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This research investigates sex roles and labor in ancient Etruscan society, comparing and contrasting the bioarchaeological profile of human remains of five females and two males from the sacred area of the 'monumental complex' (Civita, Tarquinia). Despite the small sample size, analyses of entheseal changes, spinal and appendicular osteoarthrosis, Schmorl's nodes, and dental wear reveal much higher frequencies of biomechanical stress markers compared to other coeval Etruscan sites as well as pre-Roman and Roman data. Both males and females exhibited evidence of repeated strenuous physical activity, but the degree of biomechanical stress in females was particularly striking, suggesting involvement in physically intensive tasks. The study also draws comparisons with Roman populations, highlighting the higher biomechanical stress among women living in the Etruscan society compared to Roman females. These findings challenge the assumption of strict sex divisions of labor in ancient societies, indicating that Etruscan women at Civita may have shared in physically demanding activities typically associated with men, such as agricultural labor, sports, or domestic production. While the sample is limited and precludes definitive conclusions, this study represents a rare bioarchaeological contribution to the study of Etruscan society, offering insight into their lived experiences. Moreover, it underscores the importance of valorizing this skeletal material to enrich our understanding of sex roles and labor in one of antiquity's most enigmatic civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is an obituary for the German archaeologist Prof. Dr. Otto-Herman Frey, who was particularly dedicated to the research of the Iron Age north of the Alps. He worked closely with Slovenian archaeologists and was involved in various projects, including the exploration of the Cvinger ring fort near Stična and the restoration of findings from the Kandija hills in Novo mesto. The article emphasizes the long-standing friendship and collaboration between Frey and Slovenian archaeologists such as Stane Gabrovec. Frey contributed to the research of Situla art and Celtic art, and investigated the connections between Etruscan and Celtic art. He received the highest award of the state of Hesse for his work. [Extracted from the article]

The analysis of traumatic injuries in human skeletal remains from archaeological contexts offers important challenges for the reconstruction of past populations’ behaviors. In this study, a sample of 303 buried skeletons retrieved from the Etruscan necropolis of Spina (Ferrara, Italy) and dated back to the 5th to the 3rd century BC, were macroscopically analyzed for traumatic injuries. The sample consisted of 38% males, 22% females, and 40% undetermined individuals. Subadults represented 25% of the entire sample. The aim of this study was to collect and describe new data on antemortem and perimortem injuries in the Spina Etruscans, bringing a new perspective to the understanding of social behaviors in this population. In the sample of Etruscans examined 16 individuals showed evidence of one injury and two individuals of two injuries. The analysis revealed 18 cases of antemortem trauma and 2 cases of perimortem trauma. No traumatic injuries were detected among subadults, while men and women presented different types of traumas: women were more prone to stress fractures involving the spine, whereas men were affected by antemortem and perimortem inflicted traumas, suggesting a division of labor and a major exposition of the latter to interpersonal violence. The reduced presence of sharp force traumas found exclusively in males (3 cases, 1.3% of the adult sample) is basically consistent with archaeological and historical data that described this site as a free port without an explicit history of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of the alphabet in Italy occurred between the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, resulting in the appearance of texts written in so many different languages and in such limited territorial space that one can hardly observe another similar event (Venetic, Raetic, Etruscan, Picenian, Faliscan, Latin, Umbrian, Oscan, Greek, etc.). In this paper, we analyzed inscriptions produced by the Veneti, the ancient inhabitants of a region located between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps, which has provided mainly short sepulchral and votive texts. After a careful analysis, some so far poorly understood texts revealed the development of symbols to represent numbers and the measurement of time. These features are connected with the experience of the Etruscans and show characteristics shared with neighboring Celtic populations. The inscriptions also highlight a focus on the supernatural and the underworld. Cultural influences from the east, especially from Egypt, which represent a prominent moment in the evolution of Greece in the 7th century BC, have left traces in figurative culture and, quite unexpectedly, even in language. Rigorous transliterations and original interpretations of the analyzed inscriptions support the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Susceptibility to morbidity and mortality is increased in early life, yet proactive measures, such as breastfeeding and weaning practices, can be taken through specific investments from parents and wider society. The extent to which such biosocialcultural investment was achieved within 1st millennium BCE Etruscan society, of whom little written sources are available, is unkown. This research investigates life histories in non-adults and adults from Pontecagnano (southern Italy, 730–580 BCE) in order to track cross-sectional and longitudinal breastfeeding and weaning patterns and to characterize the diet more broadly. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of incrementally-sampled deciduous and permanent dentine (n = 15), bulk bone collagen (n = 38), and tooth enamel bioapatite (n = 21) reveal the diet was largely based on C3 staple crops with marginal contributions of animal protein. Millet was found to play a role for maternal diet and trajectories of breastfeeding and feeding for some infants and children at the site. The combination of multiple isotope systems and tissues demonstrates exclusive breastfeeding was pursued until 0.6 years, followed by progressive introduction of proteanocius supplementary foods during weaning that lasted between approximately 0.7 and 2.6 years. The combination of biochemical data with macroscopic skeletal lesions of infantile metabolic diseases and physiological stress markers showed high δ15Ndentine in the months prior to death consistent with the isotopic pattern of opposing covariance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Materialist science does not see that consciousness is causal and fundamental. In contrast, as the body of nonlocal consciousness research has become more rigorous, more meticulous, what is notable about the criticism is its growing mediocrity. This paper discusses why the resistance to incorporating consciousness in science is occurring. It also discusses the history of how nonlocal consciousness was exiled from science in the first place. And why. In the pre-Christian world thinking about consciousness and its role in physical reality could not have been more mainstream. The idea of nonlocal consciousness and that all life is interconnected and interdependent, and that space-time itself arises from consciousness, not consciousness from space-time, is not a new idea. In the past based on a kind of empirical observational science nonlocal consciousness was so well accepted for millennia it was explicitly put to use in the service of the state for governmental planning. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Romans, the Maya, all these cultures and others have maintained institutions whose function was to create a cadre of what today we would call remote viewers, often boys and girls, whose task was to provide the kind of practical guidance one can get today from remote viewing. Oracles were honored. The origins of materialism are presented and discussed and properly placed in their relationship to the Roman Catholic Church. The history of how denialism developed is discussed, and the difference between skepticism and denialism is defined. The emergence process of a new paradigm incorporating non-physiologically based consciousness is described, and examined in Kuhnian terms. And, finally, the implications of this new paradigm are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Etruscans, who dominated central Italy for much of the first half of the first millennium BC, are ripe for new analysis: the quantity of data for their culture is now substantial, wide ranging, and qualifies for large-scale comparison. In this paper, we survey how research in the last decade has affected our understanding of settlements, of changing models of the transfer of ideas, and of Etruscan religious behavior, among other topics. We place them into complex spatial, architectural, and economic narratives to show that the interplay between microhistorical case studies and macrohistorical trends has now achieved what ought to be a paradigmatic status. Despite the continuous flow of specialist publications and an industry of exhibitions, however, the Etruscans have not broken through into mainstream archaeological awareness. We argue that this could be achieved if future research becomes more thematic and agenda driven and embraces comparative study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often maintained that Varro dispensed with the usual explanations for the Tities, Ramnes, and Luceres—the so-called Romulean tribes—and simply made all three Etruscan. This view is inconsistent with the evidence. Varro was clearly developing a case of his own about the foundation of Rome, the early citizen populace, and the granting of citizenship. All the evidence can be accounted for very easily, if it is supposed that he had the tribes created when Rome was founded, but named only later in Romulus' reign, following the war with the Sabines and the enrollment of new citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-examines the sole surviving fragment of Aeschylean elegy alongside the available contextual evidence in an attempt to enhance our currently very limited understanding of Aeschylus' elegiac output. The first section explores Theophrastus' citation of this fragment in the Historia Plantarum to demonstrate what we can learn about the original Aeschylean poem from its use within the later writer's discussion. The second section examines how the Italian focus of the fragment fits into a wider historical and literary discourse of interactions between Greeks and non-Greeks in the west. The third and concluding section builds on these findings to examine the possible Sicilian performance context of the original Aeschylean poem to which the fragment belongs. Ultimately the discussion demonstrates that the fragment is an important and hitherto underappreciated early witness of the development of influential cultural concepts regarding interactions between Greeks and non-Greeks in the west, and that the possibility that Aeschylus produced a poem relating to the victory of Hieron I of Syracuse over the Etruscans at Cumae in 474 b.c.e. is worth serious consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping ancient roads is crucial to tell credible geospatial stories about where, how, or why different people might have travelled or transported materials within and between places in the distant past. Achieving this process is challenging and commonly accomplished by means of archaeological and GIS methods and materials. It is not uncommon for different experts employing these methods to generate inconsistent delineations of the same ancient roads, creating confusion about how to produce knowledge and decisions based on multiple geospatial perspectives. This yet to be adequately addressed problem motivates our desire to enrich existing literature on the nature and extents of these differences. We juxtapose GIS and archaeologically generated road maps for northern Etruria, a region of ancient Italy with a well-developed road network built by the Etruscans and Romans. We reveal map differences through a map comparison approach that integrates a broad set of qualitative and quantitative measures plus geospatial concepts and strategies. The differences are evident in route locations, sinuosities, lengths, and complexities of the terrains on which the routes were set as defined by subtle variations in elevation, slope, and ruggedness. They ranged from 11.2–34.4 km in road length, 0–65.7 m in road relief, 1.0–13.5% in mean road grade, 0.07–0.79 in detour indices and 0.19–3.08 for mean terrain roughness indices, all of which can be considerable depending on application. Taken together, the measures proved effective in furthering our understanding of the range of possible disagreements between ancient linear features mapped by different experts and methods and are extensible for other application areas. They point to the importance of explicitly acknowledging and maintaining all usable perspectives in geospatial databases as well as visualization and analysis processes, regardless of levels of disagreement, and especially where ground-truth informed assessments cannot be reliably performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A middle meningeal artery (MMA) aneurysm is a type of intracranial aneurysm that has been rarely documented and is not completely understood in clinical medicine and especially in pediatrics, because juvenile cases have been extremely uncommon. Vascular conditions have occasionally been diagnosed in osteoarchaeological remains, providing evidence of their occurrence in previous eras. In the present report, we have described a lesion that was highly consistent with a case of an MMA aneurysm observed in an Etruscan child, whose remains had been exhumed during archaeological excavations in the necropolis of Pontecagnano (Salerno, southern Italy). The remains date back to the seventh to sixth century BC. Macroscopic and radiological examinations revealed an oval depression in the endocranial area corresponding to the parietal branch of the right MMA. The localized thinning of the bone and the absence of a bone reaction were compatible with a long-lasting compression of vascular origin highly consistent with an MMA aneurysm. Primary malignant bone tumors, bone metastasis, benign neoplastic conditions, and other non-neoplastic conditions, including calvarial venous malformations, eosinophilic granuloma, and sarcoidosis, could be excluded from the differential diagnosis, although the occurrence of other pathologies, such as dural arteriovenous fistulas, could not be rejected. Although it was not possible to definitely establish whether the MMA aneurysm was symptomatic, it could not be ruled out that rupture and subsequent extradural hemorrhage and/or intracranial hemorrhage could have caused the death of the child. From a paleopathological viewpoint, the case illustrated provides an interesting historical perspective on a rare neurovascular disorder that continues to be debated in modern clinical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the application of serious games to cultural heritage. Through an overview of the growing importance of gamification in promoting cultural sites and museum collections, the research highlights the changing practices of cultural institutions, which are increasingly involved in producing serious games, considering them as strategic digital marketing tools to promote cultural heritage and tourism in addition to their traditional "learning by playing" function. The article explores a case study, namely Mi Rasna, a game on the Etruscan society realized in partnership with several Italian cultural institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaic Roman painted antefixes, architectural slabs and louteria from the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy, were studied by non‐destructive and micro‐destructive methods: Portable X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), micro‐Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive spectroscopy (SEM‐EDS) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The investigation enabled the characterization of raw materials and ceramic technology, providing insights on provenance. In fact, similarities were recognized with terracottas from the neighbouring Etruscan Veii. The analysis of pictorial layers revealed the use of Fe‐ and Mn‐based pigments, as well as the identification of more precious pigments on worthy pieces. The research intended to support the archaeological discussion about the frame of the nascent city of Rome, also in relation to the coeval Etruscan culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Earth's microbial biosphere extends down through the crust and much of the subsurface, including those microbial ecosystems located within cave systems. Here, we elucidate the microbial ecosystems within anthropogenic 'caves'; the Iron‐Age, subterranean tombs of central Italy. The interior walls of the rock (calcium‐rich macco) were painted ~2500 years ago and are covered with CaCO3 needles (known as moonmilk). The aims of the current study were to: identify biological/geochemical/biophysical determinants of and characterize bacterial communities involved in CaCO3 precipitation; challenge the maxim that biogenic activity necessarily degrades surfaces; locate the bacterial cells that are the source of the CaCO3 precipitate; and gain insight into the kinetics of moonmilk formation. We reveal that this environment hosts communities that consist primarily of bacteria that are mesophilic for temperature and xerotolerance (including Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria); is populated by photosynthetic Cyanobacteria exhibiting heterotrophic nutrition (Calothrix and Chroococcidiopsis); and has CaCO3 precipitating on the rock surfaces (confirmation that this process is biogenic) that acts to preserve rather than damage the painted surface. We also identified that some community members are psychrotolerant (Polaromonas), acidotolerant or acidophilic (members of the Acidobacteria), or resistant to ionizing radiation (Brevundimonas and Truepera); elucidate the ways in which microbiology impacts mineralogy and vice versa; and reveal that biogenic formation of moonmilk can occur rapidly, that is, over a period of 10 to 56 years. We discuss the paradox that these ecosystems, that are for the most part in the dark and lack primary production, are apparently highly active, biodiverse and biomass‐rich. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to dominate the educational aspects of historical level by examining the relationship between Rome and the Etruscan cities of Veii and Caere. Rome and Veii fought constant wars for control of the trade routes passing through the Tiber and its tributaries, which was necessary for the development of both states. In this struggle, Rome and Veii sought allies for themselves both among the Etruscans and among the Latins. Ultimately, Rome won over the Veii in 396 BC, thus the Roman tribes were founded on the land of the Veii, and the city fell into desolation. The relations with Caere developed in a different way, since there were no economic contradictions between the Romans and the Caerites. The relations were built on a peaceful basis, and Caere even helped the Romans during the Gallic invasion at the beginning of the 4th century BC: they received part of the population who fled from Rome, and their shrine, which was most important for the Romans. At the same time, Roman expansion at the end of the 5th - 4th centuries BC. Led to the war between Rome and Caere, after which the Etruscan city was subordinated to Rome. The results of such research, above all, highlight the need to increase the level of educational knowledge in the field of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansive literature on Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) has paid little notice to his views on the ancient Etruscans. Yet Vasari was the first author to establish a canon of Etruscan style and to apply his criteria to the analysis of an Etruscan object. His passages on the Etruscans are, therefore, a landmark in the history of art historical method. This paper considers Vasari's notion of the Etruscan style as developed in the Vite (1550 and 1568) and the Ragionamenti (1557-58) and its significance in Florentine culture under Duke Cosimo I de M4dicis (r. 1537-74). An analysis of his texts, including an often-overlooked section by Giovambattista Adriani, reveals that Vasari's formulation of Etruscan style was part of a strategy to proclaim Tuscany the birthplace of the arts of disegno. Vasari's achievement thus depended less on his experience with Etruscan objects than on his broader agenda to promote Tuscan artists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In la Muela de Alborajico, a setting of the municipality of Tobarra (Albacete), there exist three excavated rooms in the stone which have been defined as an eremitic complex in which cave I would be the monacal church. Our research proposes a new possibility: without discording that this space may have been occupied by monks, we consider that these rooms are tombs. The holes, the stone beds with pillow, lead us to believe that they are Etruscan tombs, or otherwise with clear Etruscan influence of prominent persons who lived there between the seventh and second centuries B.C. Afterwards, cave I was transformed into a reservoir in the Hispanic-Muslim period. Alongside the artificial cavities with their stone beds, there exist small caves and remains of a pre-Roman settlement, which leads us to think of a funerary complex with dates back to the second millennium before Christ and that, perhaps, might have belonged to the culture of El Algar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charcoal analysis, applied in sediment facies analysis of the Pecora river palaeochannel (Tyrrhenian southern Tuscany, Italy), detected the occurrence of past fire events in two different fluvial landforms at 800–450 BC and again at AD 650–1300. Taking place in a central Mediterranean district adequately studied through palaeoenvironmental and archaeological research, the investigation determined land changes, time phases and socio-economic driving forces involved in dynamic processes of fire. The fire sequences had purely anthropogenic origins and were linked to forest opening and reduction by local communities. Introduced by the Etruscans, fires dated to 800–450 BC involved mainly the forest cover on the hilly slopes, ensuring agricultural exploitation. From AD 650, fires contributed to Medieval upstream reclamation and vegetation clearing of flat swamplands. From AD 850 to 1050, the use of fire spread over a wider area in the river valley, increasing arable lands. Between AD 1150 and 1300, fires belonged to a regional forest clearance phase. Medieval fire episodes had a paramount importance in shaping and determining the character of the Tuscan Mediterranean landscape. From AD 850, Medieval fire clearing influenced regional vegetation history contributing to the decline of the dominant deciduous Quercus woodland. Open habitats became the new form of a clearly detectable agricultural landscape from AD 950. The use of fire clearing and the resulting landscape changes in the Pecora river valley depended on the political strategies adopted by Medieval authorities and marked, in fact, the progression of a cultural landscape still characterizing central Tyrrhenian Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few reported cases in the literature of spinal injuries from the past, and all of them resulted in the death of the individual or led to severe health consequences. From the historical record, it is well known there were no cures or treatments for spinal lesions in the past. Given the paucity of historical documents focused on this topic, anthropological research on spinal injuries can contribute with important information regarding the medical history of this kind of trauma. Moreover, skeletal trauma and occupational markers may be crucial for the reconstruction of habitual behaviors and the identification of causes and timing of death. We report results of an anthropological study of a case of vertebral injury discovered in an individual from the Italian Iron Age that highlights this important topic. The aim of this study was to assess the habitual activity pattern and manner of death of an ancient inhabitant of Spina in Padanian Etruria (northeastern Italy). We performed a detailed anthropological and paleopathological analysis of skeletal remains. The unknown individual was identified as a middle-aged man characterized by a particular trauma to the spine. Lesion analysis revealed a perimortem injury at the L2-L3 level. Characteristic markers on the bones indicated intense physical activity carried out during his life. This Etruscan, in all likelihood a sailor according to the occupational markers, did not survive a stabbing attack with a bladed weapon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Etruscan control in Italy was not constrained distinctly by the well-known region of Etruscan culture (Tuscany and northern Lazio). The Etruscan power also extended toward the southwestern areas (Campania) as well as to the northern parts of Italy (Po valley). The impact of Etruscan culture spread over the entire land. The essential wellsprings of the paper are represented by the ancient sources in Latin and Greek from different periods treating Etruscan culture and society. The ancient authors portrayed the high class of society intentionally. They planned to define Etruscans as pleasure-seekers that participated in the spectacular banquets. The truth of the matter, from an archaeological perspective, is that it was not completely real. Archaeobotanical and anthropological investigation demonstrates that the way of life of the vast majority of the Etruscan population was standardly modest. Comparison of ancient written sources with archaeological data proves that the ancient writers were one-sided, sometimes without a critical approach to the sources, which could cause the misconception of certain components of Etruscan culture. There could be several reasons why it was so. The main focus of this paper is the examination of these reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavations in the urban area of the Etruscan port city of Spina near Ferrara (Italy) have shown that the city had a roughly trapezoidal ground plan and covered an area of about 6 ha. In the east it was situated on the ancient course of the river Po (Padus Vetus) and in the west and south-west probably on a lagoon and another smaller river. The study project of the University of Zurich (2008–2017) had the goal of providing a clear stratigraphical sequence of the settlement phases as well as a geophysical investigation of the entire city area and indications of the natural environment. The excavation revealed several phases with wooden houses from the late sixth to the end of the fourth century BCE bordered by orthogonal water canals of different scales. After the violent destruction of the house, built between 375 and 350 B.C., in the third quarter of the fourth century the site changed its character. Not only was the level artificially raised, but the canals were abandoned and the area acquired a new function around 300 BCE. A series of very small, flat, round or oval impressions were found in the floor, in the vicinity of which lay a large quantity of thick, reddish terracotta fragments, coarsely tempered with organic material, very brittle, with cord impressions and finger marks. Fewer in number are accessory supports, round, or oval in section. Given their special technique, their large number, their distribution and the type of accumulation on the site, these fragments can be interpreted as briquetage deliberately smashed after use in order to remove the salt yielded by boiling. The fragments probably belonged to smaller, rectangular basins which stood on the round supports. The deeper channels from earlier phases had become in the last phase shallow gullies which served to supply fresh water. • Salt production in the Etruscan city of Spina. • Briquetage technique used by Etruscans. • Early Hellenistic salt production on the Adriatic coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Archaeological excavations carried out in Early Iron Age Vetulonia (northern Tuscany, Italy) brought to light a funerary urn particularly noteworthy for the presence of an unusual decoration obtained by plastering the vase surface with an organic dark grey substance, on which metal strips were originally fixed. In order to reveal the origin of such coating, it was chemically studied by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Chemical analysis not only revealed that birch bark tar was used as coating/adhesive material for the manufacture of the urn, but also allowed us to discuss the significance of the vessel in terms of eco‐technological knowledge and possible cultural connections on a large geographical scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present contribution the Latin word littera is anylazed from the point of view of etymology. First, the previous relevant etymological attempts are discussed. If none of them is convincing enough to exclude doubts, a new etymology is proposed. It is based on supposition that the script may also be named according to material, here namely "linen cloth", really used in the ancient Mediterranean world. A source of Latin littera could be Greek acc.sg. *līta "linen cloth", mediated to Romans via Etruscans, adding the plural in -er-. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study related to the freedom of the etruscans. Topics discussed inlcude classical archaeology's intellectual genealogy steeping into the paradigm of classicism; philhellenism of German 19th century scholarship, with its critical impact upon studies of Etruscan antiquity and art; and emergence of a Hellenocentric view of Etruscan art and material culture as the evolution of thought on the relationship between Etruscan art and political systems.

The decorated graves of Tarquinia are among the more important pre-Roman records of classical painting in the Mediterranean. Their monumental series of funereal paintings, dated between the seventh and second century B.C. faithfully reflect the Etruscan civilization, of which they form a unique source of knowledge. They also represent indirect evidence of Greek paintings almost completely lost. The main goal of this research is the identification of pigments in order to clarify the unknown aspects of the materials used and, therefore, to furnish fundamental information to plan suitable restoration and conservation. With this aim in mind, complementary non-destructive and in situ handheld X ray fluorescence and Raman spectrometry were carried out on the wall paintings of eight of the more important Tarquinia graves, allowing us to highlight the use, together with common pigments such as hematite, carbon, goethite and calcite, of the more precious malachite, Egyptian blue, lazurite and cinnabar in some of the more notable tombs probably commissioned by rich nobleman. Furthermore, the research evidenced that the routine of mixture of pigments to obtain particular hues was a common practice for Archaic Etruscan painters. In this context the use of lazurite and probably of Tyran purple added to others pigments in symbolic details, opens new questions. On the whole, the value of these pigments gives additional importance to the Etruscan Necropolis. Moreover, the results of this study will be useful for future restoration and conservation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ancient world beeswax and honey were of crucial importance not only for nutrition, but also for a range of activities including various artisanal practices. A rich body of iconographic and literary evidence has proven very informative, but archaeological data are strongly underrepresented in studies on ancient beekeeping. A multidisciplinary excavation project of the Etruscan trade center of Forcello near Bagnolo San Vito (Mantua province), led to the discovery of charred honeycombs in a workshop dated to 510-495 BCE. Morphoscopical, palynological and chemical analyses (IR, LC-MS, GC-MS) were conducted on these honeycombs and their associated materials (bee-breads and a mixture of melted honeycombs) in order to reconstruct beekeeping practices and the local environment. Palynological data indicate that honeybees were feeding on plants from both aquatic and ruderal landscapes. The palynological record from the bee-breads suggests the practice of itinerant beekeeping along rivers, an activity described by Pliny the Elder (Natural History, XXI.43.73) a few centuries later in relation to the town of Ostiglia (Mantua province) ca. 20 km downstream the investigated site. Hence, confirming the historical source, beekeeping in Iron Age Northern Italy appears to be characterized by a remarkably high degree of specialization. In addition, the pollen content of the melted honeycombs provides evidence for an unprecedented Vitis vinifera (grapevine) honey. The pollination syndrome suggests that bees fed on nectar of pre-domesticated or early-domesticated varieties of Vitis vinifera , confirming the archaeobotanical record of pips from Iron Age Northern Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Etruscan artwork presented soldiers in visual media during the Middle Roman Republic (ca. 300-100 B.C.E.), a period when Etruscan communities were required to contribute contingents to the Roman army. It proposes a class-based model for how Etruscans formulated their military identities. Elite representations, in particular cavalry combat on cinerary urns, displayed elaborately hellenized soldiers rather than Roman-style combatants. Meanwhile, nonelite representations, primarily featuring infantrymen on more economically accessible votive figurines, either displayed hybrid panoply or made no attempt to differentiate the portrayed soldier from a generic Roman citizen legionary. In the realm of martial identity, Etruscan elites in visual media appeared culturally aloof from Rome as well as socially removed from common soldiers in their own communities. The article concludes by placing the corpus of Etruscan evidence in the context of more scattered evidence from across the peninsula and suggesting that the tendency of elites to eschew the Roman panoply in visual media, and of nonelites to partially or wholly embrace it, was widespread in Italy prior to the Social War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper pretends to contribute to the study of the explicit allusion to the parallel of the fall of Troy with the fall of Veii in Livy's narrative. With the goal of making the analysis of the issue more complex, which lately has been thought, mainly, in a literary framework, the proposal here is to consider, besides the previous approach, information that surpasses the aforesaid framework, so as to achieve a more complex understanding of the reasons why Livy uses the referred parallel in this episode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution addresses the perception of textile production in Etruscan society rather than analyzing the technical functions of related objects. It stems from the assessment of an existing link between semantic scopes that are only apparently different - textile production, writing, and religion - in which women undertake roles that are complementary to men's. Evidence unearthed at Tarquinia by the Università degli Studi di Milano during current excavation at the 'monumental complex', and by the Soprintendenza Archeologica per l'Etruria Meridionale in the Monterozzi necropolis during the 1980s, provide a number of elements supporting this argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the experimental tests of archaeological spinning tools carried out within the project TexSEt (Textiles in Southern Etruria). We were asked to test the functionality of some replicas of ancient spindle whorls of different shapes and sizes, for spinning wool and flax. Having different spinning backgrounds, we approached this experience from different points of view: a more "craft-oriented" and "anthropological" in one case, and a more "archaeological" and "experimental" in the other. The results were also different, since in addition to quantitative considerations, more qualitative aspects of work have emerged, such as preferences for and dislikes of certain gestures and tools arising from our different habits and traditions. From these experiences, it seems to emerge that not only tool characteristics but also spinner's work habits and intentions determine the features of the yarn spun with specific spinning tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with the analysis of a recent discovery in an Orientalising necropolis at Veii, and by re-examining some new and old discoveries of textiles from female Etruscan and Latial tombs, this paper aims to define the female ceremonial dress between the Late Iron Age and the Orientalising age. This dress, which takes on a symbolic significance in special occasions and rites of passages of aristocratic life (marriage, death, birth), was used to affirm the gender identity acknowledged by the community. Women enhanced their beauty by wearing precious jewellery and garments enriched by the application of decorative glass and amber beads, pendants and metal plaques, studs and buttons, but these accoutrements also underlined their wealth and social status. Women's elaborate adornment may have been thought to provide some protective measures, and visually communicated a sign of fertility and displayed their aesthetics and/or sexual value. She herself is an agalma and with her dowry a valuable resource for the oikos. In addition, this paper will contextualise the use of specific clothes in the wider gentilician ceremonial world, by taking the textiles and female ornaments in question, as part of a larger program made up of figurative ornaments, but also sounds, smells, food and words that we can only imagine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intact chamber tomb dated between the end of the Orientalising and early Archaic periods was discovered in 2013 in the Doganaccia necropolis of the Etruscan city of Tarquinia. Tomb 6423, nicknamed Tomba dell'Aryballos sospeso, contained an inhumation of a female, as well as a cremation of a male, both accompanied by sumptuous burial gifts. Exceptionally preserved remains of several different fabrics were found inside two bronze objects associated with the inhumation, the pyxis and the basin. The bronze sheet pyxis contained both organic and mineralised fragments of threads and textiles of greenish and purplish colour, while among the organic contents of the bronze basin some open tabby fabric fragments were found. The paper presents the results of textile, fibre and dye analyses of these important new finds, and offers some preliminary thoughts regarding their possible function and significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iconographic sources indicate that textiles were used for a variety of purposes by the Etruscans, Paleovenetians, Faliscans and other inhabitants of ancient Italy but until recently little was known about what these textiles actually were like. The latest and ongoing studies of the surviving fabric remains found primarily in burial contexts are for the first time permitting not only qualitative but also quantitative assessment of the data. The paper focuses on the recently analysed textile remains from across Italy, and places them in the wider context of Italian and European pre-Roman textile production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the Sesto Fiorentino (Florence) Etruscan tombs, the most renowned and best preserved are the two architectonically impressive seventh century BC tholos tombs of La Montagnola and La Mula. Another tholos (Tumulo Montefortini) is placed in the near city of Artimino, circa ten km away from Sesto. The tombs belonged to powerful Etruscan princes and greatly differ for magnificence from other tombs in the surroundings. Several Etruscan tholos tombs were found spread in northern Etruria. We have studied the geometry of La Montagnola and La Mula conducting the analyses in CAD working on the best available plans using qualified best-fit methods (Kasa, 1976). The scheme that resulted for La Montagnola (the only one complete and with its original dromos) send back to the classification by Ranieri (2008) of the geometries of the Mycenean tholos tombs. we have been searching for the employed length units and found to conform to greek-roman cubits and palms. Simulations of the ancient sky with Stellarium have shown that the alignements of all the three tholos tombs can be associated to the minor lunar standstill, in a region of the sky that the Etruscans denoted as pertaining to the death. In turn, the toponymy "Artimino" can be reasonably interpreted as deriving from the name of the Etruscan goddess Aritimi, associated with the Moon, the death, the night, the nature and the woods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An area between land and water was chosen in the 7th century bc by native Gauls and foreign Etruscan and Greek merchants to establish a commercial enclave. Then, in the early 5th century bc, this initial settlement at La Cougourlude with post-built houses on the banks of the small coastal river Lironde was relocated to the margins of a nearby lagoon along the Mediterranean coast, giving rise to the walled port city of Lattara. Archaeological excavations undertaken in the 2000s along the southern wall of Lattara in Quarter 27 revealed three houses which contained almost exclusively Etruscan pottery. The objective of this study is to analyse the archaeobotanical remains from these dwellings so as to identify the plant foods which were consumed and used by their inhabitants, as well as the methods of storage. The question arises whether anything particularly relating to Etruscan origins can be detected from the diet of the inhabitants. To study this aspect we have compared the data collected during the excavation with research undertaken at neighbouring settlements dating from periods either older, contemporary with or younger than Lattara, as well as research undertaken at sites in the Etruscan area of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of 303 skeletons from the Etruscan necropolis of Spina (Ferrara, Italy, 6th-3rd centuries bc) was examined for paleopathological lesions in order to assess the general health, diseases and quality of life of this Iron Age population. The observed pathologies included porotic hyperostosis, specific and aspecific infections, metabolic and endocrine disorders, tumours and osteoarthritis. A total of 46.7% of adults and 7.7% of subadults showed at least one pathological lesion. Statistical comparisons were made between sexes and adult-age classes (20-35 years and >35 years) to analyse the prevalence of the lesions. The analysis of porotic hyperostosis and osteoperiostitis allowed to determine the general health status of this group, and the analysis of osteoarthritis allowed to hypothesise a gender division of labour. The results suggest a relatively high-life expectancy for the time as well as good health and quality of life. The few specific infections and metabolic disorders indicate fairly good nutrition, while the high frequency of porotic hyperostosis can be partly linked to some type of hereditary anaemia. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Rome was founded on a fortified site on top of a hill and controlled a ford on the River Tiber. Various villages inhabited by different ethnic groups, such as Etruscans, Latins and Sabines, were located in its proximity. Along the Tiber valley, there were trade activities, concerning in particular the sale of salt and the produce of sheep farming. This site was rich in water, coming both from springs and from the river, fertile soils, building materials and timber. Soon the first harbours were built, one inside the city and the other at the mouth of the Tiber, where the town of Ostia was raised, near to the saltworks. In the following periods, the two great harbours of Claudius and Trajan were made along the sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]