Simon wrote:CBBB wrote:From the Cumae alphabet, the Etruscan alphabet was derived and the Latins finally adopted 21 of the original 26 Etruscan letters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... n_alphabetand the numbers
The Arabic numerals are the ten digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). They are descended from Indian numerals and the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numeralsSo we have to thank the Etruscans and the Indians!
And we have to thank the Greeks for giving the Etruscans their alphabet!
The Etruscans were Hellenic as well!
In the first century B.C., a Greek named Dionysius of Halicarnassus studied the early cultures of Italy in Rome; he came to believe that the Etruscans originated from the Pelasgians who settled with natives of the area, only to be taken over by the Tyrrhenians.
In the beginning of the first century AD, Livy and Virgil believed that the migration of the Etruscans to central Italy was resultant of the fall of Troy and flight of Aeneas.
Then in fifth century Greece, Herodotus insisted that the Etruscans traveled from Lydia to Italy due to famine; their leader at that time was Tyrrhenos, from whom they adopted the name the Tyrrhenians.
Now, modern thinkers follow the postulations of Herodotus or Dionysius. And, new research shows that the Etruscans were descendants of people who thrived in the ninth to eighth centuries BC known as the Villanovans. Etruscan cities began to arise in the seventh century BC where Villanovan villages had been.
The first Etruscan pieces to be discovered were two bronzes found in 1553 and 1556 during the Renaissance. Etruscan excavations began in the eighteenth century, and in the nineteenth century major archaeological evidence was found at Tarquinia, Cerveteri, and Vulci.
At that point, Estrucan culture and the mysteries surrounding it gained notice by museums which started to collect the objects unearthed in the digs.
In the twentieth century archaeologists began to use sonar photographic sound, a means that determines whether or not excavation would be lucrative before entering a burial chamber; this and other technology has allowed for more than 6,000 grave sites to be examined.
Among all that has been discovered through these various times and means of investigation and excavation, there are no Etruscan literary works or historical accounts. There are, however, many writing samples carved on tombs. The Etruscan writing system is unique in that its letters come from the Greek alphabet, yet its grammatical structure is unlike any other European language. The epitaphs usually tell of the person's name, class, occupation, and also sometimes delineate whom he or she was related to, thus enabling experts to elicit certain genealogies.
Other conclusive information about the Etruscans comes from writers of other times. Religion was at the heart of Etruscan culture. The Romans themselves depended on some Etruscan books of divination, that is, the practice of foretelling the future, and determining the will of the gods through signs. The Etruscans followed three books of divination concerned with reading entrails of animals, lightning, and the flight patterns of birds respectively.
The Etruscans myths were heavily influenced by the Greeks, mainly the fact that their gods possessed human attributes and dispositions. The Etruscans often combined Greek influences with stories of their own. There is also mythology purely Etruscan, in accordance with which many cults gathered in dedication to their gods. In Etruscan religion, the realms occupied by humans and by the gods are very specific, and their practices followed very exact procedures to avoid ill will of the gods.
