Here it is!
Posted on 04/03/2007 9:27:29 PM PDT by neverdem
Geneticists have added an edge to a 2,500-year-old debate over the origin of the Etruscans, a people whose brilliant and mysterious civilization dominated northwestern Italy for centuries until the rise of the Roman republic in 510 B.C. Several new findings support a view held by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus — but unpopular among archaeologists — that the Etruscans originally migrated to Italy from the Near East.
Though Roman historians played down their debt to the Etruscans, Etruscan culture permeated Roman art, architecture and religion. The Etruscans were master metallurgists and skillful seafarers who for a time dominated much of the Mediterranean. They enjoyed unusually free social relations, much remarked on by ancient historians of other cultures.
“Sharing wives is an established Etruscan custom,” wrote the Greek historian Theopompos of Chios in the fourth century B.C. “Etruscan women take particular care of their bodies and exercise often. It is not a disgrace for them to be seen naked. Further, they dine not with their own husbands, but with any men who happen to be present.”
He added that Etruscan women “are also expert drinkers and are very good looking.”
Etruscan culture was very advanced and very different from other Italian cultures of the time. But most archaeologists have seen a thorough continuity between a local Italian culture known as the Villanovan that emerged around 900 B.C. and the Etruscan culture, which began in 800 B.C.
“The overwhelming proportion of archaeologists would regard the evidence for eastern origins of the Etruscans as negligible,” said Anthony Tuck, an archaeologist at the University of Massachusetts Center for Etruscan Studies.
Because Italians take pride in the Roman empire and the Etruscan state that preceded it, asserting a foreign origin for the Etruscans has long been politically controversial in Italy. Massimo Pallottino, the dean of...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Here it is!
bump
He added that Etruscan women “are also expert drinkers and are very good looking.”
...wondering if Theopompos had his "4th Century BC Beer Goggles" on?
You have to be awfully nearsighted to think a woman looking like that statue was beautiful.
Hmmm. Etruscan women were expert drinkers, good looking great bodies, love to go naked and hook up with men other than their husbands.
“Etruscan culture was very advanced” No kidding!
No wonder the Romans wanted to conquer them. The rape of the Sabine women may have been an actual fact—but maybe redundant?
How’s this for a theory?
The Egyptians originally coined the name “Peoples of the Sea” for the foreign contingents that the Libyans brought in to support their attack on Egypt in c. 1220 BC during the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah. In the records of that war, five Sea Peoples are named: the Shardana, Teresh, Lukka, Shekelesh and Ekwesh, and are collectively referred to as “northerners coming from all lands”. The evidence for their exact origins is extremely sparse, but archaeologists specializing in this period have proposed the following:
The Shardana may have originated in northern Syria, but later moved to Cyprus and probably eventually ended up as the Sardinians.
The Teresh and Lukka were probably from western Anatolia, and may correspond to the ancestors of the later Lydians and Lycians, respectively. However, the Teresh may also have been the people later known to the Greeks as the Tyrsenoi, i.e., the Etruscans, and already familiar to the Hittites as the Taruisa, which latter is suspiciously similar to the Greek Troia. I won’t speculate on how this fits in with the Aeneas legend.
Sorta fits with the article we’re discussing with the exception of the years. But dating can be off sometimes as new cultures at different locations arise.
Herodotus is also called the father of liars.
He was called “Father of Lies” by Plutarch, but the P-man had some issues with Herodotus’ treatment of the Persians — Plutarch thought the Persians weren’t portrayed in all their evil-ness. A few years back there was a headline that Herodotus had been shot down again regarding some hearsay he’d included about, hmm, I think it was burial practices in Central Asia. But the story described the very things he’d written about having been found in some dig there. :’)
The Etruscans only had to traverse the Mediterranean, not the North Sea. In both cases, there was so much coming and going that knowledge of the territories was current and thorough.
The dating is indeed off. :’)
I think the Sabines were not Etruscan, but I didn’t check. :’) The Romans and Greek didn’t have their wives to dinner when there were guests (not at this time), but the Etruscans did. :’)
Heroditus was a collector of myths and folktales. Entertaining, but not history.
Probably the most significant invention in the history of architecture: The Etruscan Arch.
Perhaps.
But the linear distance between Asia Minor and northwestern Italy is greater than the linear distance between the coast of northern Germany and coast of Britain. Additionally the Etruscans, like most Ancient sailors, would probably have followed the coastlines wherever possible, which would have made the journy even longer.
I wonder why they selected that spot rather than place closer - like Sicily ?
Separating them can be trying at times. But a lot of what he said made sense.
For instance, he said the Ancient Egyptians build the pyramids from the top down. In actuality, the exteriors were probably FINISHED from the top down after the actual structures were completed.
Ping...
Or was entertaining or both. Somebody mentioned he was the father of history and he sort of was in the sense that he caused some to say 'we have to tighten this up a little.'
Edom, a nation of people descended from Jacob's big brother Esau, and roundly cursed by prophet after prophet for their treatment of the Hebrews. Petra was once an Edomite capitol, and remains an eerie and fascinating historical site in modern-day Jordan.
Greek sailor to Etruscan sailor: You call that a boat? You couldn’t from Athens to Alexandria in a month in a tailwind in that tub.
True. But that statue is of a man.
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