The Etruscans uses and costumes
The ruling class
The ruling class in the Etruscan city-states consisted of an aristocratic class, originating in ancient times from the amalgamation of wealthy families of Italic and extra-Italic origin, who held the most important levers of power, and a growing class of merchants and landowners who aspired to join the ruling oligarchy. From the inscriptions we can recognize the members of the gentile class since their personal names always had to be accompanied by the lineage name. The gentile class was at the origin of both Etruscan expansion and decline. Capable of great propulsion in archaic times and up to the fifth century B.C., it was unable to accommodate the technological and social developments that marked the historical development of more advanced ancient civilizations, condemning its culture to decadence.
Civil Architecture
The most typical form of the dwellings of the ruling class was characterized by a large central courtyard from which the various rooms were accessed; another type of dwelling consisted of adjoining rooms that gave onto an entrance vestibule. The buildings were not developed in height and were built with a plinth of squared blocks of stone or pebbles, on top of which the walls were built with rows of clay loaves or unbaked bricks or from rubble between wooden frames and clay plastering. The typical roof form was pitched roof covered with tiles, but there were also terraced roofs. The exterior of the houses was richly decorated with polychrome earthenware, and inside the walls of the rooms were frescoed with geometric patterns or figured scenes.
The banquet
The banquet so often reproduced in tomb frescoes had a twofold meaning for the Etruscans. It was religious ceremony in that the relatives of the deceased, between funeral ceremonies participated in a banquet, at which the spirit of the deceased was also thought to be present. Moreover, in daily life, it was a symbol of wealth and belonging to a social elite. In fact, only the aristocratic class could afford to give lavish receptions, at which the guests, men and women of high rank, would lie in pairs on convivial beds cared for by numerous servants, while musicians and dancers accompanied the unfolding of the banquet. The tables were covered with embroidered tablecloths, and set with rich pottery; the food consisted of rich courses of meats, especially game, vegetables, and fruits.
Music and dance
The instruments were percussion, string, and wind instruments, in particular the one most used was the flute, in all its various guises, although the double one was considered the Etruscan national instrument. The Etruscans highly valued music and used to accompany with it all the activities of the day: work, supper, civil and religious ceremonies. Even on the battlefield, troop movements were coordinated by resorting to the sound of trumpets. Music often accompanied the rhythmic movements of dancers and dancers, whose dancing was not only a performance, but could be a ceremony related to propitiatory rites or funeral celebrations. Music also accompanied stage performances of more ancient origin, which were mime-like in character and performed by masked actor-dancers. From the 4th century B.C., Greek-inspired dialogic dramatic theater became widespread.
Fashion
The clothing of the Etruscans recalls from the 6th century B.C. that of the Greeks. Men in the Archaic age went bare-chested; later the use of a short tunic or vest became widespread, with a colorful cloak thrown over the shoulders. This wider, embroidered cloak later became the national dress of the Etruscans: the tebennos. Women and elders used a foot-length tunic; the tunic was usually of light cloth pleated or decorated at the edges; a heavier colored cloak was worn over it. Women's clothing also included skirts, tunics, and bodices. The most common footwear was sandals, high boots, and a characteristic shoe, of Greco-Eastern origin, with the front pointed and turned upward. The most common headgear was a woolen cap, but there were many styles: pointed, conical, hooded, broad-brimmed; they often identified the wearer's membership in a specific social class. From the 5th century B.C. onward, the custom of going bareheaded prevails. As well from the 5th century B.C. men, who previously used to wear beards, began to shave their faces and keep their hair short. Women resorted to a wide variety of hairstyles: long, rainy, in tails, knotted or braided behind the shoulders, later let down in ringlets on the shoulders, finally knotted in crowns on the head or gathered in nets or bonnets. Clothing was complemented by exquisitely crafted jewelry, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, fibulas, breastplates, in the production of which the Etruscans were masters.
The status of the woman
In the Etruscan world woman, unlike the coeval Greek civilization, enjoyed great freedoms. Greek authors stigmatized this fact by propagating slander about the moral customs of Etruscan women. In fact, while Greek women lived submissively to their husbands and spent most of their lives locked in their homes, Etruscan women had the right to participate in all public events, at banquets they sat together with their men on convivial beds, they could dress unscrupulously, and they were educated.
Evidence of this prominent role is the custom of identifying people by often placing the matronymic alongside the patronymic. In the last phase of Etruscan history, when Greek cultural influence made itself more strongly felt in the arts and on customs, Etruscan women lost some of their independence.
Literature
The total absence of Etruscan secular written texts and the fragmentary nature of the religious texts that have come down to us do not allow us to penetrate beyond a superficial level into Etruscan culture. The loss of the literature of an entire people is an event of great tragedy. Already in the first centuries of the Christian era the Etruscan language was known only to a few scholars; with the end of classical civilization its memory was also lost, and so the possibility of handing it down to us. If from the quotations of a few classical authors we can assume with certainty the existence of an Etruscan historical literature, we cannot say the same for an epic narrative, which was probably alien to the mentality of that people. Instead, we possess ample documentation, though rarely direct, concerning Etruscan religious literature, which also had ethical-legal value. The sacred texts were divided into books that contained the rules of divination, the religious calendar, and norms of behavior in daily life and public events. Of great curiosity and scientific value was the discovery, on the bandages that wrapped a mummy buried in Egypt, of a fragment of an Etruscan religious text containing hints of minute rituals and prescriptive norms of behavior.
Religion
Underlying Etruscan religiosity was the fundamental idea that the fate of humans was completely decided by the gods, mysterious and undefined supernatural beings. Every natural phenomenon, such as lightning or the flight of birds, was therefore an expression of divine will, and contained a message to be interpreted in order to conform to the will of the gods. Driven by this conception, the Etruscans implemented a complex system of codifying rituals that they followed with exceedingly scrupulous attention, so much so that they became famous among other ancient peoples for their religiosity and superstition. From the 8th century B.C. as contacts with Greek culture intensified, a process of fusion with the deities of Greek Olympus began. However, this process did not attenuate the specificity of the religious sentiment of the Etruscans and the sense of complete annihilation of man before the divine will.
Priests
Custodian of doctrine and intermediary between men and gods was the priestly caste, which played a major role in the civil and religious leadership of Etruscan communities. Priests wore distinctive clothing, including a tall semiconic hat, and carried a staff with a curved end. They were divided into colleges and participated in all public activities, which for the Etruscans took on a strong sacred significance. The scriptures consisted of books containing a complex codified system of ritual rules. The main ones concerned: the interpretation of animal entrails, conducted by the "Haruspices," the interpretation of lightning, conducted by the "Augurs," and the rules of behavior to be followed in daily life.
The basis of Etruscan religious discipline was the division of the sky into sixteen zones: the abodes of the gods. In the east were the propitious ones, in the west the unfavorable ones. In this way, as far as divination was concerned, every atmospheric event could be translated into a message from the deity inhabiting that place. Depending on the case, it could be an order, a happy or mournful warning, a sign of wrath or discontent This system of divisions was also reproduced on the liver of sacrificed animals, models of which have come down to us in bronze, so that even from the observation of its physical characteristics one could understand the will of the gods.
Religious architecture
The Etruscan temple, for whose construction precise rules were established, was characterized by an almost square plan. The front half consisted of a colonnaded portico; the back half was occupied by three cells, housing the statues of three deities, or a single cell flanked by two open wings. Except for the basement and foundation, lightweight and perishable materials were used: unbaked bricks for the walls, and wood for the structure. The roof was double-pitched, very wide and low, with considerable side projection, and an open or closed triangular pediment dominated the facade. The roof was complemented by a complex system of decorative and protective elements made of brightly painted terracotta, in relief and in the round. These elements included acroteria, which were placed on the top of the temple and at the corners of the slopes, and antefixes, which were placed to close the roof tiles.
Etruscan art
Art among the Etruscans always had a connection with everyday life, a practical rather than an aesthetic purpose, so much so that referred to it has often been called artistic craftsmanship. From Greek art the Etruscans drew most of the themes, but reworked them into more immediate, popular and decorative forms of expression. It was therefore a spontaneous art, which aimed at intensity of expression even at the cost of distorting natural reality. With regard to painting we must speak of sacred art, since the paintings found, in the greatest number in the tombs of Tarquinia, are those that adorned the walls of the tombs. We can distinguish in the representations two distinct phases. The first is characterized by extremely realistic depictions, aimed at giving a vital message with banquets, games, sports competitions, dances. These are therefore serene and pleasant episodes, and decorative elements that reconstruct the domestic environment.
The second, became established between the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., when the idea of the transmigration of the soul into the realm of the dead became widespread. Mythological scenes then prevailed, images referring to the world beyond the grave and the demons its inhabitants. Etruscan painting usually tended to perpetuate standardized patterns, made by painters who were skilled craftsmen rather than artists. The typical characters are the centrality of the human figure, which prevails over the setting; the use of full, strong colors, filling with the fresco technique areas delimited by thick outlines. For sculpture, too, we must speak of sacred art, since the finds consist of decorative elements of temples or tombs. Etruscan sculpture is closely related to clay modeling. Stone sculptures are also affected by this approach, and in fact Etruscan sculptors favored stones that were less difficult to work with.
What distinguishes Etruscan sculpture is the total absence of formal research. It has no value in itself as a work of art, but it is valuable for the practical meaning to be given to it. The Etruscans were famous among their contemporaries for bronze sculptures, which they had to make by special casting processes.
Despite the fact that very little has come down to us, only a few unique pieces such as the Chimera d'Arezzo, the Capitoline She-wolf and the Arringatore, we can gain from these an idea of a finely progressed art that remains a total mystery to us.
The realm of the dead
In the earliest times the Etruscans believed in some form of earthly survival of the deceased. This gave rise to the need, as a respectful form of homage, to secure the burial and endow it with reminders of the living world.
The tomb was thus made to look like the home of the deceased, both in its architecture and furnishings. Along with the body were also interred his most personal and valuable possessions, clothes, jewelry, weapons, and objects of daily use. On the walls of the tomb were painted scenes of strong vital significance, such as banquets, athletic games, dances. From the fifth century B.C., the worldview of the deceased was also more markedly affected by the influence of Greek civilization. Thus there came to be configured a beyond, located in an underworld, into which the souls of the dead transmigrated, inhabited by infernal deities and the spirits of ancient heroes.
The passage between the two worlds was seen as a journey that the deceased made escorted by hellish spirits. The most prominent of these spirits were the large-winged goddess Vanth holding a flashlight, the deformed-faced demon Charun armed with a heavy hammer, and the vulture-faced and donkey-eared demon Tuchulcha armed with snakes. The fate of every deceased person was thus to be led into a world without light and hope in which the flow of time was marked by the sufferings of souls who remembered the happy moments of their earthly lives. The sufferings of the souls of the dead could be alleviated by relatives with ritual offerings and sacrifices. For particularly distinguished people it was to be possible, through special ceremonies, to provide for beatification or in exceptional cases deification.
Graves
The Etruscans attached great importance to the cult of the dead, partly because it was a means of asserting a family's prestige and power. We can distinguish different moments in the exercise of this cult, and its evolution will also be reflected in the types of necropolis. In early times the Etruscans were attached to the conception of the continuation after death of a vital activity of the deceased. The tomb was thus built in the appearance of the house and equipped with furnishings and fittings, real or reproduced in miniatures; sometimes the walls were frescoed with scenes from the deceased's daily life or most significant, serene and pleasant moments. Similarly, frames, beams, ceilings, fronts, and ceilings, intended to reconstruct the domestic environment, were either painted or carved in rock.
The oldest examples of monumental tombs are built on the model of the habitation then in use: a circular or elliptical hut. These are in fact circular tombs built with large stone blocks and covered with a false dome obtained by the gradual inward protrusion of the rows of blocks to a terminal closing slab. The burial chamber was entered through a short corridor where food offerings or furnishings were often placed. When this type of tomb was abandoned, there was a shift to one dug underground, first to a single room then to multiple chambers. Tombs dug entirely underground, usually in hillsides, are called "hypogea," while those dug in level ground and covered with earth and rubble "tumuli."
The new type is characterized by a central room accessible by a long corridor beyond which other rooms were arranged. The plan could also be very complex with a corridor, side chambers, central hall with pillars and piers. The mounds sometimes took on monumental dimensions, with diameters exceeding 30 meters, and often contained several tombs of the same family. Prime examples can be observed in Cerveteri and are related to the evolution of housing types contemporary with the necropolis (second half of the 7th century B.C.), when houses were organized in two or three rooms side by side and preceded by a kind of vestibule or around a central courtyard. From the middle of the 6th and throughout the 5th century BCE there is a new change in the layout of the necropolis. The new tombs are called "dado" tombs and are aligned side by side, forming veritable cities of the dead with streets and squares. Inside the tombs there were only two rooms, outside side ladders led to the top of the dado where there were altars for worship.
This change reflects a profound shift in social structure, with the rise of a non-aristocratic class promoting less lavish housing solutions. In addition, due to the influence of the Greek world, basic conceptions regarding the fate of the dead had also changed. The primitive belief in the "survival" of the dead in the grave was replaced by the idea of a "realm of the dead," imagined on the model of the Greek Avernus.
Funeral rites
The death of a personage belonging to a distinguished family was celebrated with the mourning participation of the entire citizenry. On the day of burial a long procession would wind its way from the home of the deceased to the family tomb. Priests with symbols of their religious office, flute players, relatives and acquaintances with votive offerings accompanied the body being transported on a four-wheeled cart. From the procession, which proceeded with great slowness, rose a mixture of litanies, mournful music, high laments of the relatives and prefics. Upon arriving at the grave, previously prepared for the ceremony, the rite of burial of the deceased was performed. Some finds of parts of religious texts concerning funeral ceremonies give us an idea of how much attention the Etruscans must have paid to this ritual. Unfortunately, our incomplete knowledge of the Etruscan language does not allow us to clearly understand the specialized language of these texts, and thus we are unable to reconstruct the ceremonies accurately. What we can say with certainty is that prayer, music, and dance were of great importance there; and that the most intensely religious moment was accompanied by games of dexterity, athletic contests, and bloody combat to the death.
The harbor and navigation
The harbor was an area of great economic dynamism and cultural vibrancy. Often for defensive reasons cities were not built on the coast, but somewhat inland. Thus it was that the most important cities had ports, for example Pyrgi for Cere, which developed into renowned and important centers of their own. The ports, in addition to accommodating commercial and military traffic, were the gathering point for a large flotilla of small boats used by fishermen, the waters of the Etruscan coast were in fact known for their fishiness. The Etruscans in the early phase of their history were a respected seafaring people throughout the Mediterranean. Navigation, due to lack of instrumentation, and the fragility of the vessels, which were unable to withstand storms, took place at the shortest possible distance from the coast, and only during the day. At night, cargo ships dropped anchor in sheltered places, while warships were dragged by crews to the shore. Sailors of the time used the stars and their knowledge of the conformation of the coasts to orient themselves; portolans also existed, but were not in common use.
Maritime trade
In ancient times, navigation was the least expensive and safest method of transporting goods and people. The navigable seas and rivers were plied by heavy traffic of vessels carrying all kinds of merchandise. As early as the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., Etruscan merchants reached every part of the Mediterranean on their ships. Typical products exported were ceramics, particularly buccheri, and wine. Cargo ships were squat and pot-bellied in shape, with the keel sometimes covered by a lead sheet, the stern tall and curved, and the square sail hooked to the central mast. They had stone anchors, the invention of which was attributed by the ancients precisely to the Etruscans. To direct the course, the helmsman used two oars located on the sterncastle.
The war on the sea
Long, tapered warships were propelled by the effort of oarsmen placed in one or two rows, and used the wind as an auxiliary motive power. Up to thirty feet long, in the earliest times they lacked a deck; later they were fitted with an upper deck where sailors and soldiers took their places. On the bow went a rostrum that surfaced at the water's edge, used in combat to ramm enemy ships. On the sea, the technique of combat was maneuvering and ramming. Success therefore depended on the skill of the crews and the vigor of the rowers.
On the approach, dense firing of shells, even flaming ones, was carried out; when ships were alongside, crews tried to hit each other using long spears. Boarding and hand-to-hand combat was resorted to when infantry contingents were embarked, and in case the capture of the enemy ship and its cargo was aimed at. Due to the dangerous nature of navigation during the winter season, naval operations were interrupted, but the disaster of entire fleets destroyed by a storm was not uncommon even during the summer season.
Military architecture
Early Etruscan towns relied for defense on the inaccessibility of places, dominant heights on rocky outcrops were often chosen for building, and in the dense maze of alleyways of the settlements. During the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. the walls with which the most important cities were surrounded were very simple in concept. Large squared boulders were stacked on top of each other in a pattern that merely followed the city perimeter. Weaker points such as gateways were reinforced by the presence of towers. The Etruscans always remained faithful to this antiquated conception and did not follow the developments, dated from the 4th century B.C., in military architecture, according to which the layout was drawn according to defensive needs. The consequence was that their cities became vulnerable to attack by culturally advanced populations residing in the center and south of the Italian peninsula.
The Etruscan army
To equip their armies, the Etruscans could rely on a large supply of ferrous materials, extracted from the mines of central Italy. The individual Etruscan city-states recruited their armies from among their citizens according to census, and in this way corps of cavalry, hoplites and light troops were formed. The cavalry, had its main strength in mobility, so it was assigned tasks of reconnaissance, skirmishing and pursuit. The hoplites, whose armor could be of very different fashions, but which provided the body with fairly complete protection, fought in compact formation, the best in the front rank, and sought the collision against the enemy formation. Finally, the light infantrymen, equipped with jet weapons but unprotected by armor, were intended to disrupt and provoke the enemy formation, striking it from a distance. There were also corps of engineers whose task was to erect fortifications, and to provide for the dismantling of enemy ones during siege operations. As a last resort, on some occasions legions of priests took part in the clashes, throwing themselves on enemies armed with snakes and burning flashlights. In earlier times the use of the war chariot must have been widespread. We do not know whether it served as a mere means of transportation to the battlefield for the leaders, or as an actual combat tool.
Weapons
The offensive armament of the Etruscan infantryman included for hand-to-hand combat a wide choice of weapons: the spear, the long or short sword, normal and two-handed axes, curved swords, and daggers. Casting weapons were: javelins, bows, and slingshots. Defensive armament consisted of chest armor, of fabric reinforced by metal studs; or of bronze, in two or more pieces, lined with linen. The head was protected by a bronze helmet, of very different fashions: with cheek guards and nose guards, cowled, plain or crested. The legs were defended by bronze shinguards. A shield of leather, wood, or bronze, circular, elliptical, or rectangular in shape, completed the whole.
The company
Typical of the Etruscan social order was the great level of importance attached to the chiefs, which was manifested in the solemnity of the ceremonial that underscored their public actions. The form of the state was oligarchic, with collegial governing bodies, of which the highest magistrate, the lucumon, was elected for a fixed term from among the noblest families. In some cities, however, the monarchical system, which was the most widespread in the Archaic period, persisted. The lucumon summed up in himself the role of civil, military and religious leader. Symbol of his authority was a bundle of rods in which an axe was inserted. Other symbols of power were the golden crown, scepter, purple cloak, and ivory throne.
Little do we know about the social subdivisions of the Etruscan world: we can distinguish between a class of landlords, divided between aristocracy and merchant class, and one of serfs, divided between freemen and slaves. The servile class never had the opportunity to intervene directly in the leadership of the state and benefited marginally from the wealth of the wealthy classes. This clear separation constituted in times of crisis a factor of weakness, undermining the basis of the social cohesion necessary to resist external dangers.
The trade
Located in a pivotal region for trade between east and west, the Etruscans knew how to exploit best this position of favor. With control of the Tyrrhenian Sea guaranteed by their fleets, Etruscan merchants were as well known as Greek or Phoenician merchants to the peoples who inhabited the Mediterranean coast. Land trade routes to northern Europe were also plied by Etruscan merchants, who in this way acted as a conduit between the advanced civilizations of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean and the less developed civilizations of the West and far north. The products for which the Etruscans were best known were wine, vessels, including bucchero, furnishings, and bronze weapons. To facilitate trade and troop movements, the Etruscan territories were crisscrossed by a dense network of roads, also made by complex engineering works. These roads to the north made it possible to cross the Apennines into the Po Valley; to the south, they connected Etruria with Etruscan Campania and the flourishing cities of southern Italy.
Currency
In the earliest times, when trade was already flourishing, most trade was by barter. The earliest means of exchange were pieces of copper or raw silver. In the Archaic Age the few coins that circulated, in an economy essentially based on barter, were Greek coins. The minting of coins in a systematic way began in the mid-5th century B.C., and was concentrated in Populonia at the richest mining area in all of Etruria. Only at the end of the 4th century B.C., following the Roman example, did cast and minted bronze coins appear.
The language
The indecipherability of the language has contributed to an aura of fascination and mystery around the Etruscan civilization. Indeed, although the alphabet is clearly derived from the Greek alphabet the Etruscan language appears to the scholar to be isolated in historical context. The unsatisfactory level of knowledge, which does not allow us to place it in a precise linguistic strain, contributes to uncertainty regarding the origin of the Etruscan people. For more than four centuries, from the 15th century to the present, experts in glottology and ordinary enthusiasts have grappled with the fragmentary Etruscan texts that have come down to us. Today we can say that the enigma of the Etruscan language has been at least partially unraveled, as we know its phonetics, the meaning of many words, and can reconstruct part of the grammatical rules. While the level of our knowledge allows us to understand the meaning of the texts we possess, it is also true that we are unable to reconstruct their exact literal meaning. It is therefore not a matter of finding a key to interpretation that will suddenly enable us to arrive at a complete understanding of the Etruscan language, but of deepening the level of analysis of the material we have at our disposal.
The servile class
The working-class neighborhoods were inhabited by the serf class: these were free men and women who enjoyed civil rights such as property but had no part in the political leadership of the city. Today we can distinguish them in funerary inscriptions since their names do not contain an indication of their lineage as in the case of the gentile classes. The servile class from the 4th century B.C. was the author of social upheavals, the purpose of which was to obtain political rights, claims that sometimes had bloody epilogues.
The dwellings
The materials with which the houses of the working class were built did not differ much from those that were used for the dwellings of the gentry classes: thus a stone plinth on which clay or mud brick walls were raised, supported by wooden frames. Houses were side by side and grouped in blocks, and the rooms were small with little height development. According to religious precepts, streets had to intersect at right angles. In reality, since towns were often built on high ground, this was impossible, and settlements were formed by adapting to the characteristics of the place, resulting in a tortuous unraveling of narrow alleys.
Slaves
Like all ancient civilizations, the Etruscans also used slaves as their labor force, providing cheap labor that could also be highly skilled. They were men and women who did not enjoy civil and political rights, and were considered objects of property. The most common occupations in the cities were domestic work in the homes of the aristocratic class, or as laborers in artisan workshops; in the countryside: agriculture or metal mining in the mines. The main source of slaves were wars and raids in enemy territories. Slaves were generally not mistreated as they were considered valuable assets and the death of one was seen as a serious economic loss.
Handicrafts
Overlooking the streets and alleys of the cities were artisans' workshops, bustling with productive activity and trade. In the workshops, earthenware vessels and vases of all shapes inspired by Greek taste, bronze furnishings and implements, and fine jewelry made of gold and other precious metals were manufactured. Products that were purchased locally or took the route to distant peoples. Among the artisans who worked in Etruscan cities we also find members of other peoples: especially Italics and Greeks whose skills were highly prized. Specialized slaves also worked in the larger workshops; in fact, many mass-produced objects have been found that suggest an almost industrially organized production. The most typical ceramics of the vast Etruscan production were the buccheri. These are vessels characterized by the shiny black color of their surfaces, determined by the technique of manufacture and firing. In the earliest phase the production of buccheri, typical of the city of Cere, consisted mainly of products characterized by a thin thickness. Later thin bucchero was joined by heavy bucchero, with thick walls and relief or applied decorations.
Special attention for the exquisiteness of their workmanship deserves the mirrors, found by the hundreds in necropolises. The most common model was the round one with a handle. The back of the bronze surface was engraved or worked in relief, usually with mythological subjects from Greek culture, or covered with inscriptions. The production of gold jewelry and objects, in which the Etruscans demonstrated a high degree of technical elaboration capable of exploiting the expressive possibilities of the metal, was extremely rich and deservedly famous. The heyday was between the mid-seventh and late sixth centuries B.C., in Vetulonia and Vulci. A taste for overloading and emphatic effects also triumphed in goldsmithing, both with the combination of plant, figured and geometric ornamental motifs and with the use of different working techniques, often combined. These techniques included engraving, embossing, casting filigree and, above all, granulation, consisting of applying small grains of gold soldered together on the surface of the metal.
