Etruscan Religion and Afterlife -Libre

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ETRUSCAN RITUAL AND

REL IG ION.......................................................................................................

TOM RASMUSSEN

1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................

In the ancient Mediterranean world, ritual and religion were not add-ons to human

existence but an intrinsic part of daily living. This seems to have been especially true of

Etruscan society. Les plus religieux des hommes was the title given to a conference held in

1992 on Etruscan religion, and the phrase was not invented for the occasion but are the

words of the Roman historian Livy, from whom we get a good deal of relevant information.

This brings us straight to a serious problem in studying the topic. Livy was writing during

the reign of the Emperor Augustus, by which time the Etruscans had been under Roman

rule for more than two centuries and an independent Etruria was but a very distant

memory. Cicero, another important source, was a generation earlier than Livy, but many

other key informants are of the later Roman Empire and Byzantine periods, all of them

writing about a society of long before their time, that belonged essentially to the period of

the tenth to first centuries bc. Moroever, few of these writers knew anything about the

Etruscan language, while few of the earlier sources that they quote go back earlier than the

first century bc.

Exactly when the non-Indo-European-speaking Etruscans first emerged in central Italy

is at present not known, but their heartland was the area between the Tyrrhenian sea and

the Arno and Tiber Rivers. This territory was divided between a number of separate,

independent states, but which were linked to each other by social, cultural, and, especially,

religious ties (Rasmussen 2005). Several sources speak of a league of twelve cities (in Latin

the duodecim populi) which met regularly at the fanum (sanctuary) of Voltumna. Two

pieces of information about it we learn from a very late Roman inscription: it was presided

over by an annually elected priest, and the sanctuary was somewhere in the region of

Volsinii (Orvieto). At present the best candidate for its location is a site at Campo della

Fiera outside that city.

Early approaches at understanding Etruscan cult and religion, which go back to the

eighteenth century, were confined to listing and discussing the relevant Greek and Latin

sources. Only in the last century did the available archaeological material begin to be taken

OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi



into consideration (e.g. Ross Taylor 1923), and in the latter part of it attention was also given

in earnest to the iconography of figurative art works, of which many were specifically

produced for sanctuary and funerary use. In the meantime, understanding of the Etruscan

language, which is written in a basically Greek alphabet, has gained greater precision

(Bonfante and Bonfante 2002); most inscriptions, of which there are many thousands

(Rix 1991) beginning c.700 bc, can be read with little difficulty. Some of the longer

ones—including the longest of all which is written on linen later used for wrapping an

Egyptian mummy now in Zagreb Museum—have specifically to do with liturgy and cult

practice, and these do pose problems mainly of vocabulary. It is now generally recognized

that the way forward is to give equal focus to all three types of evidence: the monuments

and their archaeological context, the many relevant inscriptions, and what the ancient (non-

Etruscan) sources have to say on the subject.

There are many basic elements concerned with the sacred which the Etruscans shared

with other Mediterranean peoples such as the Greeks. For example, their cult activities took

place in carefully laid out sanctuaries to various gods, which were situated both within the

urban environment and also in the countryside beyond (Colonna 1985). In the latter case,

their siting may have had a political as well as a religious motive, affirming the extent of the

territory of the controlling city. Sanctuaries might have one or more temples or none at all.

An altar was essential, and animal sacrifice was common. The evidence for human sacrifice

is controversial and it seems not to have been a regular practice. Votive offerings were in

various forms including pottery, sculpture, figurines, or anatomical models of body parts.

Other elements are quite distinctive, however, especially the tradition surrounding the

figure of Tages (Richardson 2008). The name is Latin, but behind it must lie an Etruscan

name such as Tarchies. The Etruscans possessed a body of written doctrine, now mostly

lost but known to the Romans as the Etrusca disciplina, that was supposed to go back to a

divine teacher. Tages, who sprang up from a plough furrow with the stature of a newborn

but the features of an adult, proclaimed this wisdom to a large audience that included

leaders from all over Etruria. That the setting for the event should have been Tarquinia, one

of the largest and oldest Etruscan cities, seems appropriate: here is the site of one of the

biggest temples (the Ara della Regina), as well as a recently excavated sanctuary where the

focal point seems to have been the burial of a small child with cranial abnormalities

suggestive of epilepsy (which in the ancient world was associated with trance-like and

revelatory states). We know of no large-scale Etruscan secular literature, but the sacred

books of the disciplina were divided into sections on, among other topics, divination and

the afterlife, on the interpretation of lightning, and on rituals connected with the founding

of cities and sacred places (Jannot 2005: 18–33).

2 D IVINATION..................................................................................................................

We may obtain a flavour of these texts from the lengthy ‘thunder (brontoscopic) calendar’

that survives in a Greek translation but the original of which is thought to go back to the

Tagetic writings (Turfa 2006). For example, for 23 February: ‘If it thunders, it threatens

deformity for men but destruction for birds’; for 23 April: ‘If it thunders, it signifies a rain

helpful for the sprouting time.’ Not surprisingly for any ancient society, many of the


ETRUSCAN RITUAL AND RELIGION 709



worries concerning the future are to do with health and with crop fertility. Lightning, too,

needed careful evaluation. Different shapes and colours of lightning offered different

meanings, and it mattered greatly where it appeared in the sky and where on the ground

it struck. Being an adept at understanding the laws of lightning was not, to the Etruscan

mind, such a far cry from being able to produce it, to draw lightning down from the sky,

and we hear of occasional claims that people were able to do this.

On the subject of lightning the Roman writer Seneca (Quaestiones Naturales 2.32.2) isparticularly revealing: ‘We think that because clouds collide, lightning is emitted; but they

[the Etruscans] believe that clouds collide in order that lightning may be emitted. They are

convinced that . . . these things occur because they are meant to reveal the future’. The close

observation of natural phenomena is a priestly concern that one also finds in the ancient

Near East and Mesopotamia, but the Etruscans always went beyond pure observation to

interpretation: the natural world, and the cosmos, were not randomly arranged but

organized by the gods in accordance with a system of signs that, correctly understood,

could unveil the future. It is a system that embraced not only virtually all aerial phenomena,

such as the flight of birds and the calls they emitted, but also all life on earth. Anything out

of the ordinary (e.g. birth defects), or that occurred unexpectedly (e.g. meteors) was a clue

concerning the gods’ will.

Another approach to divination was to examine the entrails of sacrificed animals,

especially the liver of sheep. This art of haruspicy also has very close correlations with

Mesopotamian practice where the animal liver (and sometimes the lungs and other organs)

was examined for similar purposes. Focus was on the liver presumably because it is not only

the largest internal organ but also because its surface is particularly responsive to changes in

the overall health of the animal. A healthy liver was good, any sign of disease bad; and that

is probably as far as Mesopotamian (and Greek) practitioners went. But the Etruscans saw

the liver in cosmic terms—as a reflection of the sky above, different parts of which were

‘inhabited’ by different gods. One of the most famous of all Etruscan artefacts is a life-size

bronze model of a sheep’s liver (van der Meer 1987), found near Piacenza in 1877, its upper

surface divided into many compartments with the name of a god inscribed in each

(Figure 44.1). A breakthrough in understanding the object came, some generations ago,

when its upper surface was shown to bear a close resemblance to a description of the sky in

16 parts by the late Roman writer Martianus Capella (1.45–61); this is the same number as

the compartments on the outer rim of the model. The 16 parts of the Etruscan sky are also

mentioned by earlier writers such as Cicero, but it is only Martianus who connects each of

the regions to one or more gods. The Roman names of several of Martianus’ gods have

some correlations with those on the liver, others are more difficult to compare with it, but it

is generally agreed that his text, though laden with later quasi-philosophical embellish-

ments, goes back to an original Etruscan treatise.

The precise orientation of the regions of the Etruscan sky in terms of north, south etc., is

supplied in a brief passage by Pliny (2.55.143). Moreover the locations of a number of gods

listed in Martianus to a certain extent match their positions on the rim of the liver,

sufficiently to make it clear that the gods of good omen and those of ill omen were on

opposite sides of the heavens (roughly, east and west respectively). There are others in his

list that correspond to some of the names in the liver’s inner compartments. The sky, then,

is not an undifferentiated area, nor is the surface of the liver—which, if held in correct

relation to it, was made to yield relevant information about the will of specific gods,


710 TOM RASMUSSEN



through close observation of the position of any blemishes or other striking features on its

surface.

The practice of liver examination is shown on a number of Etruscan monuments,

notably engraved mirrors. Recently it has been shown that illustrations of prophecy and

divination of other kinds are commonplace both on mirrors and other artefacts with

figurative decoration, in scenes where they had not been noticed before (De Grummond

2000); indicative factors include the stance of the diviner (often with one foot resting on a

rock), facial expression, bodily gesture, and hair dishevelled or standing on end. The

Romans were also interested in—almost obsessed by—techniques of divination, especially

in the revelatory potential of abnormal events (ostenta), and not only did they learn

much from their skilled neighbours but they also looked up to the Etruscans as the

master practitioners, employing their experts on a regular basis through the period of the

empire.

3 THE GODS..................................................................................................................

Because Etruscan civilization did not develop in a hermetically sealed environment but

enjoyed prolonged contact with the Greeks and, closer to home, the Romans, some

Etruscan deities in consequence were given names derived from Greek and Roman gods,

and certain of the deities developed iconographies familiar from Greek depictions. The

FIGURE 44.1 Drawing of upper surface of bronze liver from Piacenza, third–secondcentury bc.





naming of gods, in the ancient world generally, is often fluid and the same god may be

called different names from locality to locality and from one era to another. The reason for

the adoption of Greek iconography is presumably because the Greek gods were part of such

an enormously rich mythology, which was enjoyed and retold in different ways in the

various centres of Etruria. The list of gods that follows is only very partial:

These are some of the more commonly mentioned gods, and included are some cosmic and

underworld deities. Where there is a close Greek name one can assume that it is the origin

of the Etruscan name (for example, Apollo/Apulu), and on the Roman side this may also be

sometimes true (the origin of the name Menrva, for example, is usually thought to be

Roman). More confusingly, although the gods of the tripartite list can be regarded as

counterparts in the different cultures, they are by no means exact equivalents. This is not

surprising as many Greek gods each have numerous different aspects and hence were given

different titles or epithets; this is equally true of Etruscan gods, and one would hardly expect

a precise match in each case.

But there are differences also in the quintessential characters and powers of the gods.

Eos, goddess of the dawn and beloved of Homer and other poets, was not the object of cult-

veneration in Greece, but her Etruscan counterpart Thesan had major temples dedicated to

her (as at Pyrgi). Tinia, unlike Zeus, was not the only god capable of hurling lightning, there

were others who could do this, such as Menrva (as seen on mirror engravings); and

although Tinia could throw three different kinds of lightning, according to Seneca he

had to consult with other major gods before issuing the two more destructive kinds; he does

not always appear to be all-powerful, and unlike the mature, bearded Zeus, he is sometimes

depicted as youthful and beardless. His consort Uni may be shown young too, as well as

ETRUSCAN GREEK ROMAN

Aita, Calu Hades Pluto

Ap(u)lu Apollon ApolloAritimi, Artumes Artemis DianaCel Gaia Tellus

Fufluns, Pacha Dionysus Bacchus, LiberLaran Ares MarsMen(e)rva Athena Minerva

Nethuns Poseidon NeptunusSethlans Hephaistos VulcanusPhersipnei Persephone ProserpinaThesan Eos Aurora

Tin(ia) Zeus JupiterTuran Aphrodite VenusTurms Hermes Mercurius

Uni Hera JunoUsil Helios Sol


712 TOM RASMUSSEN



naked, unlike the matronly Hera, and famous inscriptions from Pyrgi equate her (rather

than Turan) with the Near Eastern love-goddess, Astarte. In the Phoenician world, Astarte

was the object of devotion in the form of sacred prostitution, and G. Colonna, excavator of

the Pyrgi sanctuary, has very likely identified a row of small chambers on the site as the

location where it was practised.

Roman sources insist that the most powerful Etruscan god was called Vertumnus (or

Vortumnus). The relationship of this god to Tinia is often discussed; presumably they were

one and the same. The name also has close similiarities with the female deity Voltumna, at

whose sanctuary the ‘twelve Etruscan peoples’ regularly met. The sexual ambiguity of

Vertumnus–Voltumna, which is confirmed by descriptions of this god by Roman poets,

extends more generally to other deities. Many minor gods and even major ones such as

Aritimi can be portrayed in art as of either sex. Deities may also be duplicated, and both

major and minor gods may be shown twice or thrice in the same scene, sometimes bearing

different epithets. In general it seems as if gender and number were relatively unimportant,

and this may hark back to an early period when the gods were conceived as non-

anthropomorphic powers and spirits.

4 SANCTUARIES..................................................................................................................

One of the earliest structures within the urban site of Roselle is a sacred precinct of mud-

brick enclosing a square building and, within that, a circular chamber. Of a similar period

(seventh century) is the sacred building ‘Beta’ at Tarquinia (Bonghi Jovino and Chiara-

monte Treré 1997), the site of the child burial already mentioned; this simple rectangular

structure was divided into two rooms, one containing a large altar, where blood and drink

offerings were diverted by a channel to a nearby natural cleft. Soon after completion this

too was surrounded by a precinct wall, here of stone. Such early sanctuaries, set up in the

heart of, or surrounded by, settlement areas and presumably at the behest of centralized

authority, are one of several indications that urbanization was well underway in Etruria by

the mid-seventh century.

Etruscan religion did not require monumental temples and cult statues. These arose in

the sixth century, partly as a result of Greek influence. But the standard Vitruvian

‘Tuscanic’ temple has columns (usually wooden) only at the front, rather than an all-

round colonnade, as had the Belvedere temple at Orvieto, for example (Figure 44.2);

Etruscan sculpture, however, followed Greek conceptions of deities (especially of the

‘Olympian’ gods) quite closely. Of the cult requirements at the sanctuary what was of

most importance was the demarcation of the sacred area by a precinct wall, and the altar,

which from the sixth century was always open-air. The Portonaccio sanctuary outside the

walls of Veii shows the kinds of structures that a large-scale sacred site could offer the

worshipper (Figure 44.3). In addition to the temple (A) and altar (F) there was a sacred pool

(B) fed by rock-cut water tunnels (cuniculi), and porticoed buildings (G, H) to house votive

offerings. The rectangular structure (I) is now thought to be a shrine dedicated to Menrva.

Modest shrines, often without roofs, seem to have been common. There were several at the

Pyrgi sanctuary (Colonna 2006): one of them, divided into two chambers, was dedicated to

the goddess Cavtha, most likely a solar goddess, and to Suri (who is equated with Aplu in





his underworld aspects), and there were also individual shrines here to these two gods.

A large sanctuary such as Pyrgi could accommodate a plethora of gods: in addition to

Cavtha and Suri, the two major temples were dedicated to Thesan and Uni-Astarte. At the

Portonaccio sanctuary Aplu was clearly important as well as Menrva.

The identities of the gods in their sanctuaries are often made clear by votive offerings

recovered, especially when these include inscriptions. At Pyrgi, Cavtha could be honoured

with gold jewellery. More frequently found are objects of bronze, including major sculp-

ture. The famous bronze Chimaera in Florence Archaeological Museum with a dedicatory

inscription on its leg to Tinia suggests, from its finding place, that there was a sanctuary to

the god at Arezzo. But many votives are small-scale and/or of inexpensive materials: little

bronze or terracotta figurines of human or animal forms, and pottery which is sometimes

in miniature format. Votives might be objects used in daily life or they could be made

specially for the sanctuary ritual. To remove the objects from circulation and to show that

they were for the gods’ use alone they might be deliberately broken or ‘killed’. Beneath the

entrance of shrine ‘Beta’ at Tarquinia were found three votive bronzes: an axe head, a long

musical horn, and a round embossed shield both of which had been carefully folded and

buckled.

Anatomical votives, usually of terracotta, are especially prevalent from the fourth

century onwards (Turfa 1986), and it would appear that many if not most gods (e.g.

FIGURE 44.2 View of present remains of Belvedere temple, Orvieto, fifth century bc.


714 TOM RASMUSSEN



Artumes, Menrva) encompassed healing aspects. All manner of human body parts may be

included: hands, feet, ears, eyes, breasts, intestines, genital organs. Like the Brontoscopic

Calendar, they reveal much anxiety about health issues, but whether the dedications were

made before or after healing is difficult to know. Models of swaddled babies are also

common in these assemblages, and again one cannot be sure whether they signify a wish

for the future or a successful outcome. It is probably no mere coincidence that production

and dedication of anatomical terracottas in central Italy intensifies soon after the cult of the

Greek healing god Asklepios was introduced in Rome in the early third century.

5 DEATH R ITUAL AND THE AFTERLIFE..................................................................................................................

Considering the effort that was expended on the planning and construction of tombs and

cemeteries, it is clear that provision for the dead was an important Etruscan concern. In

southern Etruria, where cemeteries were excavated into the soft volcanic rock, the more

elaborate tombs are of one or more chambers which were not only filled with grave goods

of great variety but which also featured carved or painted decoration on their interior walls.

The Etruscans believed in an afterlife but our knowledge about it is derived mainly from the

imagery of the tombs and the artefacts found within them, also from the carved burial

FIGURE 44.3 Plan of Portonaccio sanctuary, Veii, end of sixth century bc.





containers (sarcophagi, ash-urns) of stone and terracotta in which the dead were frequently

buried.

Burial ritual, concerning such basic matters as cremation and inhumation, varied in

different parts of the country and at different periods. But even where inhumation

predominated cremation was sometimes reserved for individuals of high rank. A ritual

meal seems to have been consumed, judging by tomb finds of pottery hearths containing

carbonized food remains (Barbieri 1987: 166–7). Funeral games may also have been staged,

and the sports depicted—chariot-racing, boxing, and so forth—on the walls of painted

tombs may show them, or may be a (less costly) fictive substitute for the real thing.

The experiences that the dead needed to go through were no doubt fully described in the

Book of the Dead (Libri Acheruntici) of the Etrusca Disciplina. Many tombs are so well

equipped with crockery and the utensils of daily life, or their painted or sculpted equiva-

lents, that the final destination of the deceased might be thought to be the tomb itself. But

the liminal transference to another world was visualized in terms of entry through a

monumental doorway (Serra Ridgway 2000: 310), and beyond it the journey to reach the

underworld is shown in different ways. Crossing the sea or a stretch of water is often

envisaged and almost certainly explains the model terracotta boats found in early Iron Age

tombs from the ninth century and later. But a journey overland on horseback or by horse-

drawn wagon or chariot is also commonly depicted, and it would seem that both land and

water had to be crossed.

The great door needed to be guarded and in one instance it is by a female demon, Vanth,

carrying a key, but elsewhere she appears in many guises. Equally ubiquitous is Charu(n),

who also is sometimes depicted as a plurality, and who wields a heavy mallet probably for

knocking the bolts of the door into place. He clearly takes his name from Charon, the Greek

ferryman of the dead; Charun too, despite his hideous facial features, is essentially

harmless, his mallet rarely being used in anger but more simply symbolizing the finality

of death. The Etruscans have a rich demonology (Herbig 1965), and the various personages

that comprise it, female and male, are often marked out with the addition of wings. Despite

their sometimes threatening appearance and attitudes the main function they perform

seems to be to act as guides for the deceased, though the Vanths have a tendency to act and

dress like Greek Furies, even taking part in the fighting in battle scenes.

The underworld itself is not represented until the fourth century bc and later, and how

we assess the Etruscans’ understanding of it is complicated by its depiction in Greek

(Homeric) terms. The atmosphere and details, however, are quite un-Greek. So Aita/

Hades wears a wolf-head cap, of local significance, and his consort Phersipnei/Persephone

has snakes in her hair; long-dead Greek heroes may also be present but accompanied by

demons. Greek monsters such as three-headed Cerberus may be in attendance but counter-

balanced by Etruscan snake-legged beings. In these settings grand banquets take place, with

members of the family taking part including the recently deceased and ancestors of the

distant past. The mood may be sombre—painted tombs show dark infernal clouds hanging

in the background—but the food is sumptuous. The essential message here is one of

reunion and the strength of the family—precisely what is highlighted later in Roman

funerary art.

Early Etruscan funerary scenes of banqueting, celebration, music, and dancing contain

few overt references to the underworld; but the standard mode of representing the dead on

their sarcophagi and ash-urns is as banqueters reclining on their couches, and frequently


716 TOM RASMUSSEN



there is a depiction in the tomb of the door to the underworld. This is not strictly a door of

no return. It may be opened to allow previous generations of the deceased to exit the

underworld to greet those who have recently died as they are guided towards it. Logically

that meeting place ought to be the tomb chamber itself, and hence the tomb might be

thought of as being inhabited from time to time, which may also help to explain why

banqueting vessels are placed there in such abundance. Just as the votive dedications at

sanctuaries were for the gods’ sole use so the goods deposited in tombs were for the dead

alone to enjoy; consequently the reflecting surfaces of bronze mirrors or the bodies of

amphorae might have suthina (‘for the tomb’) scratched on them in large letters (De

Grummond 2009).

Given the emphasis placed on the importance of the family, it should be of little surprise

that there is considerable evidence of ancestor worship in Etruria. Altars and shrines were

frequently set up adjacent to tombs, especially to the larger tumuli, and there are examples

at Cortona, San Giuliano, and Vulci. At the latter site and at Grotta Porcina there are

stepped theatral areas for performances in honour of the tomb occupants, while at

Cerveteri one chamber of a tomb featured a row of rock-cut chairs occupied by terracotta

statuettes, presumably representations of ancestors, seated in front of stone tables as if at a

perpetual banquet. This is an early tomb (seventh century), of an era before the reclining

banqueting pose was adopted in the early sixth century.

It is difficult to construct a single narrative of death and the afterlife that would

satisfactorily account for all the material remains and iconographic details of the Etruscan

burial sites, and it may be mistaken to try to do so. Beliefs and ideas about such a

momentous, and also personal, subject are invariably fluid, and during the many centuries

of Etruscan civilization older and newer ideas were likely to form a multilayered amalgam.

To attempt to explain the later iconography of a demon-inhabited underworld, modern

commentators have frequently resorted to interpretations in terms of the Greek mystery

cults of Orpheus, Dionysus, and Demeter. Of these figures the most important in Etruria

was Dionysus (Etruscan Fufluns), but more as god of revelling than of mysteries, while his

satyr followers were thought also to have prophetic powers. The Greek mystery religions

separated initiates from the ignorant and promised them a better afterlife: they alone would

know the correct path to follow to the underworld and would also avoid tortures and

punishments that awaited those who were not in the god’s favour. But the idea of a journey

that the deceased must undertake is a very old one in Etruria; nor is there any division of

the saved and the damned in Etruscan funerary imagery, and the only punishments in

evidence are reserved for figures of Greek mythology.

6 FATE AND THE ETRUSCAN NATION..................................................................................................................

Just as the span of each person’s life was determined by the gods, so—and this is a

peculiarly Etruscan notion—was the length of time that the nation itself was permitted to

survive (Barker and Rasmussen 1998: 93). The sources here are again Roman, though clearly

going back to Etruscan texts, and many details remain obscure. The nation (Latin nomenetruscum) had ten Great Generations (saecula) allotted to it, and the duration of each was

determined according to the longest lifespan of any individual within it. The longest one





recorded is 123 years, and some actual dates are given for some of the later ones; from which

we can calculate that the whole Etruscan enterprise lasted from the tenth century to some

time after the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 bc—which in archaeological and historical

terms happens to make not unreasonable sense. Two issues complicate the matter: first,

individual cities may have had their own schema of saecula; secondly, the collation of data

seems to have been recorded late in Etruscan history. In fact the duration of the first four

saecula gives every indication of having been invented long after the event, each one lasting

exactly 100 years. Nevertheless, as inexorably in the later centuries the Etruscans suc-

cumbed to Roman power and culture, the conviction that their days were numbered

according to cosmic laws must inevitably have coloured their view of the whole process

in a fatalistic way.

7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS..................................................................................................................

The old way of relying heavily on Roman and Greek sources and using them as the sole

point of departure, even when they have no connection with Etruscan texts, is increasingly

giving way to a more archaeological approach. Much progress has been made in recent

years by confronting the material remains and the imagery head-on with minimal recourse

to explanations via external influences. Etruscan religion is not Greek religion or Roman

religion in modified form, and can and should be explained on its own terms and without

all the Greek and Roman terminology that is often used. Moreover, although the Etruscans

were very interested in Greek mythology, there does exist a real Etruscan mythology which

can, but only with much patient observation, be extricated from it. Future progress is also

very likely to be moulded by new discoveries. For example, two of the most recent finds of

painted tombs, at Tarquinia (Tomb of the Blue Demons) and at Sarteano near Chiusi,

made in 1985 and 2003 respectively, have provided vital new information about the

underworld journey (Steingräber 2006: 163–82, 215–20); while the third-longest Etruscan

inscription, a bronze tablet from Cortona which had been folded and ritually put out of use,

was discovered in 1992 and published in 1999. The study of Etruscan cult and religion has,

therefore, a constantly shifting dynamic.

FURTHER READING

A number of key studies have appeared in the last few years. Jannot (2005) is a good

introduction to the whole area. De Grummond and E. Simon (2006) is multi-authored, and

includes a history of scholarship as well as a presentation of relevant ancient texts both in the

original language (Greek, Latin) and in translation. De Grummond (2006) assesses the

evidence for Etruscan mythology from iconographic sources, and some of this ground is

also surveyed in Bonfante and Swaddling (2006); while various aspects of ritual are discussed

in Gleba and Becker (2009). For continental scholarship there is the wide-ranging series of

papers in Gaultier and Briquel (1997). Finally, for discussion and exegesis of many pertinent

inscriptions see Bonfante and Bonfante (2002).


718 TOM RASMUSSEN



REFERENCES

Barbieri, G. (ed.) 1987. L’alimentazione nel mondo antico: gli etruschi (Rome: Istituto

Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato).

Barker, G. and Rasmussen, T. 1998. The Etruscans (Oxford: Blackwell).Bonfante, G. and Bonfante, L. 2002. The Etruscan Language: An introduction, 2nd edn

(Manchester: Manchester University Press).

Bonfante, L. and Swaddling, J. 2006. Etruscan Myths (London: British Museum Press).

Bonghi Jovino, M. andChiaramonteTrere, C. 1997.Tarquinia: testimonianze archeologichee ricostruzione storica: scavi sistematicinell’abitato: campagne 1982–1988 (Tarchna 1) (Rome:

‘L’Erma’ di Bretschneider).

Colonna, G. (ed.) 1985. Santuari d’Etruria (Milan: Electa).

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