Etruscan Demons, Monsters Unearthed

Discovery news.com ^ | 11-5-2003 | Rossella Lorenzi

[blam]

Etruscan Demons, Monsters Unearthed

Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Demonic Charioteer with the Shadow of Death

Nov. 5, 2003 — Etruscan art, made of strange demons and monsters, is emerging in a Tuscan village, in what could be one of the most important discoveries of recent times, according to scholars who have seen the paintings.

Lurking on the left wall of a 4th century B.C. tomb, the exceptionally preserved monsters have been unearthed during the ongoing excavation of the Pianacce necropolis in Sarteano, a village 50 miles from Siena, Italy.

"So far we have found some scenes of banquets, snake-like monsters, demons, a hyppocampus and a sarcophagus broken in many fragments, probably by tomb robbers. We are confident to find more art as the digging goes on," archaeologist Alessandra Minetti told Discovery News.

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One of Europe's most mysterious people, the Etruscans forged Italy's most sophisticated civilization before the Romans. They rose from Italian prehistory around 900 B.C. and dominated most of the country for about five centuries.

Yet mystery shrouds their history. First defeated by the Romans in the 4th century B.C., in 90 B.C., after centuries of decline, the Etruscans became Roman citizens. They left no literature to record their culture — few traces of their puzzling, non-Indo-European language survive. Only the richly decorated tombs they left behind provide a glimpse into their world.

"The newly excavated tomb belonged to a rich family, and shows that Sarteano wasn't just a countryside village, but a politically important center," Minetti said.

Vividly colored, the scenes in the tomb reflect a sinister change in the Etruscan concept of death. A fun loving and sensuous people, on the verge of decline they adopted the Greek vision of a demon-infested underworld.

"The figure with red hair is surely a death demon of some kind. This is confirmed by the black figure at her side, used by the Etruscans to characterize demons," chief archaeologist Mario Iozzo, director of the Center for Conservation in Florence and Chiusi's Archaeological Museum, told Discovery News.

With a chariot driven by gryphons, the demonic figure has probably come to hurry the soul of the deceased to the Underworld. Scholars are not sure whether the figure is Charu (Charon), normally shown as a bearded man with ruddy skin, the female Vanth, usually winged, or a totally unknown demon. They hope to find more clues as the digging continues.

Other paintings in the burial chamber are celebratory, showing joyful people banqueting — a scene more in tone with the spontaneity of the early Etruscan art.

Scholars are intrigued. "From what I can see, I can state that the painting is of exceptional quality, indeed a masterpiece of the late Etruscan style," Michael Padgett, curator of ancient art at Princeton University Art Museum, told Discovery News.

[farmfriend]

Consider yourself added. If you ever change your mind, just let me know.

[nopardons]

LOL ... pre the flood, when I was in boarding school, the choir, of which I was a member, had to learn to sing almost the entire AENEID and yes, I can still sing it. :-)

[Jonah Hex]

Hmmm... she bears a passing resemblance to Hillary!(tm) to me.

[buwaya]

The Basques are certainly genetically odd. Cavalli-Sforza "History and geography of human genes" has genetic maps of Europe, and the Basques form an isolate, and the regions around the Basque country a transition zone. The Basques have physical characteristics that distinguish them from the European norm, such as many times the rate of rare blood types.

[buwaya]

I did leave out Virgil as a chronicler of early Rome.

The Romans were later eager to show a glorious orgin for themselves, certainly, as were most of the Greeks. Everybody was a descendant of Hercules, or Athena, or somesuch.

[fqued]

I'd wager you went to a Jesuit high school in the NE

Pretty close--a Jesuit high school in Denver, Colo. Best school by far in Colorado at that time, and I got an education that doesn't quit.

[monkeyman81]

My theory is that there is a connection between Etruscan and Pelasgian(the pre-Indo-European -inthos or -ossos/-assos substratum of Greek, which may be related to Minoan.) I have little evidence for this, but it makes a lot of sense.
Pelasgian may be related to the Hurro-Urartian languages (the ancient languages of NE Anatolia, where M172 and related Y chromosome markers are found) which are thought to be NE Caucasian.
Genetic data shows that for Greece there is an association between the M172 Y chromosome marker that is associated with expansion from Anatolia to SE Europe and regions of intensive Neolithic settlement.
Here's the link:
http://www.santafe.edu/files/gems/ehlchronology/king.pdf
I wonder what genetic studies (esp. Y chromosome) of the Etruscan remains (or modern rural people from Tuscany and Umbria) would show.

[gracex7]

Would you also add me to your ping list?

Thank You!!

[Servant of the 9]

The figure with red hair is surely a death demon of some kind.

Yeah, redheads always bear watching.

So9

[tet68]

And here I thought it was Teraza HK~!

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[RightWhale]

The beginnings of Gothic style

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Do you know if they found the one that has a remarkable likeness to Helen Thomas?

[blam]

"The Basques are certainly genetically odd. Cavalli-Sforza "History and geography of human genes" has genetic maps of Europe, and the Basques form an isolate, and the regions around the Basque country a transition zone. The Basques have physical characteristics that distinguish them from the European norm, such as many times the rate of rare blood types."

The Relationship Between The Basque And Ainu

[SunkenCiv]

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