Among the peoples that attract interest, the Etruscans occupy a preferential place for having given rise in the center of the Italian Peninsula, in the region that takes its name from them:Etruria, to a unique civilization, unknown not only origin, but also their language, and there are many doubts about their political organization, their religion and all aspects of their spiritual development, since the historical sources with which we know them, although numerous, are difficult to interpret. And even to the later Roman civilization, already permeated by numerous Etruscan influences, this ancient people gave the impression of constituting a very neat entity, arousing the interest of fans of antiquity, while the Etruscan language remained completely isolated in the midst of a series of ancient Italic languages.
The Etruscan people entered History in a rapid and explosive way earlier than any other land in the West and the archaic character of their civilization may be due to the accumulation of traditions that endure in it.
Etruscan Civilization timeline
The essential data that emerges from the study of the Etruscan civilization is the succession and distinction of various phases:beginning and economic development, peak and long decline.
Beginningandepochofintenseeconomicdevelopment
A time of intense economic, political and cultural development, in which the Etruscans were of great importance in the Mediterranean, which would take place from the 9th to the 6th century BC
Apogee phase:6th century
During it, it was a great rival of the Greeks and Punics in the domains of Mediterranean trade, especially in the metal area.
Decadence:5th to 1st centuries BC
The following period, of decline, comprises the 5th to the 1st century BC, during which the Etruscans are reduced to a regional sphere and withdrawing into themselves and their ancient traditions until they are absorbed by the Romans.
But these phases should not be taken in the sense of a rigid and absolute scheme, given the complexity of the Etruscan phenomenon and the fluidity of the exchanges, so they should be kept in mind only at an indicative and interpretative level.
The origin of the Etruscans
The answers about the origin of this people have been very different, according to the various authors who have dealt with the subject, since ancient times, giving rise to a series of theories that we summarize below.
Old Authors:Hypothesis
lydians:herodotus
Ancient authors referred to its possible Lydian origin, and reached the Italian Peninsula in the course of a migration. Such is the news transmitted by Herodotus, in the 5th century BC. This migration would have taken place, as inferred from Herodotus' account, in the 13th century BC.
The ancient testimonies that have come down to us and that refer to the same subject are all later, but, almost without exception, they all agree on the Lydian origin assigned to them by Herodotus.
Of the same opinion are Titus Livy, Virgil, himself a native of an old Etruscan city, Horace and Ovid, who normally designate the Etruscans with the name of Lydians . And Tacitus collects the episode related to the Etruscans that happened during the Principality of Tiberius.
Thus, a delegation of inhabitants of Sardis, who requested the honor of building a temple in his honor and in that of Livia, his mother, read before the Roman Senate a decree calling the Etruscans brothers and recalling their common origin, also recalling the news transmitted by Herodotus about Tyrrhenian and its migration 783.
Autochthonous origin:Dionysius of Halicarnassus
The only discordant opinion among ancient authors is that of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek rhetorician who resided in Rome at the time of Augustus. In the first book of his work, Dionysius is interested in the Etruscan question. In effect, it recalls the opinion of a Greek historian somewhat later than Herodotus, Hellenic of Mytilene, according to whom the Etruscan nation came from a group of Pelasgians who would have landed at the bottom of the Adriatic Gulf and then descended through the Italian peninsula to settle Finally in Tuscany.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus also cites, criticizing it, the thesis of Herodotus, and, in his opinion, the Etruscan people are of great antiquity, their language and customs differing from those of all known peoples, concluding that they are indigenous to the regions they they inhabit.
Modern Authors:Hypothesis
Modern authors also have divided opinions.
Central European or autochthonous
Some put the origin either in Central Europe, or are in favor of its origin in Italy. For Altheim, the origin of the Etruscan people took place on Italian soil, although the orientalizing and Hellenic elements cannot be denied, while from a purely philological point of view, Devoto affirms that the Etruscans were pre-Indo-European.
The Etruscan civilization is made up of very varied ethnic elements and lacks the individuality and unity assigned to it by the defenders of the other theses related to its origins (oriental, autochthonous and northern Italy), therefore, the process of formation of this town, which is very complex and is not related to simplistic theories that suppose that it appeared already formed and once and for all, although taking into account that the Etruscan fact is an Italic fact , and that this town was formed in Italy, developing there and, therefore, it is convenient to follow its history without paying attention to legendary data without possible verification. For this reason, the best way to refer to the Etruscans is perhaps to say that already in the 7th and 6th centuries this strongly constituted people appeared in Etruria, where various elements, faced with the challenge of a new geographical environment and with economic-social problems Unpublished, together they created a political entity radically different from what its components were, in other areas and times.
Orientalorigin
It is difficult to eliminate from the set of features of the Etruscan nation those that seem to demonstrate the presence of elements from Asia Minor, thinking that, perhaps, the appearance of a nucleus from the East would represent the determining cause of an unexpected cultural impulse in the center of that still semi-barbaric Italy. The similarity of many artistic, religious and linguistic features of the Tuscans with certain peoples of Asia Minor cannot be explained otherwise:the Hittite-style kings' pointed-toe shoes, the oriental golden crown, the shape and elements of the temple:The high podium, the columns that support the pediment, which are found in Urartean temples, etc., even the name of rasenna, with which the Etruscans designated themselves, takes us to Asia Minor.
Oriental cultural references similar to Etruscan culture
They have appeared along with other engravings on the walls of vases, dating back to the 7th century, a time long before the conquest in 510 BC. of the island by the Athenians. On this island, whose occupants did not have Hellenic origin, the inscription is strange, since its morphological and lexicographical features approximate the known Tuscan texts, with endings, word formations and even equal terms, so it can be said that is written in an Etruscan language , spoken by Asians related to the Etruscans.
Its date takes us back to the time when the Tyrrhenians were looking for land to settle, constituting a precious milestone that unites the Asian and Tuscan coasts.
The goldsmithing techniques are also oriental, very similar to the Hittite ones, and some examples of Etruscan jewelery only have parallels in Asia Minor. Likewise, the use of matrimonio it is only attested in Etruscan funerary inscriptions and in Lycia.
Coincidences are also found in the religious field, such as having a revealed religion, whose doctrine was contained in some sacred books, the cipos placed on the tombs, which recall the cult of the betilos of the Cretomycenic civilization and Asia Minor. The demons Tuchulcha and Charum , with a superhuman face and body remind us of the Assyrian representations and, above all, the Etruscan discipline, assigns an important role to the study and interpretation of omens and prodigies, and divination by the liver of the victims, on which We will return below when we refer to the Etruscan religion, leading us once again towards Asia Minor.
Thus, the ancient tradition regarding the origins of the Etruscan people is not invalidated by recent studies and research, since the ties that unite Etruria and Asia Minor emerge progressively more and more clearly. For this author, then, the Etruscans emerged:
Of complex elements from different populations.
The oriental characters of the Etruscan people that are manifested in thought, culture, religion, art and hydraulics can only be explained if we resort to the hypothesis of the arrival, at the beginning of the 7th century BC, of Asian navigators, who, since southern Italy and Sicily were populated by Greek settlers, they settled in Tuscany. The Villanovians, according to this theory, would be Proto-Etruscans.
These claims run up against the question of why the Etruscans did not appear until about 500 B.C. in the Po plain.
History of Etruria
The Etruscan civilization was the first European empire and long before Rome, this people was about to unify the Italian peninsula for their benefit.
Developmentandconfiguration
From the 7th century B.C. there is, in the heart of the Italian peninsula, a completely original civilization, different from those that surround it. The archaeological material contained in their tombs attests to the brilliant and rapid development of this civilization. The open funerary chambers in the earth and stone mounds offer abundant evidence of gold and ivory.
Its technique, culture, agriculture, mines, industry, coffered ceiling. customs, fashions, way of life, religion and language are completely new in relation to the surrounding Italic cultures, for the most part, much more backward Indo-Europeans.
The linear and geometric decoration of the last Villanovans is replaced by a new and complex decoration, with wild animals, fantastic beings and oriental motifs found in different places in Tuscany, where the finds from the 7th century BC were more abundant and spectacular, such as in Populonia and Vetulonia, with the tombs of the Duce and the Lictor, in Marsiliana d'Albegna, with the Ivory and Fibula circles, in Vulci, with the tomb of Isis and in Cerveteri, with the Regolini-Galassi tomb.
The text of Tito Livio is indicative of what the Romans themselves thought of this civilization:The power of Etruria was such that the fame of its name spread not only over the land but also over the sea, throughout Italy , from the Alps to the Straits of Messina .
Economic prosperity and military strength led the Etruscans to spread across Italian soil. Owners of the coast between the Arno and the Tiber, and owners of the valleys leading inland to the Apennines, they were naturally inclined to direct their gazes towards Latium and Capania. In the second half of the 7th century, Etruscan domination was established over the Latin country and over the Italic League, which grouped some forty-seven peoples linked together by religious ties and over Rome itself, a member of this Latin League.
Influences
A large number of objects of Cypriot, Phoenician and Greek origin have been found in Etruria, denoting the great economic prosperity and the high purchasing power to which this society reached, undoubtedly emanating from the exploitation of the iron and copper mines, so abundant in the Tuscan region.
While Etruscan objects, especially the typical shiny black pottery, have been found outside this region both in Italy and in other Mediterranean countries, which presupposes a great maritime power, well known in various representations.
Political institutions
The Etruscan city-states evolved towards the 6th-4th centuries, from a militaristic dictatorship and religious monarchy to an oligarchic Republic with a series of institutions:
- Lucumón or priest-king .
- Senate.
- Collegiate magistrates , elective and temporary with religious and political powers.
- Popular assemblies .
- Other charges were:
• Zilath :possibly equivalent to the Roman praetor.
• Purthe :possibly also functionally equivalent to the Greek prytan or Roman dictator.
• Macstereuc :Roughly equivalent in function to a Roman militia chief.
• Maru :whose occupations would be approximately those of the Roman aedile, with religious connotations.
There could also have been a lus Etruriae (Etruscan law), with legislation on land ownership.
Social organization
Etruscan society was of the gentile type, with a two-member onomastic system, made up of the personal proper name and the family or gentile name, to which other elements were added such as the patronymic or name of the father, the matronymic or name of the mother and the cognomen, or personal denomination, which appears late and usually also designates a personal branch of the gens.
The Gentes (plural of gens) were divided according to their fortune and personal status into different social classes, of which we can deduce from the inscriptions the following:
Among the Etruscans proper were distinguished:
• Free , divided in turn into:
— Patricians.
— Commoners.
— Freedmen or lautni, derived from the Etruscan term lautn familia or familiar .
— Slaves or lethi.
• Foreigners .
Economy and commerce
The Etruscan economy was fundamentally based on the vine, the olive tree and wood. Livestock in herds of horses and sheep. This town is famous for the application of new hydraulic techniques, with impressive engineering works, as well as for surveying and zootechnics. The mining wealth of the Etruscan people was fundamentally based on iron, copper and tin minerals, which were basically found in three areas:
• Elba Island.
• Populonia.
• Vetlonia.
The economic activity was based, at first, on barter, passing in a second moment, around the 5th century BC, to the minting of coins.
The minted metals were, in chronological order:
- Aes rude:used at first. These aces were unmarked bronze ingots that were weighed at each trade, making transactions difficult.
- Aes signatum:later bronze bars were used to which an engraved sign was placed, an invention attributed to King Servius Tullius by Timaeus and confirmed by the discovery of a fragment from one of those bars in the sanctuary of Gela, datable to the second quarter of the sixth century B.C. It is not a coin in the classic sense of the term, but a pre-monetary instrument whose price is guaranteed by the symbol engraved on its surface. It constitutes an unequivocal sign of the existence of a political authority that guarantees the bullion and its weight, as well as the need for an economy, or economic needs. Where these first aces were minted is unknown.
- Greek coins were also used, minted from the 7th century BC
- Etruscan minting of gold and silver coins, following Euboic and Persian patterns.
- As of the 3rd century BC, all this numeraire disappeared, being absorbed by Roman issues.
The industrial activity was based on the manufacture of goldsmithing. bronzes, fabrics, ceramics (imposto, red or blackish clay; bucchero, shiny black), leather goods and in food products. The commercial activity was the product, at first, of piratical activities, until the formation of markets for both import and export. Frequently, transactions were carried out with the different peoples of the Mediterranean and central Europe:Phoenicians, Greeks, Punics and Celts, the main areas of trade being:Spain; France, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Black Sea, Cyprus and Syria.
As for the specialties of this trade, different centers stand out:
• Fall:food.
• Populonia:iron.
• Tarquinia:sails for canopies.
• Volterra:rope, fish and wheat.
• Arretium:weapons.
• Chiusi, Perugia and Ruselae:they stand out for the production of grain, wood and bronzes.
The protagonists at first of the influence on Turia were the Corinthians, the Chalcidians from Euboea and from the colonies of Italy and Sicily.
From 630 BC, the Greeks of the Asian Ionia were intermediaries in the West for the proverbial riches of Lydia and the East:ceramics. bronzes, ivories, precious stones and the excellent manufactures, mainly wines, fabrics and ceramics that gave fame to the Greek poleis of Corinth, Sparta, Athens and the Ionian cities such as Miletus and Ephesus.
Extra-urban spaces were dedicated to this trade where, initially, the place of arrival had been for centuries. In them, worship centers were established for divinities who, with their presence, guaranteed:
• Investments.
• The security of said transactions.
• The validity of the operations carried out.
• The loan of money, from which benefits were obtained that the gods, priests and sanctuary would recover in the form of tithes .
Of these economic-religious emporiums similar to the one that the Ionians and Aeginetans established in Egypt, specifically in Naucratis, in the Nile delta, the Gravisca is found in Etruria. The divinities that were venerated in it, great goddesses that with their presence were the guarantors of the power of financial activity, were:
• Hera-Uni.
• Demeter-Vei.
• Kore-Phersipinai.
• Aphrodite-Turan.
Bringing to the West an oriental model in general and a Phoenician model in particular, that the Greeks had already copied in the sanctuary of Artemis in Ephesus and that the Phoenicians had traced in the numerous sanctuaries of Hercules distributed throughout their Mediterranean colonies.
The figure of Aphrodite-Turan is curious , whose name derives, as we have said, from the Indo-European root meaning power and the pejorative connotation that is attempted to be given to its existence in its cult of sacred prostitutes.
If commerce is linked to prostitution as a logical consequence:sex ="prior payment" =money =economic activity, the role of feminine divinities in the economy is being minimized. The existence of male prostitutes in similar sanctuaries of male divinities is being hidden, and all this, with the purpose of minimizing the role of these goddesses. Hera and Demeter are related to commercial currents from Samos and Sicily, respectively, associating Hera (protector of marriage) and Demeter (generator of grain and life) with matrimonial ties. The existence of a Templar structure linked to these feminine divinities also reveals the existence of a legal instrument for the liberation of the servile classes, evidenced by D. Musti in the case of Locros and that we also find in the sanctuary of Diana on the Aventine.
Areas of extension and development of the Etruscan civilization
With respect to the extension and development of the main Etruscan centers, two zones can be distinguished:The central-northern Etruria and the southern Etruria.
The approximate boundary between the two areas was the course of the Fiora River, which empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea, and of the Paglia, which empties into the Tiber, generally the modern boundaries between Lazio and Tuscany.
Initial geographic distribution
The starting point of this civilization was the Tyrrhenian coast between Tarquinia and Vulci, but it spread widely, north to Bologna and south to the Alban mountains.
Dodecarquia
It was carried out in the southern zone or Lazial and its peripheral territories, with coastal metropolises, such as Veii or Caere, Tarquinia or Vulci, and inland cities such as Capena, Falerri and Volsini.
From this primitive nucleus, the Etruscans, politically organized in twelve cities (Dode-cápolis), of which it seems that the cities of:Caere, Veii, Tarquinia, Volsinii, Crotona, Arretium, Clusium, Perugia, Volterra, Vetulonia, Rusellae, Vulci, their federal capital unknown, began their territorial expansion north and south, a fact corroborated by innumerable archaeological testimonies. Tito Livio and Cato recall the strength and power they had, to the point of dominating practically the entire Italian peninsula, since only part of Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria were left out in the west, Veneto to the east and much of the eastern half of the peninsula, as well as the entire area occupied by the Greeks (Magna Grecia).
Expansion
The Etruscan expansion began at the end of the 8th century, after conquering Lazio (Tusculum, Praeneste and the archaic phase of Rome), entering south with the founding of cities in Campania and competing with the Greek colonies. To the north coastal settlements were founded (Ven or Veii, Caere, with its three ports Alsium, Pyrgi and Punicum and Vulci) and inland Capena, Falerii, Falerii Novi and Volsini. In the central-northern area there are, among others, Vetulonia and Populonia in the coastal area and Perugia and Volterra in the interior.
In peripheral territories, there were Etruscan settlements in Lazio, Campania, Sabinia, Umbria, northern Apennines, Romagna, northern Spina and in Emilia.
The Etruscan thalassocracy
The western Mediterranean was the scene of a tenacious struggle for dominance of one and the other that, in reality, could not be established by any of these three seafaring peoples.
In their fight for the dominance of the West and, possibly, for the sources of metal in the Iberian Peninsula and Sardinia, a double confrontation could be seen:
A) Etruscan/Punic commercial confrontation
They clashed with the Carthaginians for control of the Mediterranean, although relations between the two powers were peaceful, so the division of the areas of influence was not difficult. The powerful Etruscan fleet lasted until 474 BC. when it was destroyed in the battle of Cumae .
B) Greek/Etruscan-Punic commercial confrontation
But one and the other often opposed the Greek companies by force, since these, the Greeks, from the eighth century BC, had begun to transform the south of the Italian peninsula into a strongly Hellenized area, which is known as with the name of Magna Grecia.
The time of the beginning of the Etruscan expansion by sea was in the 7th century, carrying out large-scale maritime operations.
Within the framework of the aforementioned structures, commercial activities grew vertiginously throughout the 7th and 6th centuries BC, reaching their peak in the last quarter of this century.
The protagonists of this new stage were Greeks:Samios, Milesios and Focenses.
This irruption of oriental merchants is due to the conquest of Ionia and Egypt by the Persians, between 546 and 525, which collapsed the Ionian trade, forcing the inhabitants of Focea to emigrate to the West. Once the Phocians settled in Alalia, in Corsica, they began a series of pirate raids on the Etruscan coast itself. The response was immediate and the fleet of Caere, allied with that of Carthage, also threatened in its trade with the Phocian implantation in the West, inflicted a serious defeat on the Phocian ships in Alalia in the year 540 (or 535) BC. that they are forced to leave Alalia in Etruscan hands, which would occupy it until Roman times.
Subsequently, the Greeks of Asia were replaced throughout the Mediterranean by the Aeginetans (inhabitants of the island located opposite Athens, in the Gulf of Salamis), of whom a marble anchor dedicated to Apollo Aegineta has been found in Gravisca.
At Alalia the Greeks won but at the cost of such heavy losses that they had to withdraw to southern Italy, where they founded Elea and the Etruscans maintained their bases in Corsica. It was Carthage the real winner in this struggle as it expanded its radius of action in the south of the western Mediterranean, which will be closed to Greek and Etruscan companies. With this, Etruria was limited to the north of the Tyrrhenian Sea, having to accept Greek competition, which would end up ruining its hegemony over the Italian coast.
The end of Etruria
After finding its apogee in the 6th century, Etruria declined in the 5th-4th centuries BC, signified by the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome (509 BC), a decline that culminated in the battle of Cumae (474 BC). . Then began its slow economic and political decline:the cities of the interior were looted by acts of Greek piracy, owners from now on of the seas of Etruria, and by the ships of Syracuse, which collapsed the export activity of the Port of Pyrgi.
• In Lazio, the Latin cities also shook off the Etruscan yoke.
• In Campania, the political vacuum left by the Etruscan weakness was taken advantage of by the peoples of the interior, Oscans and Samnites, who moved from the mountains to the more fertile plain, occupying all the Etruscan cities in the area, up to Capua itself (423 BC).
Causes
Carthage was paralyzed in Sicily after the defeat against the Greeks in Himera (480 BC), coinciding with the Greco-Persian problem (Medicean wars) and with the battle of Salamis.
This Greek victory raised the city of Syracuse to a hegemonic power. Cumae was the Greek city most affected by these clashes because it was surrounded by Etruscan territory, which tried to juggle it. In 474 BC the attempt to conquer it took place, Cumas asked for help from the tyrant of Syracuse, whose fleet fought against the Etruscan troops, being defeated (474 BC). This is, it meant, as we said above, the collapse of the Etruscan influence in southern Italy.
Etruria was thus reduced to its original territory and to the northern area of expansion along the Po and the Adriatic coast.
At the beginning of the 4th century, the northern area collapsed due to the Gallic invasions, giving rise to Cisalpine Gaul and finally the annexation by Rome of the southern Etruscan cities:Veii was the first, in 470 BC. The rest gradually fell and by the beginning of the 3rd century Etruria itself had lost its independence under the power of Rome, also losing its cultural identity and even its language, which was supplanted by Latin.
Etruscan script and language
The outward appearance of Etruscan writing is known to us thanks to numerous finds. We know the oldest inscriptions because they have been found engraved on numerous vessels and cups found in Etruscan tombs.
From the same seventh century B.C. date the oldest alphabets known to date, which prove how widespread writing was among the Etruscans already at this time:
- The engraving on a 9×5 cm ivory tablet, dating back to 700 B.C., found in the Marsiliana necropolis, in the lower course of the Albergna, does not far from the Ortebello lagoon. On its edge are engraved the 26 letters of an alphabet that should serve as a model and help the memory of its owner to do exercises, who wore it around his neck.
- The same alphabet is also engraved on a fine bucchero container, shaped like a rooster, perhaps an inkwell, for which the animal's head served as a movable lid.
- Other finds, from the 7th century BC, made in Formello, near Veies, in Cerveteri and in other Etruscan places.
The Etruscan alphabet
We have no difficulty in reading the Etruscan alphabet, since it is taken directly from the Western Greek, itself derived from the Phoenician alphabet around the 7th century BC.
The problem is knowing why the Etruscans have this alphabet. For some authors, they would have taken it directly from Asia Minor, although for others it was taken directly by the Etruscans from the Greeks of Cumae, in Campania.
The reading of the Etruscan texts
Han sido fallidos, hasta ahora, todos los esfuerzos que se han hecho para descifrar la lengua etrusca, de la cual se conocen más de diez mil inscripciones, todas ellas demasiado cortas, ya que se tratan de inscripciones funerarias que solamente citan el nombre del difunto, la edad, sus funciones, y sólo algunos verbos y sustantivos.
Los textos más largos descubiertos son:
— La venda de la momia del Museo de Zagreb, con mil quinientas palabras. Contiene el calendario de un ritual público.
— La teja de arcilla de Capua, actualmente en Berlín, con seiscientas palabras. Son prescripciones sacadas de un ritual de enterramiento.
Con lo que llegamos a la conclusión de que los únicos textos utilizables para poder descifrar la lengua etrusca están relacionados con los ritos de enterramiento, y su contenido no va más allá de las inscripciones litúrgicas, del culto a los muertos.
Las conclusiones a las que han llegado los filólogos que se han ocupado de su estudio son:
— Que no se trata de una lengua indoeuropea, que no puede interpretarse por comparación con ninguna de las lenguas actualmente conocidas, vivas o muertas.
— Que tiene ciertas particularidades gramaticales que aparecen también en ciertos dialectos de Asia Menor occidental, como el licio, el cario o el lidio.
y el único hallazgo fuera de Italia que ofrece ciertas similitudes con el etrusco es la estela funeraria de la isla de Lemnos, a la que más arriba nos hemos referido.
El arte etrusco
Períodos
La construcción y la plástica etruscas propiamente dichas se extienden desde finales del siglo IX hasta el siglo I, aproximadamente. En su evolución se suelen seguir unos períodos que siguen con algún retraso los del arte griego, dividiéndose en:
Orientalizante (siglos VIII-VII), arcaico (siglos VI y V):influencia griega y clásico (siglos V-I).
Architecture
En Etruria se construía sobre todo en madera, alternando, con piedra y adobe, popularizaron las dos formas más importantes de sustentación y cubierta:el arco y la bóveda.
Las ciudades
Estaban emplazadas en alturas bien definidas, rodeadas por potentes muros, como las murallas de Volterra, de unos nueve kilómetros de largo, nueve metros de alto y más de cuatro de espesor, en las que se abrían unas puertas monumentales a veces adornadas con cabezas, como vemos en Faleri.
Se trazaban dependiendo de dos ejes:Cardo :de norte a sur, y Decumanus :de este a oeste, que se cruzaban en el centro, formando esta división cuatro barrios principales.
Las calles estaban bien pavimentadas y eran excelentes los sistemas de drenaje, imitado todo más tarde por los romanos. Las viviendas eran simples cabañas de planta circular o casas, cuyo trazado era generalmente:
— Planta rectangular.
— Abertura en el techo para ventilación y salida de humos e iluminación.
— Una gran sala a la que se abrían las habitaciones.
Esto lo conocemos por las excavaciones, reproducciones en barro cocido y la descripción de Vitrubio.
Los templos
El templo etrusco evolucionó con el tiempo. En sus comienzos no existió regularidad en las plantas, aunque parecen reproducir esquemas de las fases más arcaicas del templo griego. Algunas particularidades arcaicas son:
• La triple celia , que ya aparecía en el santuario de Júpiter Capitolino, con capilla para Júpiter, Juno y Minerva y en dos templos de Marzabotto (siglo VI a.C.), de los que el más importante es el denominado templo C, con:
— Planta más bien cuadrada.
— Alto podio.
— In antis.
— Siempre con cuatro columnas.
— Estas columnas de madera.
— Cubierta de barro cocido, a dos vertientes, con fuerte inclinación, con revestimiento y adornos de barro cocido (acroteras ), de las que son ejemplo las del templo de Mercurio, en Faleri, que figuran dos guerreros combatiendo, con fuerte policromía.
— Columnas de madera con base de piedra. Cuando también los fustes son de piedra se denominan toscanas :columna dórica con base y fuste liso, utilizando además otros tipos de soporte aislado.
Este tipo de construcción evolucionó sobre todo en la decoración, encontrándose los frontones adornados con barro cocido (terracota ) y frisos continuos también en terracota.
• Los revestimientos de estuco.
• El altar al aire libre (podium).
• Edificio con pozo, mundus o centro religioso de la ciudad.
La arquitectura funeraria
Es mucho más importante en Etruria la arquitectura funeraria que la religiosa o civil y encontramos cantidad de ejemplos, presentando los enterramientos una perfecta evolución de la bóveda. El tipo arcaico lo encontramos en la necrópolis de Populonia, con:
— Sepulcros de cremación e inhumación que repiten tipos villanovianos y en medio de ellos surgen los túmulos, que cubren tumbas de cámara.
En resumen, los tipos de tumba etrusca fueron, cronológicamente:
• Los túmulos cónicos con planta circular.
• Simultáneamente los enterramientos de pozo y fosa.
• Hipogeos de cámara.
De especial interés es la tumba Regolini-Galassi, de Cerveteri, situada en el interior de un grandioso túmulo que englobaba otras cinco tumbas.
Los palacios
Siempre se ha supuesto, por desconocimiento, que no existía una arquitectura palaciega en Etruria, lógica estructura correspondiente en los vivos a lo que en los muertos conocemos como tumbas principescas. Se ha puesto en evidencia la existencia de dos grandes palacios.
El palacio de Murlo , del siglo VII a.C., es un edificio de casi 60 metros de lado, organizado en torno a un gran patio central provisto de columnas de madera en tres de sus lados, con cuatro espacios idénticos en sus esquinas.
Este tipo de arquitectura imita modelos orientales que se relacionan con el tipo sirio de Bithilani y el liwan persa, complejo destinado a las audiencias y banquetes reales de tan larga tradición en la posterior arquitectura árabe de Occidente («Patio de los Leones», Alhambra de Granada).
El palacio de Acquarosa , carece de la simetría del de Murlo, aunque tiene elementos nuevos con respecto a él, como es una abertura muy pequeña situada directamente en frente de un gran foso rectangular practicado en el patio, hallado lleno de cenizas, prueba evidente de que era la eschara, el foso a donde iban a parar los restos de los sacrificios relacionados, evidentemente, con el culto de la gens .
La Religión Etrusca
Para más información pueden leer el artículo sobre la Religión Etrusca.