Daily life of the Etruscans

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Reconstruction of an Etruscan symposium at the Museum of Chianciano Terme.

Daily life among the Etruscans is difficult to trace, as few literary testimonies are available and Etruscan historiography was highly controversial in the 19th century (see Etruscology).

Most of our knowledge of the habits and customs of Etruscan daily life is available through detailed observation of the funerary furnishings in their family tombs: decorated urns and sarcophagi, accompanied by everyday objects for both men and women, details of frescoes and

bas-reliefs
, most of which were discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the scientific study of their civilization really began.

The table

Table service from 550 - 500 BCE found in a tomb at Chiusi.

Nevertheless, a Greek historian, Posidonios, described the richness of the Etruscan table: "Twice a day, the Etruscans prepared a sumptuous table with all the amenities of a fine life; arranged tablecloths embroidered with flowers; covered the table with a large quantity of silver crockery; had a considerable number of slaves serve them".[note 1] This points to the life of wealthy men, quite different from that of the common people.

The abundant forests of the Etruscan territory enabled the construction of a maritime fleet, as well as mineral exploitation. The prosperity of its trade was based on the export of crafts (bucchero), large quantities of wine and the import of tin from Gaul. From at least the 6th century BC,[1] vine cultivation and wine production have been documented in the region, as evidenced by the manufacture of amphorae for transporting wine, which were widely distributed in the Tyrrhenian and Mediterranean seas.

Etruscan's diet

Aryballe (vase) in the shape of a dead hare.

The Etruscans' basic diet[2] consisted mainly of cereal porridge and vegetables. Salt and freshwater fish were certainly part of the diet. Meat consumption was linked to ritual sacrifices and eaten on religious feast days. The hare, depicted on vases in hunting scenes, was a highly prized game animal. Many kitchen utensils, colanders, amphorae, vases, bronze ladles and typical fish plates are on display in European museums, including the Altes Museum, the Louvre and the National Etruscan Museum at Villa Giulia.

The pomp of a banquet

Banquet fresco from tomb 5513 in Monterozzi.
Another fresco transferred to Tarquinia

The frescoes found in many Etruscan necropolis depict the Etruscans in the splendor of the Triclinium banquet, drinking and eating with opulence (also evident in the lids of the figurative sarcophagi). The frescoes show the richness of the crockery and everyday objects (such as dices) found in the tombs, accompanying the deceased into the afterlife with the memory of their earthly life.[citation needed]

The games

Etruscan games, also depicted in tomb frescoes, were an important part of their lives. Herodotus recounts their many games: dice, kottabos, ball (episkyros or harpastum), Phersu, Askôliasmos, and borsa.

The Etruscans drew direct inspiration from Greek practices for their pan-Etruscan sports games (Volsinies), pugilism and wrestling, throwing the discus, javelin, long jump, simple foot race or running with weapons (hoplitodromia). Some ludi circenses (games), which later the Romans partly took up, were different, such as mounted horse racing (bas-reliefs in Poggio Civitate), acrobatics by desultores, chariot racing (biga, triga and quadriga), which the auriga (slaves) practised with the reins tied behind their backs.

The Romans also took up other games known as ludi scaenici, ritual and votive stage games,[3] dance or ballet performances (including the histrionics),[4] which Varro tells us[5] were performed by an Etruscan tragedy writer called Volnius, for a genuinely theatrical purpose.

Musician

The music

The frescoes depict dancers, and musicians playing various instruments. This practice is also present on the many Hellenistic-inspired vases.

Dance on a fresco from a tomb in Monterozzi.

Festivities and rituals accompanied urban and agricultural life, and music was as much a part of this as the dancing it provoked.[citation needed]

Social rituals

Fish plate typical of southern Italy from the second half of the 4th century BC.

Etruscan divination was used to guide decision-making, and the remains of various buildings reveal the practice (the templum for the Etruscan temple) or the superstitions and beliefs that accompanied it (acroterial statues such as the "cowboy of Murlo").

Etruscan mythology, adapted from that of the Greeks, accompanied every gesture of daily life, including the home (Lares and Penates
gods), farming, warfare and town-building (protective genius).

Family

  • Passing on the father's and mother's surnames to children.
  • Equal rights and powers for men and women

Clothing

Shoes

  • Sandals (Tyrrhenica sandalia) widespread as far away as Athens (Cratinos, 5th century BC) with wooden soles held together by metal frames (Bisenzio, Caere)[6]

Hats

Horse equipment

The villa that became Roman, with its specific functions.

Social structure

  • The founding ritual of a city
  • Roads between cities
  • The citizens
  • The aristocracy of princes
  • The gentilices
  • Freed servants (oiketes)
  • Slaves (servus)
  • Serfs (penestes)
  • Independent peasants
  • Artisans who held important positions[note 2]
  • The division of time and the Etruscan calendar:
    • the day from noon to noon (as opposed to midnight to midnight for the Babylonians and Romans, and sunset to sunset for the Greeks)[7]
    • the weeks, the nones of eight full days (nundinae) and market day on the ninth
    • the months, based on the lunar cycle, with the full moon in the middle, the Ides (which the Romans took over)
    • the elapsed years are indicated by a nail driven into the wall of the temple of the goddess Nortia (taken over by the Romans in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus)
    • the centuries of varying length (up to 119 and 123 years, exceeding the maximum human lifespan), each passage of which is subject to prodigies (the Etruscan nation was expected to last ten centuries) (Censor).

Some objects

Some objects were originally from the area, while others were imported and then modified locally by adding figures (recognisable because they were more rudimentary). [10]

  • Plate of various objects presumed to be Etruscan, in gold and bronze.
    Plate of various objects presumed to be Etruscan, in gold and bronze.
  • Relief details of everyday objects on the walls and columns of the Tomb of the Reliefs.
    Relief details of everyday objects on the walls and columns of the Tomb of the Reliefs.
  • Etruscan razor
    Etruscan razor

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Poseidonius apud Athenaeus 153d (here cited in the Loeb translation). The same sentiment is also echoed in Diodorus Siculus 5.40
  2. ^ In some cases, they had an above-average cultural background. They knew how to write, as evidenced by ceramic vases signed by the craftsman

References

  1. ^ Filipo Delfino, translated from italian by Émilie Formoso, « La culture de la vigne et la consommation de vin » in Les Dossiers d'archéologie n°322 July-August 2007, p. 81
  2. ^ Mireille Cebeillac-Gervasoni, « L'alimentation chez les Étrusques » in Archeologia, No. 238, 1988, p. 21
  3. ^ Livy, VII, 2
  4. ^ Dominique Briquel, La Civilisation étrusque, p. 177-179.
  5. ^ Varron, Treaty on the Latin language, V, 55
  6. ^ Jacques Heurgon, La Vie quotidienne des Étrusques, Hachette, 1961 and 1989, p. 223
  7. ^ Jacques Heurgon, La Vie quotidienne des Étrusques, Hachette, 1961 and 1989, p. 229
  8. ^ a b Jean-Paul Thuillier, Les Étrusques, la fin d'un mystère, p. 56
  9. ^ a b p. 279 in Les Étrusques et l'Europe, prefaced by Massimo Pallottino, following the eponymous exhibition at the "Grand-Palais", Paris, between 15 September and 14 December 1992, and in Berlin in 1993
  10. ^ Note by R.Bianchi Bandinelli in Jean-Paul Thuillier, Les Étrusques, la fin d'un mystère, p. 56

Bibliography

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