un texte étrusque, découverte en 1992).

http://www.cortonamaec.org/percorsi/scheda.php?id=ae12

https://giacobbegiusti.wordpress.com/category/giacobbe-giusti-cortona/

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com