The 6th century BCE sandstone slab weighs about 500 pounds and is almost four feet tall and two feet wide. There appears to be a lengthy text inscribed on it.
Most Etruscan discoveries have been grave or funerary objects, so it is probable that the text on the slab is a religious text. “This is probably going to be a sacred text, and will be remarkable for telling us about the early belief system of a lost culture that is fundamental to western traditions,” said archaeologist Gregory Warden, co-director and principal investigator of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, which made the discovery.
The stone stele has been worn down over the years and is chipped and heavily abraded. One side is reddened like it had been burned. Warden says there are at least 70 identifiable letters and punctuation marks. “Now if we could only unravel that text,” Warden, a professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, told Discovery News.
Finding a text on a permanent material like a piece of stone is rare because the Etruscans favored linen cloth books or wax tablets. Etruscan scholar Jean MacIntosh Turfa says, “This stone stele is evidence of a permanent religious cult with monumental dedications, at least as early as the Late Archaic Period, from about 525 to 480 BCE.”
The biggest takeaway from this discovery is the possibility of learning some new words in the ancient language and possibly learning the names of the gods or goddesses the Etruscans worshiped. We actually know very little about this lost culture that existed before the rise of the Roman empire.
The Etruscans once ruled Rome
Based on genetic studies, the Etruscans likely represented the indigenous people of the area, while their language was totally unknown to the region, being non-Indo-European in origin. This explains why some scholars believe they came from Asia Minor. This in itself makes them unique, and as Mother Nature News says, presents an historical conundrum.
So the question that is inexplicable is this: How did the Etruscans manage to brush shoulders with so many major civilizations without leaving their mark, or did they leave marks that have just been assimilated into our culture without our realizing it. But despite their origins, the Etruscans were the ones who cleared the shepherd huts from Palatine Hill and drained the swamps, preparing the foundations for what would become the seat of the Roman Empire.
Etruscans had a writing system, well before the rise of the Roman Empire, and while we are still decoding their language, many words of Etruscan origin have found their way into our everyday language. Some of their words, while being from such an ancient language, look very familiar to us.
The Etruscan civilization covered an area in Italy that corresponds to modern-day Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio. Because of its unique language, the Etruscan civilization existed from around 700 BC until its assimilation into the Roman Republic in the late 4th century BC.
Religion had a strong influence on Etruscan lives
Etruscans believed in the fundamental idea that a man’s destiny was left to the vagaries of the many deities that were worshiped. Everything, from a lightning storm to an earthquake, or the flight of birds across the sky were all part of the divine will of the gods, and they could be interpreted by trained priests.
What is really interesting about our knowledge of and about Etruscan society and culture is that it comes to us primarily from surviving religious texts and the writing of Roman and Greek historians of the time. Everyday life, well that is another matter. But religion was the driving force in everything about Etruscan life. They were considered the most religious people in the ancient world and had both male and female deities.
Religion was also reflected in the architecture of the Etruscans, and it permeated Roman architectural style, in not only the building of Roman temples but in the architecture of Italy. It is said that Rome itself is a repository of Etruscan architecture.
