Posted on 06/05/2011 10:23:01 AM PDT by Renfield
Italian archaeologists have discovered the first-ever intact Etruscan house, complete with furniture, bricks and terracotta tiles identical to the ones still used in Tuscany today.
Found at an archaeological site called Poggiarello Renzetti in the Tuscan town of Vetulonia, some 120 miles north of Rome, the 2,400-year-old building has been only partially excavated.
Constructed in the Hellenistic period between the third and first century B.C., the house, about 33 by 50 feet, consisted of a basement to store foodstuffs and a residential area where the rather wealthy owner lived with his family.
Although only a storage room has been brought to light by a joint team from a local archaeological museum and the Archaeological Superintendency of Tuscany, the standing ruins have been already hailed as an exceptional find....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
Makes sense. Members of the US embassy staff when traveling the Tuscan countryside might encounter peasants who still speak eTruscan.
Note: this topic is from Sun Jun 5 13:23:01 2011. Thanks Renfield.
Outstanding, no pun intended.
Exciting news!
IIRC, up to now the only Etruscan structures which have been found and excavated are tombs. An “intact” house is an important find
Not so. It was founded before Rome but not by the Etruscans, but by one of the Southern "Italic" nations,
It’s amazing that there are still several mystery cultures such as the Etruscans, Caananites, DerinKuyu, and the ‘Sea Peoples’ etc. which have never been fully explored/explained by modern archeology.
Finding a complete house, especially one that is furnished as it was during the Etruscan period, is extraordinary.
I think they found a buried Etruscan city site not long ago that was bounded by a city wall. I wonder if the house is part of that site.
Can’t bring up the link:(
E-Truscan didn’t really disappear. It degenerated in online chat rooms over the centuries and came to be spoken as it was written, in IM slang and abbreviations to the point of incomprehensibility at which point its general use declined but it remained as a sub rosa method of obscurantist communication and iter slang until it experienced a new flowering when computer chat rooms again became widespread and began to degenerate the English and other languages. Latin became the dominant language 2000 years ago when Etruscan speakers could no longer understand each other.
I’m fascinated by the Etruscans, too. It should be interesting to see what discoveries they make as they excavate the house. It would be lucky to be an Etruscan archeologist. Tuscany, IMHO, is one of the loveliest places on Earth.
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