Etruscan ritual and religion

Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi chapter 44 ....................................................................................................... ETRUSCAN RITUAL AND RELIGION ....................................................................................................... TOM RASMUSSEN 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. In the ancient Mediterranean world, ritual and religion were not add-ons to human existence but an intrinsic part of daily living. This seems to have been especially true of Etruscan society. Les plus religieux des hommes was the title given to a conference held in 1992 on Etruscan religion, and the phrase was not invented for the occasion but are the words of the Roman historian Livy, from whom we get a good deal of relevant information. This brings us straight to a serious problem in studying the topic. Livy was writing during the reign of the Emperor Augustus, by which time the Etruscans had been under Roman rule for more than two centuries and an independent Etruria was but a very distant memory. Cicero, another important source, was a generation earlier than Livy, but many other key informants are of the later Roman Empire and Byzantine periods, all of them writing about a society of long before their time, that belonged essentially to the period of the tenth to first centuries bc. Moroever, few of these writers knew anything about the Etruscan language, while few of the earlier sources that they quote go back earlier than the first century bc. Exactly when the non-Indo-European-speaking Etruscans first emerged in central Italy is at present not known, but their heartland was the area between the Tyrrhenian sea and the Arno and Tiber Rivers. This territory was divided between a number of separate, independent states, but which were linked to each other by social, cultural, and, especially, religious ties (Rasmussen 2005). Several sources speak of a league of twelve cities (in Latin the duodecim populi) which met regularly at the fanum (sanctuary) of Voltumna. Two pieces of information about it we learn from a very late Roman inscription: it was presided over by an annually elected priest, and the sanctuary was somewhere in the region of Volsinii (Orvieto). At present the best candidate for its location is a site at Campo della Fiera outside that city. Early approaches at understanding Etruscan cult and religion, which go back to the eighteenth century, were confined to listing and discussing the relevant Greek and Latin sources. Only in the last century did the available archaeological material begin to be taken Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi E T RU S C A N R I T UA L A N D R E L I G I O N 709 into consideration (e.g. Ross Taylor 1923), and in the latter part of it attention was also given in earnest to the iconography of figurative art works, of which many were specifically produced for sanctuary and funerary use. In the meantime, understanding of the Etruscan language, which is written in a basically Greek alphabet, has gained greater precision (Bonfante and Bonfante 2002); most inscriptions, of which there are many thousands (Rix 1991) beginning c.700 bc, can be read with little difficulty. Some of the longer ones—including the longest of all which is written on linen later used for wrapping an Egyptian mummy now in Zagreb Museum—have specifically to do with liturgy and cult practice, and these do pose problems mainly of vocabulary. It is now generally recognized that the way forward is to give equal focus to all three types of evidence: the monuments and their archaeological context, the many relevant inscriptions, and what the ancient (nonEtruscan) sources have to say on the subject. There are many basic elements concerned with the sacred which the Etruscans shared with other Mediterranean peoples such as the Greeks. For example, their cult activities took place in carefully laid out sanctuaries to various gods, which were situated both within the urban environment and also in the countryside beyond (Colonna 1985). In the latter case, their siting may have had a political as well as a religious motive, affirming the extent of the territory of the controlling city. Sanctuaries might have one or more temples or none at all. An altar was essential, and animal sacrifice was common. The evidence for human sacrifice is controversial and it seems not to have been a regular practice. Votive offerings were in various forms including pottery, sculpture, figurines, or anatomical models of body parts. Other elements are quite distinctive, however, especially the tradition surrounding the figure of Tages (Richardson 2008). The name is Latin, but behind it must lie an Etruscan name such as Tarchies. The Etruscans possessed a body of written doctrine, now mostly lost but known to the Romans as the Etrusca disciplina, that was supposed to go back to a divine teacher. Tages, who sprang up from a plough furrow with the stature of a newborn but the features of an adult, proclaimed this wisdom to a large audience that included leaders from all over Etruria. That the setting for the event should have been Tarquinia, one of the largest and oldest Etruscan cities, seems appropriate: here is the site of one of the biggest temples (the Ara della Regina), as well as a recently excavated sanctuary where the focal point seems to have been the burial of a small child with cranial abnormalities suggestive of epilepsy (which in the ancient world was associated with trance-like and revelatory states). We know of no large-scale Etruscan secular literature, but the sacred books of the disciplina were divided into sections on, among other topics, divination and the afterlife, on the interpretation of lightning, and on rituals connected with the founding of cities and sacred places (Jannot 2005: 18–33). 2 DIVINATION .................................................................................................................. We may obtain a flavour of these texts from the lengthy ‘thunder (brontoscopic) calendar’ that survives in a Greek translation but the original of which is thought to go back to the Tagetic writings (Turfa 2006). For example, for 23 February: ‘If it thunders, it threatens deformity for men but destruction for birds’; for 23 April: ‘If it thunders, it signifies a rain helpful for the sprouting time.’ Not surprisingly for any ancient society, many of the Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi 710 TO M R A S M U S S E N worries concerning the future are to do with health and with crop fertility. Lightning, too, needed careful evaluation. Different shapes and colours of lightning offered different meanings, and it mattered greatly where it appeared in the sky and where on the ground it struck. Being an adept at understanding the laws of lightning was not, to the Etruscan mind, such a far cry from being able to produce it, to draw lightning down from the sky, and we hear of occasional claims that people were able to do this. On the subject of lightning the Roman writer Seneca (Quaestiones Naturales 2.32.2) is particularly revealing: ‘We think that because clouds collide, lightning is emitted; but they [the Etruscans] believe that clouds collide in order that lightning may be emitted. They are convinced that . . . these things occur because they are meant to reveal the future’. The close observation of natural phenomena is a priestly concern that one also finds in the ancient Near East and Mesopotamia, but the Etruscans always went beyond pure observation to interpretation: the natural world, and the cosmos, were not randomly arranged but organized by the gods in accordance with a system of signs that, correctly understood, could unveil the future. It is a system that embraced not only virtually all aerial phenomena, such as the flight of birds and the calls they emitted, but also all life on earth. Anything out of the ordinary (e.g. birth defects), or that occurred unexpectedly (e.g. meteors) was a clue concerning the gods’ will. Another approach to divination was to examine the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the liver of sheep. This art of haruspicy also has very close correlations with Mesopotamian practice where the animal liver (and sometimes the lungs and other organs) was examined for similar purposes. Focus was on the liver presumably because it is not only the largest internal organ but also because its surface is particularly responsive to changes in the overall health of the animal. A healthy liver was good, any sign of disease bad; and that is probably as far as Mesopotamian (and Greek) practitioners went. But the Etruscans saw the liver in cosmic terms—as a reflection of the sky above, different parts of which were ‘inhabited’ by different gods. One of the most famous of all Etruscan artefacts is a life-size bronze model of a sheep’s liver (van der Meer 1987), found near Piacenza in 1877, its upper surface divided into many compartments with the name of a god inscribed in each (Figure 44.1). A breakthrough in understanding the object came, some generations ago, when its upper surface was shown to bear a close resemblance to a description of the sky in 16 parts by the late Roman writer Martianus Capella (1.45–61); this is the same number as the compartments on the outer rim of the model. The 16 parts of the Etruscan sky are also mentioned by earlier writers such as Cicero, but it is only Martianus who connects each of the regions to one or more gods. The Roman names of several of Martianus’ gods have some correlations with those on the liver, others are more difficult to compare with it, but it is generally agreed that his text, though laden with later quasi-philosophical embellishments, goes back to an original Etruscan treatise. The precise orientation of the regions of the Etruscan sky in terms of north, south etc., is supplied in a brief passage by Pliny (2.55.143). Moreover the locations of a number of gods listed in Martianus to a certain extent match their positions on the rim of the liver, sufficiently to make it clear that the gods of good omen and those of ill omen were on opposite sides of the heavens (roughly, east and west respectively). There are others in his list that correspond to some of the names in the liver’s inner compartments. The sky, then, is not an undifferentiated area, nor is the surface of the liver—which, if held in correct relation to it, was made to yield relevant information about the will of specific gods, Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi E T RU S C A N R I T UA L A N D R E L I G I O N 711 44.1 Drawing of upper surface of bronze liver from Piacenza, third–second century bc. FIGURE through close observation of the position of any blemishes or other striking features on its surface. The practice of liver examination is shown on a number of Etruscan monuments, notably engraved mirrors. Recently it has been shown that illustrations of prophecy and divination of other kinds are commonplace both on mirrors and other artefacts with figurative decoration, in scenes where they had not been noticed before (De Grummond 2000); indicative factors include the stance of the diviner (often with one foot resting on a rock), facial expression, bodily gesture, and hair dishevelled or standing on end. The Romans were also interested in—almost obsessed by—techniques of divination, especially in the revelatory potential of abnormal events (ostenta), and not only did they learn much from their skilled neighbours but they also looked up to the Etruscans as the master practitioners, employing their experts on a regular basis through the period of the empire. 3 THE GODS .................................................................................................................. Because Etruscan civilization did not develop in a hermetically sealed environment but enjoyed prolonged contact with the Greeks and, closer to home, the Romans, some Etruscan deities in consequence were given names derived from Greek and Roman gods, and certain of the deities developed iconographies familiar from Greek depictions. The Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi 712 TO M R A S M U S S E N naming of gods, in the ancient world generally, is often fluid and the same god may be called different names from locality to locality and from one era to another. The reason for the adoption of Greek iconography is presumably because the Greek gods were part of such an enormously rich mythology, which was enjoyed and retold in different ways in the various centres of Etruria. The list of gods that follows is only very partial: ETRUSCAN GREEK ROMAN Aita, Calu Ap(u)lu Aritimi, Artumes Cel Fufluns, Pacha Laran Men(e)rva Nethuns Sethlans Phersipnei Thesan Tin(ia) Turan Turms Uni Usil Hades Apollon Artemis Gaia Dionysus Ares Athena Poseidon Hephaistos Persephone Eos Zeus Aphrodite Hermes Hera Helios Pluto Apollo Diana Tellus Bacchus, Liber Mars Minerva Neptunus Vulcanus Proserpina Aurora Jupiter Venus Mercurius Juno Sol These are some of the more commonly mentioned gods, and included are some cosmic and underworld deities. Where there is a close Greek name one can assume that it is the origin of the Etruscan name (for example, Apollo/Apulu), and on the Roman side this may also be sometimes true (the origin of the name Menrva, for example, is usually thought to be Roman). More confusingly, although the gods of the tripartite list can be regarded as counterparts in the different cultures, they are by no means exact equivalents. This is not surprising as many Greek gods each have numerous different aspects and hence were given different titles or epithets; this is equally true of Etruscan gods, and one would hardly expect a precise match in each case. But there are differences also in the quintessential characters and powers of the gods. Eos, goddess of the dawn and beloved of Homer and other poets, was not the object of cultveneration in Greece, but her Etruscan counterpart Thesan had major temples dedicated to her (as at Pyrgi). Tinia, unlike Zeus, was not the only god capable of hurling lightning, there were others who could do this, such as Menrva (as seen on mirror engravings); and although Tinia could throw three different kinds of lightning, according to Seneca he had to consult with other major gods before issuing the two more destructive kinds; he does not always appear to be all-powerful, and unlike the mature, bearded Zeus, he is sometimes depicted as youthful and beardless. His consort Uni may be shown young too, as well as Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi E T RU S C A N R I T UA L A N D R E L I G I O N 713 naked, unlike the matronly Hera, and famous inscriptions from Pyrgi equate her (rather than Turan) with the Near Eastern love-goddess, Astarte. In the Phoenician world, Astarte was the object of devotion in the form of sacred prostitution, and G. Colonna, excavator of the Pyrgi sanctuary, has very likely identified a row of small chambers on the site as the location where it was practised. Roman sources insist that the most powerful Etruscan god was called Vertumnus (or Vortumnus). The relationship of this god to Tinia is often discussed; presumably they were one and the same. The name also has close similiarities with the female deity Voltumna, at whose sanctuary the ‘twelve Etruscan peoples’ regularly met. The sexual ambiguity of Vertumnus–Voltumna, which is confirmed by descriptions of this god by Roman poets, extends more generally to other deities. Many minor gods and even major ones such as Aritimi can be portrayed in art as of either sex. Deities may also be duplicated, and both major and minor gods may be shown twice or thrice in the same scene, sometimes bearing different epithets. In general it seems as if gender and number were relatively unimportant, and this may hark back to an early period when the gods were conceived as nonanthropomorphic powers and spirits. 4 SANCTUARIES .................................................................................................................. One of the earliest structures within the urban site of Roselle is a sacred precinct of mudbrick enclosing a square building and, within that, a circular chamber. Of a similar period (seventh century) is the sacred building ‘Beta’ at Tarquinia (Bonghi Jovino and Chiaramonte Treré 1997), the site of the child burial already mentioned; this simple rectangular structure was divided into two rooms, one containing a large altar, where blood and drink offerings were diverted by a channel to a nearby natural cleft. Soon after completion this too was surrounded by a precinct wall, here of stone. Such early sanctuaries, set up in the heart of, or surrounded by, settlement areas and presumably at the behest of centralized authority, are one of several indications that urbanization was well underway in Etruria by the mid-seventh century. Etruscan religion did not require monumental temples and cult statues. These arose in the sixth century, partly as a result of Greek influence. But the standard Vitruvian ‘Tuscanic’ temple has columns (usually wooden) only at the front, rather than an allround colonnade, as had the Belvedere temple at Orvieto, for example (Figure 44.2); Etruscan sculpture, however, followed Greek conceptions of deities (especially of the ‘Olympian’ gods) quite closely. Of the cult requirements at the sanctuary what was of most importance was the demarcation of the sacred area by a precinct wall, and the altar, which from the sixth century was always open-air. The Portonaccio sanctuary outside the walls of Veii shows the kinds of structures that a large-scale sacred site could offer the worshipper (Figure 44.3). In addition to the temple (A) and altar (F) there was a sacred pool (B) fed by rock-cut water tunnels (cuniculi), and porticoed buildings (G, H) to house votive offerings. The rectangular structure (I) is now thought to be a shrine dedicated to Menrva. Modest shrines, often without roofs, seem to have been common. There were several at the Pyrgi sanctuary (Colonna 2006): one of them, divided into two chambers, was dedicated to the goddess Cavtha, most likely a solar goddess, and to Suri (who is equated with Aplu in Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:51 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi 714 TO M R A S M U S S E N FIGURE 44.2 View of present remains of Belvedere temple, Orvieto, fifth century bc. his underworld aspects), and there were also individual shrines here to these two gods. A large sanctuary such as Pyrgi could accommodate a plethora of gods: in addition to Cavtha and Suri, the two major temples were dedicated to Thesan and Uni-Astarte. At the Portonaccio sanctuary Aplu was clearly important as well as Menrva. The identities of the gods in their sanctuaries are often made clear by votive offerings recovered, especially when these include inscriptions. At Pyrgi, Cavtha could be honoured with gold jewellery. More frequently found are objects of bronze, including major sculpture. The famous bronze Chimaera in Florence Archaeological Museum with a dedicatory inscription on its leg to Tinia suggests, from its finding place, that there was a sanctuary to the god at Arezzo. But many votives are small-scale and/or of inexpensive materials: little bronze or terracotta figurines of human or animal forms, and pottery which is sometimes in miniature format. Votives might be objects used in daily life or they could be made specially for the sanctuary ritual. To remove the objects from circulation and to show that they were for the gods’ use alone they might be deliberately broken or ‘killed’. Beneath the entrance of shrine ‘Beta’ at Tarquinia were found three votive bronzes: an axe head, a long musical horn, and a round embossed shield both of which had been carefully folded and buckled. Anatomical votives, usually of terracotta, are especially prevalent from the fourth century onwards (Turfa 1986), and it would appear that many if not most gods (e.g. Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:52 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi E T RU S C A N R I T UA L A N D R E L I G I O N FIGURE 715 44.3 Plan of Portonaccio sanctuary, Veii, end of sixth century bc. Artumes, Menrva) encompassed healing aspects. All manner of human body parts may be included: hands, feet, ears, eyes, breasts, intestines, genital organs. Like the Brontoscopic Calendar, they reveal much anxiety about health issues, but whether the dedications were made before or after healing is difficult to know. Models of swaddled babies are also common in these assemblages, and again one cannot be sure whether they signify a wish for the future or a successful outcome. It is probably no mere coincidence that production and dedication of anatomical terracottas in central Italy intensifies soon after the cult of the Greek healing god Asklepios was introduced in Rome in the early third century. 5 DEATH RITUAL AND THE AFTERLIFE .................................................................................................................. Considering the effort that was expended on the planning and construction of tombs and cemeteries, it is clear that provision for the dead was an important Etruscan concern. In southern Etruria, where cemeteries were excavated into the soft volcanic rock, the more elaborate tombs are of one or more chambers which were not only filled with grave goods of great variety but which also featured carved or painted decoration on their interior walls. The Etruscans believed in an afterlife but our knowledge about it is derived mainly from the imagery of the tombs and the artefacts found within them, also from the carved burial Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:52 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi 716 TO M R A S M U S S E N containers (sarcophagi, ash-urns) of stone and terracotta in which the dead were frequently buried. Burial ritual, concerning such basic matters as cremation and inhumation, varied in different parts of the country and at different periods. But even where inhumation predominated cremation was sometimes reserved for individuals of high rank. A ritual meal seems to have been consumed, judging by tomb finds of pottery hearths containing carbonized food remains (Barbieri 1987: 166–7). Funeral games may also have been staged, and the sports depicted—chariot-racing, boxing, and so forth—on the walls of painted tombs may show them, or may be a (less costly) fictive substitute for the real thing. The experiences that the dead needed to go through were no doubt fully described in the Book of the Dead (Libri Acheruntici) of the Etrusca Disciplina. Many tombs are so well equipped with crockery and the utensils of daily life, or their painted or sculpted equivalents, that the final destination of the deceased might be thought to be the tomb itself. But the liminal transference to another world was visualized in terms of entry through a monumental doorway (Serra Ridgway 2000: 310), and beyond it the journey to reach the underworld is shown in different ways. Crossing the sea or a stretch of water is often envisaged and almost certainly explains the model terracotta boats found in early Iron Age tombs from the ninth century and later. But a journey overland on horseback or by horsedrawn wagon or chariot is also commonly depicted, and it would seem that both land and water had to be crossed. The great door needed to be guarded and in one instance it is by a female demon, Vanth, carrying a key, but elsewhere she appears in many guises. Equally ubiquitous is Charu(n), who also is sometimes depicted as a plurality, and who wields a heavy mallet probably for knocking the bolts of the door into place. He clearly takes his name from Charon, the Greek ferryman of the dead; Charun too, despite his hideous facial features, is essentially harmless, his mallet rarely being used in anger but more simply symbolizing the finality of death. The Etruscans have a rich demonology (Herbig 1965), and the various personages that comprise it, female and male, are often marked out with the addition of wings. Despite their sometimes threatening appearance and attitudes the main function they perform seems to be to act as guides for the deceased, though the Vanths have a tendency to act and dress like Greek Furies, even taking part in the fighting in battle scenes. The underworld itself is not represented until the fourth century bc and later, and how we assess the Etruscans’ understanding of it is complicated by its depiction in Greek (Homeric) terms. The atmosphere and details, however, are quite un-Greek. So Aita/ Hades wears a wolf-head cap, of local significance, and his consort Phersipnei/Persephone has snakes in her hair; long-dead Greek heroes may also be present but accompanied by demons. Greek monsters such as three-headed Cerberus may be in attendance but counterbalanced by Etruscan snake-legged beings. In these settings grand banquets take place, with members of the family taking part including the recently deceased and ancestors of the distant past. The mood may be sombre—painted tombs show dark infernal clouds hanging in the background—but the food is sumptuous. The essential message here is one of reunion and the strength of the family—precisely what is highlighted later in Roman funerary art. Early Etruscan funerary scenes of banqueting, celebration, music, and dancing contain few overt references to the underworld; but the standard mode of representing the dead on their sarcophagi and ash-urns is as banqueters reclining on their couches, and frequently Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:52 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi E T RU S C A N R I T UA L A N D R E L I G I O N 717 there is a depiction in the tomb of the door to the underworld. This is not strictly a door of no return. It may be opened to allow previous generations of the deceased to exit the underworld to greet those who have recently died as they are guided towards it. Logically that meeting place ought to be the tomb chamber itself, and hence the tomb might be thought of as being inhabited from time to time, which may also help to explain why banqueting vessels are placed there in such abundance. Just as the votive dedications at sanctuaries were for the gods’ sole use so the goods deposited in tombs were for the dead alone to enjoy; consequently the reflecting surfaces of bronze mirrors or the bodies of amphorae might have suthina (‘for the tomb’) scratched on them in large letters (De Grummond 2009). Given the emphasis placed on the importance of the family, it should be of little surprise that there is considerable evidence of ancestor worship in Etruria. Altars and shrines were frequently set up adjacent to tombs, especially to the larger tumuli, and there are examples at Cortona, San Giuliano, and Vulci. At the latter site and at Grotta Porcina there are stepped theatral areas for performances in honour of the tomb occupants, while at Cerveteri one chamber of a tomb featured a row of rock-cut chairs occupied by terracotta statuettes, presumably representations of ancestors, seated in front of stone tables as if at a perpetual banquet. This is an early tomb (seventh century), of an era before the reclining banqueting pose was adopted in the early sixth century. It is difficult to construct a single narrative of death and the afterlife that would satisfactorily account for all the material remains and iconographic details of the Etruscan burial sites, and it may be mistaken to try to do so. Beliefs and ideas about such a momentous, and also personal, subject are invariably fluid, and during the many centuries of Etruscan civilization older and newer ideas were likely to form a multilayered amalgam. To attempt to explain the later iconography of a demon-inhabited underworld, modern commentators have frequently resorted to interpretations in terms of the Greek mystery cults of Orpheus, Dionysus, and Demeter. Of these figures the most important in Etruria was Dionysus (Etruscan Fufluns), but more as god of revelling than of mysteries, while his satyr followers were thought also to have prophetic powers. The Greek mystery religions separated initiates from the ignorant and promised them a better afterlife: they alone would know the correct path to follow to the underworld and would also avoid tortures and punishments that awaited those who were not in the god’s favour. But the idea of a journey that the deceased must undertake is a very old one in Etruria; nor is there any division of the saved and the damned in Etruscan funerary imagery, and the only punishments in evidence are reserved for figures of Greek mythology. 6 FATE AND THE ETRUSCAN NATION .................................................................................................................. Just as the span of each person’s life was determined by the gods, so—and this is a peculiarly Etruscan notion—was the length of time that the nation itself was permitted to survive (Barker and Rasmussen 1998: 93). The sources here are again Roman, though clearly going back to Etruscan texts, and many details remain obscure. The nation (Latin nomen etruscum) had ten Great Generations (saecula) allotted to it, and the duration of each was determined according to the longest lifespan of any individual within it. The longest one Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:52 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi 718 TO M R A S M U S S E N recorded is 123 years, and some actual dates are given for some of the later ones; from which we can calculate that the whole Etruscan enterprise lasted from the tenth century to some time after the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 bc—which in archaeological and historical terms happens to make not unreasonable sense. Two issues complicate the matter: first, individual cities may have had their own schema of saecula; secondly, the collation of data seems to have been recorded late in Etruscan history. In fact the duration of the first four saecula gives every indication of having been invented long after the event, each one lasting exactly 100 years. Nevertheless, as inexorably in the later centuries the Etruscans succumbed to Roman power and culture, the conviction that their days were numbered according to cosmic laws must inevitably have coloured their view of the whole process in a fatalistic way. 7 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS .................................................................................................................. The old way of relying heavily on Roman and Greek sources and using them as the sole point of departure, even when they have no connection with Etruscan texts, is increasingly giving way to a more archaeological approach. Much progress has been made in recent years by confronting the material remains and the imagery head-on with minimal recourse to explanations via external influences. Etruscan religion is not Greek religion or Roman religion in modified form, and can and should be explained on its own terms and without all the Greek and Roman terminology that is often used. Moreover, although the Etruscans were very interested in Greek mythology, there does exist a real Etruscan mythology which can, but only with much patient observation, be extricated from it. Future progress is also very likely to be moulded by new discoveries. For example, two of the most recent finds of painted tombs, at Tarquinia (Tomb of the Blue Demons) and at Sarteano near Chiusi, made in 1985 and 2003 respectively, have provided vital new information about the underworld journey (Steingräber 2006: 163–82, 215–20); while the third-longest Etruscan inscription, a bronze tablet from Cortona which had been folded and ritually put out of use, was discovered in 1992 and published in 1999. The study of Etruscan cult and religion has, therefore, a constantly shifting dynamic. FURTHER READING A number of key studies have appeared in the last few years. Jannot (2005) is a good introduction to the whole area. De Grummond and E. Simon (2006) is multi-authored, and includes a history of scholarship as well as a presentation of relevant ancient texts both in the original language (Greek, Latin) and in translation. De Grummond (2006) assesses the evidence for Etruscan mythology from iconographic sources, and some of this ground is also surveyed in Bonfante and Swaddling (2006); while various aspects of ritual are discussed in Gleba and Becker (2009). For continental scholarship there is the wide-ranging series of papers in Gaultier and Briquel (1997). Finally, for discussion and exegesis of many pertinent inscriptions see Bonfante and Bonfante (2002). Comp. by: PG3754 Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 0001204559 Time:18:38:52 Filepath:d:/womat-filecopy/0001204559.3D Date:3/6/11 OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – , 3/6/2011, SPi E T RU S C A N R I T UA L A N D R E L I G I O N 719 REFERENCES Barbieri, G. (ed.) 1987. L’alimentazione nel mondo antico: gli etruschi (Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato). 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