entry 2008 update,
Dec 2011, box added Mar 2018, updated May 2021
The
Etruscans in Campania
"Etruscan"
generally evokes the image of the great pre-Roman
civilization in central Italy, a still somewhat mysterious
people about whom we would like to know a lot more than we
ever will. You don't generally think of Etruscans this far
south, in the Campania region of Italy, near Naples; yet,
they were here. (Clearly, their ambitions stretched
southwards but were eventually thwarted.) Indeed, Parthenope (then to become Neapolis—Naples)
was somewhat of a late-comer in the area and could be
founded only when Etruscan influence had weakened
and almost disappeared, which it had by the mid-400s b.c.,
the presumptive date of the founding of Parthenope.
A few miles north of Naples is the town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere,
the modern name for the ancient city of Capua, called Campeva in ancient histories.
(The modern town of Capua is right next door, but “ancient
Capua” means modern Santa Maria Capua Vetere.) Well before
the Romans, Campeva was founded by the Etruscans in about
600 b.c. and used to be considered the southernmost
identifiably Etruscan town in Italy (but see the link to
"Pontecagnano," below); Campeva is well to the south of
"Etruria" and not one of the 12 famous towns of the
Etruscan confederation in north-central Italy, all of
which are north of Rome. (See Capua, a Short Tale of Two Cities.)
box added Mar 20, 2018
This
Etruscan appliqué depicts the Sun God Usil. It
is dated to 500 - 475 B.C. and is from Vulci
(near the Tyrrhenian coast about 80 km (50
miles) northwest of Rome (identified with the
Etruscan name, Velch, on the map, above). It is
in bronze and is 20 cm high (7 7/8
inches). It probably decorated an Etruscan
chariot or funeral cart. The applique represents
the solar deity Usil (the equivalent of the
Greek god Helios and Roman god Sol). There are a
few other similar examples in museums in the
world, but this one is said to be the best
preserved. It is in the collection the J. Paul
Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu,
California. Vulci or Volci was a rich and
important Etruscan city and her artisans were
known as master sculptors in bronze. The city
was named for the tribe, which was one of the
legendary twelve peoples of Etruscan
civilization who later formed the Etruscan
League. During the days of the so-called Grand
Tour in the 1700s and 1800s, Vulci was held to
be as signficant as the Greek and Roman sites
and was a major stopping point. There are, of
course, a great number of Roman "additions" to
Vulci from the centuries of later Roman
domination. The site may be visited and there is
a National Archaeological Museum on the
premises. (image: Getty images)
|
The Etruscans were not Indo-Europeans (as we know
from their language).
To my knowledge, there is no consensus among scholars
whether they (1) came from somewhere
else, possibly what is now southern Turkey —as stated by
Greek historian, Herodotus, or (2) are a remnant of a
pre-Indo-European people indigenous to the Italian
peninsula. (But see update
below.) They were in Italy, however, by
the tenth century b.c. They expanded into their
confederation and a number of other towns in central Italy
by the seventh century and were at the height of their
power by about 600. By that time they had also settled
their southernmost outpost in Italy, Amina (later known to
the Romans as Picentia and today as Pontecagnano) on the plain
just south of modern-day Salerno. They then started to
fade as they came into contact with the newly encroaching
immigrants of Magna Graecia,
who built towns at Cuma and
Paestum, limiting further
Etruscan expansion along the southern coast. In the 400s
BC the Etruscans of Capua also came into contact with —and
were eventually subdued by— the belligerent native Italic
people known as the Samnites
(an Oscan tribe and one of a group of tribes referred to
in the literature as “Sabellian”—from Sabine), who
were about to engage the young and not-yet-imperial Romans
in centuries of war for the domination of central Italy.
The
Etruscans were also defeated in important naval battles
with the Greeks from Siracuse (Sicily), first off of Cuma
in 474 BC and then at Elba in 453; with that, the
Etruscans lost control of the waters of the Tyrrhenian
Sea. Their “last gasp,” so to speak, was in 414 when they
went to the aid of the Athenian army that was besieging
Siracuse in what is called in the history of the Peloponnesian War, the
“Sicilian expedition.” (The two-year war was an utter
disaster for the Athenians, leading to the eventual
overthrow of the Athenian democracy.) The Etruscans were
then further pressed by invading Celts in around 400 b.c.
and thereafter simply dissolved into the fabric of
Sabellian- and then Roman-controlled Italy. Their cultural
influence is still seen even further south than Capua,
however, in such things as the well-known tomb decorations
in Paestum (photo, above).
Their presence in the area near Capua and to the south
towards Naples figures in the display at the new
archeology museum in nearby
Succivo.
references: "The Etruscans and the
Sicilian Expedition of 414-413 B.C." by M.O.B Caspari
in The Classical
Quarterly, Vol.5, No. 2 (Apr., 1911)
pp.113-115.
update on
Etruscan origins: In 2007, Professor Alberto Piazza,
from the University of Torino reported to the European
Society of Human Genetics that there is overwhelming
evidence that the Etruscans were settlers from old
Anatolia (now in southern Turkey). That conclusion was
based on comparative DNA studies. "We think that our
research provides convincing proof that Herodotus was
right", said Professor Piazza, "and that the Etruscans
did indeed arrive from ancient Lydia."
^up
MUSEUMS
[Feb 2015] there was a good
small museum of Etruscan archaeology in Naples. It was
on the premises of the Collegio Francesca Denza on via
Discesa Coroglio and was run by the Barnabite fathers.
The 800-piece collection was first assembled between
1869 and 1882 by the Barnabites. Those premises have
now been closed and the collection has come to
Naples at the National Archeological Museum.]
[August 2018] There are at least three
other prominent Etruscan Museums in Italy.
1.The National Etruscan Museum (Italian: Museo
Nazionale Etrusco), housed in the Villa Giulia
in Rome.
Website
here. Also
2.The Tarquinia National Museum
(Italian: Museo Archeologico Nazionale Tarquiniense)
in Tarquinia. The collection consists primarily of the
artifacts which were excavated from the Necropolis of
Monterozzi to the east of the city. It is housed in
the Palazzo Vitelleschi. Website
here.
3.
The Etruscan Museum and Archaeological site in
Tuscany (directly below)
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added May 2021
The Etruscan
Archaeological
Site in Tuscany
Many
museums in the world have put their works at the
on-line disposition of the world. If you have the time
the Louvre has the stuff (just checked — it's on-line. Go
nuts). Italy has a lotissimo of archaeology to
offer, and wouldn't it be nice once again if you could
really go to the place and see it and walk around it
with a knowledgeable guide. Good news: the
Archaeological Museum "“Francesco Nicosia” of Artimo
reopened on April 29. It is the best place in the
world to learn about the ancient and mysterious
Etruscans and if you are not curious about the
Etruscans, you have no soul.
Opening hours:
March-Oct. Mon-Tue-Thur-Fri-0930-1330; Sat & Sun
-0930-1330 & 1500-1800.
The Etruscan museum archaeological site is at
Poggio Colla near the town of Vicchio in Tuscany.
The Wikipedia English description
of the site is here.
Also see: (first one is in Italian)
https://www.parcoarcheologicocarmignano.it/,
and The Mugello Valley
Archaeologica Project
What's up Etruscan-wise these days? Ahhh, lots!
'Extraordinary
Find': Rare Religious Text Written in Lost
Etruscan Language
Go find out. Maybe they'll let you dig.
[Also see The
Ancient Unknown City of Amina/Picentia and The Etruscan Language]
to Ancient World portal
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