Do Etruscan Me? An Introduction to the Etruscans

Oh the Etruscan Civilization, it’s one that has captured my interest for at least a decade! There is little known about this Iron Age civilization, but what we DO know leads me to believe that we should be paying more attention to this lesser known civilization. This is the first of what will likely be several blog posts about the fascinating group. Also, this is one of those blog posts that will give you some insight into what I am currently working on. While I am working on finishing up my FREE ebook , I am starting my research for 2 other physical books. That’s where this comes in; one of those books will be about Bronze and Iron Age civilizations, so keeping an eye here will give you an idea of where my research is taking me!

Now if the word “Etruscan” sounds familiar to you, it could be due to watching my YouTube show, “Explaining Esoterica”, where I have mentioned it. However, it’s more likely at least vaguely familiar due to the region in Italy known as Tuscany. This modern day region is the rough area that controlled by the Etruscans, which lasted from about 900 BCE until it was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BCE (though the final cities were not fully absorbed in Rome until closer to 100 BCE). Why don’t we know a lot about them? Well, that is what makes them so unique. While they did have written language (in fact they gave Romans their alphabet!), they didn’t document much of their history. In fact, most of our historical accounts of them are reliant on Greek and Roman historians, which did not always present them in the best light. In fact, due to their geographic location, they fought against both the Greeks and Romans at different times during their history, with the help of Carthage (historically the enemy of both empires). Unfortunately for the Etruscans, each war they participated in ended up shrinking their area of control little by little, so it is easy to see why eventually the Romans were able to absorb this group of people.

That isn’t to say that they didn’t have a VAST impact on the Romans. The majority of their cities pre-date Rome, so any architectural or cultural similarities indicates that the Romans took from Etruscan inspiration. In fact, early Rome, before it became a large empire, was assisted by the Etruscans. They constructed the original basis of the urban infrastructure of Rome, such as the drainage system. It is, in my research, argued by some historians that Rome itself was initially founded by the Etruscan’s with Romulus, since the city was built on a tall hill, which was a known tactic of the Etruscans…but there is not strong enough evidence to say either way.

So who were the Etruscans? This is where it really starts to get interesting. Their spoken language is unknown to us; it is at this point a dead language. While we have several samples of their written language, most samples are incredibly short, so it’s a little limited. What makes their language so interesting is that it was part of an isolate family, which means that there are few (if any) languages related to it. In fact, different languages spoken in the vicinity of their area are completely different from the Etruscan language.  This has led many researchers and historians to try to identify where they even came from. Some believe that they travelled from another part of the Mediterranean and settled in Italy. However, this doesn’t really explain the language issue, because again, it cannot be traced as related to many if any known languages. If you compound that language question with the fact that they had their own set of Gods, it becomes a difficult puzzle to fully put together. However, with regards to Gods, since they interacted with Ancient Greece through war and trade, they did themselves adopt some Greek culture, including some of the Greek Pantheon after a period of time. There are some researchers that feel that the Etruscans were actually an indigenous group to the area. In fact, a DNA study was done in 2013 to test the remains of some of these individuals. What did they find? That they actually matched most closely to the Neolithic population that later became the Villanovans. This leads more credence to the idea that they were indigenous to the area. If they WERE indigenous to the area, then some questions arise. Why were they so different from their contemporaries? Why is there so little information about them? These are some of the questions that I plan to look into and discuss here and in my upcoming book/research.

Now what IS actually known about the Etruscans? We all know about Greek and Roman temples, many of which are still standing. Why are there no Etruscan temples that we know about? Interestingly, they did all of their worship in nature. Rather than building huge temples to their Gods, the Etruscans set up altars and areas for worship in locations representative to their respective Gods. Thus, over time, these areas were reabsorbed into nature as they were intended to be by the Etruscans. Another thing we know is that the Etruscans were quite geographically blessed and thus prosperous. They were well-known metal workers, having direct access to both copper and iron mines. They also were master bronze smiths, who built some of the most beautiful bronze sculptures, few of which have survived to modern day. The material was too valuable, so in many cases was melted and reused after a period of time. Their expertise and production with metal led them to trade with different cultures such as the Celtics and Greeks. This enriched the lives of the Etruscans providing them with wine and other materials. The upper classes of the Etruscans ended up living incredibly luxurious lives. We know this because some of the evidence we have found are the burial huts left behind by the civilization. They appeared to hold a high reverence for death and respecting the dead, some of the best evidence of their art and worship are located in these huts. In the huts of the higher classes large bronze pieces and beds have been located, as well as other precious metal based jewelry.

Now, the final thing I wanted to note before closing out this post is more on the theoretical side. The Etruscans were known as the Tyrrhenians by the Greeks. If you have watched the Atlantis episode of “Explaining Esoterica”, I mentioned Plato’s description of the empire controlled by Atlantis. Plato specifically mentioned that the Tyrrhenians were under the control of Atlantis at the height of its power before falling into the ocean. What that could mean is IF Atlantis was real, and as wonderful/powerful as has been proposed, it would mean that the Etruscans (or their ancestors) were contemporaries of Atlantis, or even of Atlantean origin themselves. This is why I feel like the Etruscans might be a missing link in the ancient civilization world.

As you can see, I have A LOT to really review and go through. If you have any interest in these types of theories and research, make sure that you check here regularly. Since it is such a strong passion of mine, I plan to update this part of the blog often as I look at multiple different civilizations and what secrets they might actually hold for us.