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Discovery News: Etruscan Inscription Offers Rare Clue to Mysterious People

Researchers found the inscribed slab near Florence and believe it might hold secrets behind the language of Italy’s pre-Roman culture

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Science reporter Rossella Lorenzi Discovery News segment “Digging History” covered SMU sponsored research at Italy’s Poggio Colla site where archaeologists have found what may be rare sacred text in the lost language of the Etruscans. The text is inscribed on a large 6th century BC sandstone slab and could reveal name of the god or goddess that was worshipped at the site.

The article, “Etruscan Inscription Offers Rare Clue to Mysterious People,” published March 31.

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EXCERPT:

By Rosella Lorenzi
Discovery News

Archaeologists have unearthed an inscribed sandstone slab in Italy that features what may be a rare sacred text written in the mysterious Etruscan language.

The finding promises to yield a wealth of new knowledge about one of the ancient world’s most fascinating and mysterious civilizations.

Weighing about 500 pounds and nearly four feet tall by two feet wide, the slab was unearthed at Poggio Colla, some 22 miles miles north-east of Florence in the Mugello Valley.

Intact, Packed Etruscan Tomb Found
The stone had been buried for more than 2,500 years in the foundations of a monumental temple at the Etruscan site. It was heavily abraded and chipped, with one side reddened possibly from burning.

According to archaeologist Gregory Warden, co-director and principal investigator of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, which made the discovery, the 6th-century B.C. slab has at least 70 legible letters and punctuation marks.

“Now if we could only unravel that text,” Warden, professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, told Discovery News.

Skeleton of Ancient Prince Reveals Etruscan Life
He explained that it will probably take months of study by Rex Wallace, a noted expert on the Etruscan language at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, before the researchers can say anything definitive about the text written on the stele, as such slabs are called.

“At this point we have just finished cleaning the stele, and Professor Wallace is working from photos. He will return to Italy in June to continue to work on it,” Warden said.

Warden speculates the text may refer to a goddess that was worshiped at the site.

“The center of worship was an underground fissure that was ritually treated after the destruction of the temple,” Warden said.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News Student researchers

Fox News: 2,500-year old slab unearthed, offers glimpse into the ancient Etruscan world

Researchers found the inscribed slab near Florence and believe it might hold secrets behind the language of Italy’s pre-Roman culture

inscriptions.jpg__800x600_q85_crop

The Fox News segment “Digging History” covered SMU sponsored research at Italy’s Poggio Colla site where archaeologists have found what may be rare sacred text in the lost language of the Etruscans. The text is inscribed on a large 6th century BC sandstone slab and could reveal name of the god or goddess that was worshipped at the site.

The article, “2,500-year old slab unearthed, offers glimpse into the ancient Etruscan world,” published March 31.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Fox News
Archaeologists have unearthed a rare text from an ancient temple in Italy that could reveal new details about the Etruscan civilization.

The text is inscribed on a large sandstone slab from the 6th century B.C. and may provide insight into Etruscan worship of a god or goddess.

“This is probably going to be a sacred text, and will be remarkable for telling us about the early belief system of a lost culture that is fundamental to western traditions,” said archaeologist Gregory Warden, in a statement released by Southern Methodist University.

Warden, professor of archaeology at Franklin University, Switzerland, is professor emeritus at Southern Methodist University and co-director and principal investigator of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, which made the discovery.

The Etruscan civilization existed from approximately the 8th century B.C. to the 3rd century in what is now central and northern Italy. Etruscans influenced many aspects of the Roman Empire, such as religion, government, art and architecture, according to experts.

Weighing about 500 pounds, the slab is nearly four feet tall and more than two feet wide. Warden notes that the slab has about 70 legible letters and punctuation marks.

The slab, or stele, was found in the foundations of an Etruscan temple northeast of Florence, where it had been buried for more than 2,500 years.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News Student researchers

Smithsonian: 2,500-Year-Old Monument Could Help Crack the Mysterious Etruscan Language

Researchers found the inscribed slab near Florence and believe it might hold secrets behind the language of Italy’s pre-Roman culture

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Science reporter Jason Daley with Smithsonian covered SMU sponsored research at Italy’s Poggio Colla site where archaeologists have found what may be rare sacred text in the lost language of the Etruscans. The text is inscribed on a large 6th century BC sandstone slab and could reveal name of the god or goddess that was worshipped at the site.

The article, “2,500-Year-Old Monument Could Help Crack the Mysterious Etruscan Language,” published March 31.

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EXCERPT:

By Jason Daley
Smithsonian.com

We know a lot about the ancient Romans—from their legal system to how they liked to cook their chicken stew. We have thousands of monuments, books, and archeological sites detailing their accomplishments and famous individuals. But before 500 B.C. when the Romans took over, the Estruscans ruled the central and northern portion of the Italian peninsula. And this culture remains an enigma to modern archaeologists.

Of particular mystery is the Estruscan language, which doesn’t seem related to other nearby languages. And researchers have uncovered few inscriptions or documents to help us figure it out—until now. Archaeologists of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project recently uncovered a 500-pound, four-foot by two-foot stele, or monumental marker at Poggio Colla site, northeast of Florence. The sandstone slab originally stood in front of an Etruscan temple and is inscribed with 70 legible letters and punctuation marks.

“We hope to make inroads into the Etruscan language,” Gregory Warden, co-director and principal investigator of the project who made the discovery, says in a press release. “Long inscriptions are rare, especially one this long, so there will be new words that we have never seen before, since it is not a funerary text.”

Most of what historians know about the Etruscans comes from their elaborate burials, which are still sometimes found in the Italian countryside. But it has been difficult finding documents about their government, daily life, and other aspects of Etruscan culture. Even though scholars know they were one of the most religious peoples in the ancient world, they don’t even know the names of their gods, though Warden hopes the new stele may finally reveal that.

“Inscriptions of more than a few words, on permanent materials, are rare for the Etruscans, who tended to use perishable media like linen cloth books or wax tablets,” Etruscan scholar Jean MacIntosh Turfa of the University of Pennsylvania Museum says in the release. “This stone stele is evidence of a permanent religious cult with monumental dedications, at least as early as the Late Archaic Period, from about 525 to 480 BCE. Its re-use in the foundations of a slightly later sanctuary structure points to deep changes in the town and its social structure.”

Researchers are currently cleaning and scanning the stele in Florence, and they will turn the inscriptions over to an expert in the Etruscan language to decipher the text after that.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News Student researchers

Il Tirreno: Trovata stele etrusca in Mugello: “scoperta straordinaria”

Secondo gli scienziati il testo riportato sulla pietra potrebbe dare un contributo decisivo alla ricostruzione del linguaggio di questo popolo.

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Italian newspaper Il Tirreno in Italy covered SMU sponsored research at Italy’s Poggio Colla site where archaeologists have found what may be rare sacred text in the lost language of the Etruscans. The text is inscribed on a large 6th century BC sandstone slab and could reveal name of the god or goddess that was worshipped at the site.

The article, “Una stele per svelare il linguaggio degli Etruschi,” published March 31.

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EXCERPT:

Il Tirreno
FIRENZE. E’ una scoperta che potrebbe dare un contributo decisivo per ricostruire il linguaggio degli Etruschi. Un gruppo di ricercatori del Mugello Valley Archaeological Project ha portato alla luce una stele che riporta una scrittura etrusca. La scoperta è stata fatta nel sito di Poggio Colla in Toscana. La pietra, che pesa 227 chili ed è alta poco più di un metro, faceva parte di un tempio sacro che 2500 anni fa venne demolito per costruirne uno più grande.

La stele si presenta ben conservata. Contiene 70 lettere leggibili e segni di punteggiatura, caratteristiche che la rendono uno dei più lunghi esempi di scrittura etrusca mai rinvenuti finora. Gli scienziati sono convinti che le parole e i concetti sulla stele siano una rarissima testimonianza di questa civiltà, considerando che finora le nostre conoscenze sugli etruschi sono legate unicamente a, necropoli, tombe e oggetti funerari. La traduzione del testo sarà affidata all’Università del Massachusetts di Amherst.

“Le scoperte etrusche in Mugello, che hanno portato poi alla realizzazione del bellissimo Museo comprensoriale di Dicomano, trovano con la stele scavata dal Mugello Archaeological Project un punto di riferimento essenziale”. Lo afferma il presidente del Consiglio regionale Eugenio Giani, in una nota sul ritrovamento nel sito di Poggio Colla.

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Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News Student researchers

Wired.it: Una stele per svelare il linguaggio degli Etruschi

Il ritrovamento di un stele etrusca potrebbe aiutare a ricostruire il linguaggio di questo popolo antico, arricchendo anche lo studio sul funzionamento delle città e della società.

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Italian science reporter Anna Lisa Bonfranceschi with Wired in Italy covered SMU sponsored research at Italy’s Poggio Colla site where archaeologists have found what may be rare sacred text in the lost language of the Etruscans. The text is inscribed on a large 6th century BC sandstone slab and could reveal name of the god or goddess that was worshipped at the site.

The article, “Una stele per svelare il linguaggio degli Etruschi,” published March 30.

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EXCERPT:

By Anna Lisa Bonfranceschi
Wired.it

Alta più di un metro e pesante oltre 200 chili, ricorda la stele di Rosetta. Ma invece di essere egiziana è etrusca e contiene circa 70 lettere e alcuni tratti di punteggiatura – un linguaggio in parte perso – che potrebbe aiutare a capire qualcosa di più sulla cultura degli antichi Etruschi, ricostruita soprattutto grazie alle necropoli e agli oggetti funerari.

La lastra in questione risale a 2.500 anni fa, è in arenaria ed è stata ritrovata nel sito di Poggio Colla, in Toscana, nelle fondamenta di un tempio, dove probabilmente veniva esposta come simbolo di autorità, come ha spiegato Gregory Warden del Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, che ha ritrovato la pietra. Pietra che si spera possa aiutare a far luce sul linguaggio degli Etruschi, grazie alla lunghezza del testo rinvenuto e al fatto che, non trattandosi di un testo funerario, probabilmente saranno presenti parole nuove. “Sappiamo già come funziona la grammatica etrusca, quali sono i verbi, gli oggetti, e alcune delle parole”, ha aggiunto Warden: “ma speriamo che l’analisi della lastra ci riveli il nome del dio o della dea che veniva adorata in questo sito”, richiamando il grande peso avuto dalla religione nella civiltà etrusca.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.