The Etruscan People and culture

Fred Hamori
December 4, 2005

Introduction

Also available on this website are the sound rules and dictionary of
vocabulary, by clicking on the following titles.

Etruscan Dictionary
Etruscan Sound Rules for proto FinnoUgrian
The Etruscans and their civilization has long disappeared from Europe, but their
legacy lives on in many ways, even though often it is not recognized for what it
is. The first builders of arches and aqueducts in Europe, underground sewers,
city planning, iron and bronze working, and hundreds of culture words,
including the calendar, that were adopted by the Romans and then later spread
throughout their empire is from them. They also introduced the alphabet to the
Romans from a Phonecian and Greek combination. The Etruscans also
introduced the horse and charriot to Italy as well as quite a large body of culture
words which we still use today such as ferrum=iron, horta=goddes of agriculture
(hortaculture), litera=writing (literature), numa=sign, notch,
coinage(numismatics), urbs=city (urban) , element, miles/milites(millitary) etc.
As a people and a language, they were unique. They were not just another
ancient nation that died off, but the descendant of the most ancient people of
Europe, which was unique in customs, religion, language and their exceptional
engineering and artistic skills.

The center of Etruscan culture was located mainly in northern Italy and their
modern day namesake is the area known as Toscany, in northern Italy. They
eventually were conquered by the Romans and were granted Roman citizenship.
They represented the core patrician class of the Rome, that gave many rulers and
statesmen to the new empire. Their earliest writing is from 700BC, although as
with most other early civilizations writing came much later then their existence
there. Smaller Etruscan texts have also been found on the island of Lemnos
while a very famous text was found in Egypt written on the linens of a mummy.
Apparently the cloth "book" was cut up to use as bandages for a mummy.
Unfortunately most of the extensive literature of the Etruscans was destroyed by
the book burning Christians. What made the Etruscans unique was their
prominent position, their well planned cities and their many innovations, that
eventually elevated the nearby Latin people also from their simple shepherd life
to a great empire that influenced European civilization. The Etruscans founded
many cities on the Italian peninsula, including the city of Rome. Because they
were seafarers and tradesman they had to compete with the Phonecians and
Greeks. Some of the Roman rulers and prominent families claimed their origin
from Etruscan families and some of whom even wrote books about the
Etruscans. Typically names ending in O in Latin were Etruscan in origin, but the
original Etruscan form was U. Some of the Roman gods were also of Etruscan
origin. Even the Roman myth of origin from the twin boys Romulus and Remus
that were raised by a female wolf, was probably from the Etruscans. The
likelihood of this is that because this story is also found in the myths of origin of
other eastern cultures, whose languages are related to Etruscan.

It also appears that they gave the "calendar" term and the first six month's names
to that calendar.
January from (i)ANI the god of the sky,
Ferbruary from Februs the god of the underworld,
March from Masan, which is possibly from the upper level clans Mas, Mech in
Etruscan,
April from Aber-as is the name of the lower level clans,
May is from Mach =the Etruscan numeral 5,
June is from UNI the chief goddess and wife of the chief god TIN.
The other month's names are Latin and may have replaced the older Etruscan
names. July and August are late additions that are from Julius and Augustus
Cesar, and were names of Roman Emperors. Their insertion into the list causes a
displacement of two with the subsequent months September = numeral 7,
October =numeral 8, November =numeral 9, December = numeral 10.

I Origins
Some have claimed that they were in Italy before the coming of the Latins,
while others claim their origin from Anatolia or Troy. The newest explanations
are that they had some contacts with the area of Hungary. There is no agreement.
Some claim their known presence from about 1600BC to references as late as
400AD, while others claim only 700BC to 14AD, when writing proves their
presence.

Etruscan origin is a highly controversial subject, which often tends to repeat the
old disproven ideas for the most part. The latest opinion is that they came to
Italy after the Latins, who were already living there from about 1850 BC. Some
classical writers such as Dionysus of Halicarnassus, argued that the Etruscans
were the original people of the peninsula while others like the Greek Herodotus,
claimed that they were colonists of the Lydians. However, since their language
wasn’t like Lydian that cannot be true. Hellanicus of Lesbos however seems
closest to finding the proper link, when he writes that Tyrrhenians, who were
previously called Pelasgians, the pre Greek inhabitants of Greece and
surroundings. The Etruscans received their present name after they had settled in
Italy. These are his words in the Phoronis: "Phrastor was the son of Pelasgus,
their king, and Menippe, the daughter of Peneus; his son was Amyntor,
Amyntor's son was Tutamides, and the later's son was Nanas. In his reign the
Pelasgians were driven out of their country by the Greeks, and after leaving their
ships on the river Spines in the Ionian Gulf, they took Croton, an inland city and
proceeding from there, they colonized the country called Tyrrhenia."

Because their culture and their many innovations weren’t present in earlier times
on the Italian peninsula, they probably weren't there yet. Their latter arrival
brought their many new contributions. Some archeologists like Hugh Hencken
claim they came from the area of Hungary. Barfield called this area of Europe
the "heartland of technology of the Bronze Age". The American archeologist,
Hugh Hencken has claimed their origin was from Hungary due also to the
similar type of Urn burial customs and metallurgy, which was present there, and
the bronze technology they brought from there, as well as their equestrian
customs. The senior Italian linguist Mario Alinei has done extensive
comparisons of the language of the Etruscans and has come to the conclusion
that it was an archaic form of Hungarian and its predecessors the Ugrians. His
theory of origin was that the ancestors of the Hungarians were living in Hungary
at the end of the 3rd millenium BC, long before they were supposed to have
arrived from the nearby Ukraine at 896AD. The main confusion factor in regards
to Hungarians is that they had several fairly widely separated colonies in the
Caucasus Mountains, in the Volga region and the supposed birthplace of the
nation near the Sea of Azov (Meotis). Hencken also claims that the Etruscans
were part of the people who attacked Egypt under the confederation known as
the Sea People. Therefore they also had colonies on the island Lemnos in the
Aegian Sea and Anatolia (Troy).

The most recent linguistic origin theory, claimed by Mario Alinei, that ties
Etruscan to Ugrian, had several previous champions, besides Alinei, but they
were much less detailed than the new theory. This theory still has a lot of biases
to overcome in the linguistic community, which is infamous for its extreme
conservatism and reluctance to change as well as its willingness to persecute
those who stray from the "established" facts without even checking it out.
However there is no reason to think that the Etruscans didn’t have ties to several
other places, such as Troy, the island of Lemnos, the Balkans as well as the
Carpathian Basin in their early history. When we try to trace their origins
through Europe back through their source nations, it becomes very likely that
there was a link through different branches of these related people.
A Historic Hunt for the origins of the Etruscans
Lets attempt to trace them backwards in time and see where that takes us. The
Etruscans are generally associated with the Villanovan Culture of Italy. This
culture entered Italy from the south, from the direction of the Balkans, where
traces of the Etruscans were also found. One of the early Greek writers even
stated that the Etruscans were related to the pre-Greek aboriginals of Greece,
known as the Pelasgians. The archeologist Hencken has stated that the Italian
Villanovan Culture that entered Italy is Balkan in origin. This area was for a
long time inhabited by the people known as the Thracians, whose very name
sounds much like "Tursci", which is the local Latin name of the Etruscans.
Thrace had a very long history from about 1800BC to the start of the Christian
Era. Later they also spread to the Eastern Carpahian Basin under the name of
Dacian, a name which sounds a bit like the early ethnic designation for Turk or
the Scythian tribe known in the east as Daha.

The names Thraci-an and Troja-n are names that sound very similar, especially
if we assume that the internal C was more like a ch, which is a distinct
possibility after we compare the Etruscan words to its derivatives. Thrace and
Troyas were in fact on the opposite sides of the Aegian Sea, before the entrance
to the Sea of Marmara, and guarded the access to the Black Sea. The European
side of this area was called Thrace while the Asian side was once Troyas. It
seems that both sides were inhabited originally by the ancestors of the Etruscans
since the Trojans were claimed to be the ancestors of the Etruscans. See map
below.
The map illustrating the early European cultures including the Cimmerians of
central and eastern Europe. To be consistent with the newer theories the
Iranians probably entered their homeland also from the west, through Anatolia
south of the Black Sea where originally there were several early IndoEuropean
nations, like the Hittites. Early references to the Mitani also mention the
Iranians. The Cimmerians neighbors to the north are shown to be Slavs and
Balts in the west and FinnoUgrians in grey on the northeast.

The Thracians came from the east and were part of a larger group of related
people stretching from Central Europe to the edge of eastern Europe to the Ural
Mountains and the Caspean Sea, who were once known by the ancient Greeks as
the Kimmeroi (Cimmerians). This was before the coming of the Scythians in the
7th century BC, who pushed them out or took over as rulers of some of these
groups of people. The royal clans of the Cimmerians originally lived in and near
the Crimean Peninsula that juts into the Black Sea from it's northern shores. A
lot of their royal tombs were found here and around the local Sea of Azov, which
was a bay of the Black Sea. The following links to the Cimmerians of the people
of the Thracians and Dacians is claimed by several historians, however the link
to the Etruscans is my own association. The linguistic link between these people
is impossible to prove however, due to the insufficient linguistic material that
exists. A few names can never be sufficient to prove a language, especially if its
after the Scythian conquest. There are also claims that the Cimmerians came
from the Middle East based on the fact that the earliest records of their names is
from Assyrian sources. This in itself doesn’t prove the case if there was no one
around them to record it. So I think we need to trust in the early Greek historians
as they were the first one to remember and record this nation.

The Scythians coming from the east in the 7th century BC, conquered much of
the eastern Cimmerians, who were pushed out from mainly their south-eastern
territories, but many also remained around the Crimea and the area around the
Sea of Azov under Scythian rule. They also remained in the northern forest zone
as well as in the Balkans and Hungary even after the birth of Christ. Some of the
Eastern Cimmerians escaped and crossed the Caucasus Mountains and
established a large but short lived kingdom in Anatolia and destroyed the empire
of the Hittites. A few of their leaders are recorded by documents from the Near
East. They are remembered in the Bible as the sons of Gomer, whose sons were
Askenaz, Riphat and Togarma. Assyrian records also called areas of the empire
which were under the control of Cimmerian mercenaries, by the name Gamir.
The name which thereafter became the name for all dreaded nomadic horsemen,
including their enemy the Scythians. We can only assume that those who stayed
behind thereafter came under Scythian domination and were called Scythian
afterward, simply due to their rulers and the subsequent combining of the two
cultures. The other languages in the area of the Northern Black Sea, known later
as Scythian were not all related but required at least seven translators according
to the early Greeks. Therefore the people named collectively Scythian, could not
have been a single people, because their languages were not related. The real
Scythians were called the Royal Scythians. So the question becomes, who were
the Cimmerians and some of these pseudo Scythians? Where they always here
or did they come from another place? Some claim them to be simply an early
western branch of the Scythians and IndoEuropean in language, but without any
proof whatsoever. This is one of many gross oversimplifications of modern and
ancient historians.

The following is my own idea about Cimmerian origins, which really are in the
process of being developed. I warn the readers that there are currently three
different ideas about Cimmerian linguistic origin, but none can be absolutely
proven, only possibilities based on a few facts can be listed. My main reason to
believe there is a link with FinnoUgrian and Cimmerian is that I believe that the
Etruscans and Trojans are the same and that they originate from the Thracians. If
that is the case then the Cimmerians who were related to them must have had a
similar in language. The following associations could also be used as possible
proofs that the idea is correct.

Homer writes the following about the origin of the Cimmerians, in the Odyssey,
XI, 14:
"Ardys took Priene and attacked Miletus. Thus she brought us to the deep
Rowing River of Ocean and the frontiers of the world, where the fog bound
Cimmerians live in the City of Perpetual Mist. When the bright Sun climbs the
sky and puts the stars to flight, no ray from him can penetrate to them, nor can
he see them as he drops from heaven and sinks once more to the earth. For
dreadful night has spread her mantle over the heads of those unhappy folk. "
What did this mean? Perhaps the following information from other Greek
references can explain this darkness. The Cimmerian name also sounds
unusually similar to the FinnoUgrian term *kumer, which in the Züryen (Komi)
daugter language is kimmer, Finnish kumuri (Sumerian ki+muru =foggy land)
and means cloud, misty, shadowy. This sound unusually similar in pronunciation
and in meaning, to the description of Homer, who wrote of the dark, shadowy
Cimmerian lands.

According to Plutarch, the Cimmerians were the first to be known to the Greeks,
took flight and were driven from their land by the Scythians. The others lived at
the ends of the earth, near the Hyperborean Ocean, (Arctic Sea) in a land
covered in woods and dense shade, where the sun rarely penetrates the forests so
huge that they spread into the Hercynian forest. They were situated under the
part of the heavens where the slope of parallel circles makes the pole so high
that it is virtually the zenith of these peoples and the year is divided exactly in
half by days which are the same length as nights.

While some of this may sound a bit strange and even exaggerated, a few things
become quite obvious. They come from the far north toward the arctic where
days and nights can last for days, in deep and impenetrable forests, where no
Scythian would ever put his foot into, because they were plains dwelling people,
whose main occupation was herding animals, on the grasslands. Yet the southern
branches of these Cimmerians also did adopt the plains customs, long before the
Scythians ever came, while some of them also practiced agriculture, which was
less common among the Scythians. Archeologically speaking this culture was
called the "Yamna Culture" in Russia, which first domesticated the horse. Their
northern relatives also originated from the southern Ukraine, before the Ice Age
according to the Uralic Continuity theory, then many went north following the
herds, which was their chief livelihood. This region once was predominantly
FinnoUgrian but many others later also came and went. The Cimmerians
adapted their typical water nomadic life of the FinnoUgrian ancestors to horse
nomadism and also seafaring, by building larger boats and eventually became
quite familiar with the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The Etruscans are
known also from history to have participated in the attacks on Egypt under the
collective designation of "the sea people", since they are named by the
Egyptians by their actual later known name. Their name could not have been a
later day invention or a name derived from an early leader as the Greeks have
stated on more than one occasion.

The Cimmerian name reminds me also of another famous people, who came
from this area, on the north eastern side of the Black Sea or perhaps from the
northern Caspean. These were the Sumerians, who later moved to southern
Mesopotamia following the flooding of the Black Sea around 5000 BC. Today
there is an ongoing underwater investigation looking for their remnants in the
shallow areas of the Black Sea. Their language was also not IndoEuropean, but
quite similar to an earlier form of FinnoUgrian and Turkic. The origin of the
Sumerian Flood Story is being searched for in the area of the Black Sea,
however the Caspean also experienced this major event and can be linked to it.
Quite a few of the divinity names of Sumerian and Etruscan agree.
Unfortunately we know next to nothing about Cimerian but rather could guess
that some of the Scythian names were Cimmerian in origin.

Indeed names like Artemis from Scythian Artimpaz, are the same as Etruscan
Artume (night,death), possibly linked to Sumerian *Eret >> Eres (KiGal).
(goddess of the underworld,death).
The religious or cultic center of the Ob ugrians is tir, just as Sumerian tir-azag,
and just as Etruscan tru-t =a sacred act, Hungarian tor=ceremony for the
deceised. Similarly the Cimmerians buried their royal family along the river
Tir(as) according to Herodotus. Similarly rites and ceremonies in proto
FinnUgor is sar-ne, in Etruscan its zeri, in Sumerian its zur, in Hungarian its szer
which got into Latin from Etruscan as ceremonia.

A title of a Cimmerian king recorded in the Middle East was Lugdame

(Dugdame according to other references), which if we take Sumerian
equivalents of certain FinnoUgrian words as a guide j>g become Lugal=ruler,big
man, thus Lugdame is but Ludjame, which is the same as Etruscan Lucumu
meaning king or leader, since Etruscan intervocalic c can be a sibilant or ch but
not a k. The Sumerian term gal is the same in meaning as mah, which is big.
These have their Etruscan equivalents (m>n) nac=big. (Hungarian nagy), which
is a fairly basic and acceptable sound change.

The son of Lugdame was a war leader Sandak -satru in Lycian documents. The
god Sandak only appears once in Lycian writing so it was probably also foreign
and probably also Cimmerian. The god is associated with darkness and Hades.
In FinnoUgrian languages, there is a similar word in the form of *čette= dark,
early dawn, which becomes set-ét=dark in Hungarian, sitik in Estonian for
"black"currant and becomes *šu-du > ud-šu =dark (metathesis) =become/time
dark in Sumerian. To historian linguists such a miniscule list is useless in
comparing language types, yet even less was accepted to link it to Scythian and
IndoEuropean. So lets not quibble about double standards here.

Another Cimmerian ruler's name was Teush-pa which sounded a bit like Hurrian
Teshub, and thus was immediately explained by that since the meaning of the
name isn't really known. Of course that kind of sound alike linguistics is open to
a lot of diverse explanations but none can be really certain. To cut the field down
to something closer in line to what we propose, lets assume that perhaps
Etruscan is linked to Cimmerian as we maintain. In Etruscan TESH=to take
care, to cure like a medicine man or shaman. PA=head, chief in a bunch of
languages from FinnoUgrian, Altaic and although less common in Sumerian its
also found there. Etruscan has the word in the form of PAPN, which is the
reduplication of chief, meaning chief of chiefs, similar to Hungarian föfö (p>f).
This "Teush" all goes back to a FinnoUgrian term for shaman, found in
Hungarian as TAL-TOSH, for the chief shaman.

Kimm-er is the name of the Cimmerians, where the ending er is the plural. Just
as in Etruscan, modern Turkish ler, and I believe also found in several ethnic
names, like Sum-er. Magy-ar, Kaz-ar, Sab-ir etc. The root word KIM is common
in FinnoUgrian and Altaic for the name for man, male. Etruscan also has this in
a title of the chief LU-CUM-U which is the "Lead Man".
The map above, from Archeologist Kaalevi Wiik, illustrates the slow retreat of
the northern FinnUgor hunters to their present areas.This occurred until they
finally had to adopt agriculture or stock herding. Among the first FinnoUgrian
nations, that still exists, to adapt were the Hungarians and they were never
pushed far north like the others. Their national tradition, "The Legend of the
Stagg", claims their origin from the area around the Sea of Azov, which was the
same location as that of the Cimmerian Royalty.

The Cimmerians appear to be tied to the Etruscan language, even though very
little is known about the Cimmerian language, besides the previously mentioned
few names. Similarly the Cimmerian royal tribe, the Tauri is much like Tursci
name of the Etruscans, so that it can be traced from the royal Cimmerians,
known much later as the "Tauri" Scythians, to the Balkans as Thracian and to
eastern Hungary as Dacian, then to Troy as Trojan and are also known in Greek
as the Tyrsenoi, then to Italy where the Latins called them Tursci while the area
of their past homeland is remembered today as Tosc-an. There is strong evidence
that the Etruscans were not Indo Europeans, however much less is known about
the Thracians or Cimmerians. If they were all linked then the Scythians were
probably from the east of the Caspean and were the Turks, because there are a
lot of Turkic influences on the languages of the Southern Finno-Ugrian
languages and also in some Eastern European languages, especially in a
southern Finno-Ugrian nation like Hungarian. Similarly there are also Turkic
links in Etruscan or at least words that only survived in Turkic today. Such
words as mother "ati" which is much like Turkish "ede". A lot of their words can
be described with Ugrian or Turkic.
The Scythians or Turks were predominantly animal herders of the steppes that
were nomadic. Their many tribes stretched from Europe to China over the
grasslands. Their separation into various dialects however is not that long ago,
indicating that their western branches were absorbed or barely survived in a few
languages like Chuvash. The later Cimmerians, who are known by archeologists
as the "timber grave culture" after the manner of their burials and the early
Scythians "Kurgan Culture", had a long history of common development in this
area, which is the reason that there is so many common terms in the FinnUgor
and Turkic languages, from the most ancient times. Yet they weren't the same
people, or at least they diverged a long time ago. Their languages were quite
similar but also not necessarily the same. At least there were more pronounced
differences between the eastern Turkic languages and the west. Most
FinnoUgrians were forrest dwelers and hunters and fishers and water nomads,
while most Turkic people were herdsmen of the plains. However there were
some FinnoUgrians who like the Hungarians, adopted the herding and
agricultural lifestyles quite early. The similarity of their languages was the
reason for the idea that there once might have been a common Ural-Altaic
language family. If that was true it must have been from a very early time, and
must have been originally in Europe and not in Asia. Most of the common
shared words are later borrowings back and forth between the two groups, but
there are some words that are of common origin from very early times.

The name Kimmer (Cimmerian) name as well as several so called Scythian

names that were recorded by Herodotus, can be explained from FinnoUgrian as
well as Altaic name for man "Kujme" in FinnUgor and "Kum" in Turkic just as
the Tursci name can be explained in Hungarian to mean "tribe, society" as Törzs.
The ending -"er" originally was probably a plural suffix, just as the Etruscan
animate plural suffix is "r". The Hungarian ethnic designation also ends with "r",
while only the early western Turkic groups have "r" instead of the "z" suffixes
found in most Turkic ethnic designations. Some have claimed that Etruscan
should also be linked to the name Turk. However that name wasn’t used yet by
them at this early time.

In Europe in recent times the Scythians were claimed to be IndoEuropeans , who

supposedly overran the continent very quickly and changed the languages of the
local population. This Indo-European invasion theory from the east, known as
the "Kurgan Theory" of Marija Gimbutas cannot be supported, for it causes too
many conflicts with the linguistic links of Finno-Ugrian, Altaic, Sumerian and
Dravidian languages, which would have isolated them. There isn't a shred of
trustworthy linguistic evidence that can stand up to scrutiny for the Iranian or
Indo-European origin of early Scythian culture or language, even though the
later Andronovo Culture complex, centered around the Urals and Caspean Sea
had Fino-Ugrian, Turk and major Iranian elements in it. A culture complex
however doesn’t have to have a common language! The Kurgan Theory would
place the Indo-Europeans into central Europe much too late in time, not
allowing enough time to develop the huge differentiation between languages,
cultures and ethnic groups that are very self evident to the historic linguists or
archeologist. To simply explain this diversity away with a small elite that settled
over a much larger population throughout Europe at such a late time, with the
coming of the Scythians and then leaving supposedly next to no trace of the
local languages among entrenched farmers is totally unbelievable. Sure the
"Kurgan" people made many inroads into Europe, but they didn’t give their
language to it aside from some new culture words. They eventually melted in. I
realize that I am oversimplifying the theory, but this whole idea was done at the
expense of mislabeling the Cimmerians and Scythians also as "Indo-European",
which they weren't. This fallacy has finally become very self evident to the
leading historians and linguists, like Diakanov, Collin Renfrew, Mario Alinei
and many others causing the radical revision of the origin of indo-European
languages to a south central area, within Europe. The consequence of this is that
the Scythians will no longer be the linchpin that ties together the whole theory of
IndoEuropean origin. Hopefully this will end the random claims of origin from
so many distant areas in Eurasia and totally maligning the history and cultural
ties of the remnants of the non-Indo-European language groups of the continent
who were treated as late immigrants to this land rather than the aboriginals who
were here first. Unfortunately there are still others who are trying to salvage and
accommodate the outdated "Kurgan Theory" in any way they can. They were
only able to keep this theory in place by inventing a totally misleading and racist
idea that most Uralic (FinnUgor) were originally mongoloid.

A recent PBS television show in 2005 was researching the origin of the Scythian
warrior women, known by the Greeks as the Amazons. To make the story short,
genetic material was collected from the Kurgan burials of Amazon women in
Russia and a search was made to find a close genetic link. A match was not
found in Europe, but a perfect match was found among the Khazak Turks living
in Mongolia. There have been a lot of misunderstanding and problems caused by
the simple fact that Europeans have labeled all non Indo-Europeans to be
originally non Caucasian, but Mongoloid, based on some fringe elements found
among small eastern branches of the FinnoUgrians and the among eastern Turks,
who settled in the far east for a time. Location is everything, and had changed
the racial types of the Turks of the far East a lot, yet early references to the
Khazakh Turks in these areas, have stated that they were originally red haired
and blue eyed people, like the Scythians, and quite unlike today, but they weren't
Indo-Europeans in language. These tidbits of information have been known for a
long time but always swept under the rug and ignored and replaced by racist
stereotypes. Such mislabeling and distorted information was also made
concerning the so called "Uralic Type", which is ancestor to the FinnoUgrian
language family, placing them into the far eastern racial types by the famous
Carfali -Sforsa genetic research team, whereas most of them by far are classic
European types and only a very insignificantly small eastern fringe element,
living east of Europe have considerable Mongoloid elements due to their
northern neighbors the Samoyeds. These people became orientalized when they
moved east and intermarried with the northern reindeer people and had them
also adopt the Finno Ugrian language. Yet this small group is claimed to be the
original Uralic type. This assumption has now been proven totally wrong using
genetic and archeological research, which shows their spreading from Europe
toward the east. Yet some people are still using this outdated idea to
misrepresent the whole group.

This seemingly unrelated discourse into the history of Eastern Europe and
Southern Russia was necessary to lay the foundation for the Etruscan origin
from that region. We have all probably heard the story of the Trojan war and the
supposed cause of it, however just as in most wars there had to be a more
substantial reason then simply to recover Helen from Troy. Something so
important that it temporarily united the eternally feuding Greek city-states for a
common cause, booty and a lucrative trade area. I do not want to give away the
plot, which is told quite convincingly at the following site
The Trojan origin of Roman Civilization.
(www.scientiapress.com/findings/torc.htm)
.

II Etruscan Religion
The Cimmerians and some Scythians had a very egalitarian and respectful
attitude towards women, who not only could have their own properties but could
rule a nation or lead an army to war. This attitude was also common among the
Etruscans and also reflected in their religion. These traits definitely did not
endear them to the very staunchly patriarchal societies of the Romans, Greeks or
most early Indo-European cultures, who originally before their separation did
not worship feminine deities and only later adopted local goddesses to their
pantheons, under local foreign influences. A few examples of Etruscan
goddesses may be worth considering, which were adopted by the Greeks and
Romans. The Roman goddess of wisdom, known as Min-erva, the goddess of
wisdom, is from Etruscan and can be interpreted from Finno Ugrian and
Hungarian to mean "young woman/wife of reason" as "menye-érv". The
goddess Artemis, was also worshiped by the Etruscans as "Artuma", but Artemis
originally was a Thracian and Scythian goddess that the Greeks adopted, from
these people. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, her Scythian name
was Artim-PAZ. However the term PAZ is Ob_Ugrian for god, divinity not
Iranian and not Turk. The name Artem- however, has cognates in both Turkic
and Hungarian, meaning virtuous "érdem". Others have claimed that PAZ does
not refer to God, but to the head as in Turkish BAS or Finnugor PA, so that
Artim-paz refers to the "head of righteousness". I leave it to the reader to pick
what makes more sense, since both seem to be logical possibilities.

By no means were these the only links to the names of the

Etruscan gods and goddesses. The Etruscans were a highly
religious and even superstitious people, according to the
Romans, having different types of "shaman" like priests, who
were famous for their fortune telling. According to their
legends their sacred books, were given to them by the god
Tages, who sprang forth from the plowed field. He conversed
with the Etruscans and thought them various things from
foretelling the future to the proper way of doing things. For
even things like finding the best location and orientation of
building they had specialists. This reminds me of similar
customs in China, Korea and Japan rather than anything in
early European Culture. Due to the many similarities in
Etruscan and Sumerian, I have included a comparison column
for Sumerian in the following list of Etruscan deities.

proto Finno Ugrian Etruscan Divinities > Latin Equivalent Sumerian divinity
(C=K)

*sanke > teng = sky, TIN =chief god; DING-ir =god, divinity ,
god TAGE=god born as a boy, to represented by a star.
(s>t in Ob ugrian) teach men.

*sanke =sky, god _ ANI =sky god #s/blk > _AN =sky, chief god
Janus>January

*nume =high _Uni =goddess of the cosmos NU-mah =goddess of the

 >Juno >June cosmos

*leile =breath, spirit RIL (L>R) =spirit (en) LIL =god of winds,
atmosphere, soul

*iche=breath, wind, ASE=breath, wind, soul; ZI =breath, wind, spirit

soul AIS=god

*kudhe =sunrise, CATHE =sun god, shown as HÁDA =shine brightly

morning sunrise

Kwor-es=sun god, time XUR =time (X is a hard H) KUR=the rising sun, time;
god/Ug ITU=time >> Latin Ides= UTU=sun god, UD= time
division of time

*koje =dawn, au-KÉL =aurora, dawn, GAL-am=arise

*kälä=arise,ford CEL 2=dawn, goddess of the
dawn

Kal-Thes =goddess of CEL =goddess of birth GAL-ama=great mother goddess

dawn, wife of the chief THES-an =goddess of dawn,
god, mother goddess. childbirth

*kul =death, (also in CUL-su=demones of the GALA =demons of the

Turkic) underworld. underworld.
kul-ater=devil, king of
hell.

*pels =inside, inner + VOL-TUMA =god of the DUMU-ZI=god of death,

*tume =to stuff into, to afterlife (P >V) resurrection, spring.
burry.

*torem = creator god , ?.Turan= perhaps his wife, Daramah, enKI, Ea =all names
the source goddess of love, health, of the magician of the gods, the
of all knowledge and fertility. wiseman of the gods, and
the universe creator.

ARTU-ME =goddess of night *ERET > ERES' (KI-GAL)

and death =queen of the underworld elder
(ama > eme =mother) >> sister of Inana.
Artemis

*miñe =young wife, MIN-ERVA =goddess of

*arwe=ripen,value, wisdom.
understand

*kunta > *xont =war, CATHA=war, LAR-an =god of GUD-bir=war; NER-(gal)="the

army war great victor"

While the names of some of the Etruscan gods and goddesses are at times
similar sounding to some Greek ones, their function is far from identical and
cannot be simply functionally linked to be the same, based solely on the sound
of their name. At the same time the names of the major Sumerian divinities are
very similar in name and function to the Etruscan ones. The Etruscans were
greatly influenced in their beliefs by the Greeks but also had a very distinctive
religion that was independent in most ways. Their religious beliefs remind me of
the Sumerian ways and beliefs. Both believed that most of civilization was not
man made but its knowledge was god given. Both were shamanistic in ideology
and origin, often consulting with the spirits of the deceased. Both cultures
strongly emphasized religion and lived under a theocracy, which in the end was
their undoing. Since both Etruscans and Sumerians lived under a theocratic
system with a polytheistic religion. They both lived in city states where the
interpretation of the will of god was the main source of guidance in crucial
decisions. The Etruscans even had books that codified the teaching of god and
what to do in certain cases. Since each city would have its local god there was a
tendency to not get along with other city states, with a lot of conflicting religious
views that prevented them from uniting except in dire situations. With an enemy
like the Romans, that knew them for a long time, they were probably very
predictable. This identical problem was found with the Sumerians. Despite their
very advanced civilization, they couldn’t unite and spread their culture, because
of their disunity. If these nations were different and more practical minded, like
the Romans, and the most advanced in their regions, most of Europe and the
Near East would be speaking the same type of language today, one with an
Etruscan dialect and the other in a Sumerian dialect.

The custom of Gladiatorial "sports" was Etruscan in origin, however it was

totally perverted by the Romans to be a public spectacle rather than a religious
rite. It became more for the living than for the dead. To the Etruscans it was a
ceremonial act to honor a prominent deceased leader. This was a way to help
send the deceased to the afterlife, with a guardian and a servant. Such customs
were very common among the Sumerians, Cimerians and Scythians who all
buried servants and sometimes even family members with their rulers for the
purpose of serving them in their afterlife. Even more than a millenium after this
time it is echoed in the story from the early Hungarian Chronicles about the
death of an important Hungarian tribal leader, LEHEL, who was captured
following a major campaign in Germany. The story goes that, he was lead in
front of the German Emperor and due to his prominent position was asked for
his last wish, before dying. Lehel then requested his elephant tusk horn so he
could blow it one last time, but when he received it, he jumped in front of the
Emperor and dashed it on his head, killing him instantly. Then he said that now
he has a servant in the afterlife. The custom more akin to the formal Etruscan
gladiatorial fights is also recounted among the Cimmerians. The Greek version
of this story about the Cimmerians is probably totally misrepresented, because it
was claimed that the Cimmerian royal family was paired off and fought to the
death, upon hearing that the Scythians had conquered their lands. This was so
that they could be buried in their homeland, along the river Tyras along with
their ancestors, rather than moving away. Certainly there is a bit of truth in this,
but the reasons are very doubtful.

III Etruscan Genetic types

DNA analysis of Etruscan remains has revealed their links to Anatolia, where
Troy was located, but found no similarity in that area to their language, during
those historic times, except on the island of Lemnos. The Etruscans have picked
up a lot of the local characteristics of the people around the ancient
Mediterranean and local Mediterranean racial types, during their wanderings.
They appear to have been a minority in Italy that was in positions of leadership
and who often intermarried with the local "Latins". Therefore their original
founding genetic types are probably less than obvious in the wonderful bronze
sculptures and murals they left behind, after their long separation from their
original homelands and their many associations with the people of the
Mediterranean Sea surroundings
.

Several Etruscan city names shown here end with the name
sin or sina, which is in proto Finno-Ugrian "as'a +
na=locative" means "settlement, to make a camp. Such
names as Fel-sina (upper settlement), Vel-sna "velsina"
(central settlement) or Al-sina (lower settlement, near the
port of Pyrgy/Caere). Clev-sin is possibly from Cel 2, a
goddess of the dawn that is associated with the east, the
rising sun.
IV Some of the main characteristics of the Etruscan
language
The number of Etruscan words, that are understood, is not very large and is in
excess of about 200 words, while the grammar is still only roughly understood.
There are few long documents written in Etruscan that survived, even though
they once had libraries and an extensive literature. Many short phrases have
been deciphered, based on circumstances and pictures associated mainly with
burials or boundary markers. That is why the burial custom of these people are
so well known, since they built a whole underground decorated homes for their
deceased prominent leaders, somewhat like the Cimmerians and Scythians,
except more elegant.

Their written language is alphabetic and is easily read, even though the Romans
called it illegible, pertaining not so much to readability as understandability.
Etruscan was very hard for the Romans to understand. Latin was based on Indo-
European vocabulary with a layer of Etruscan culture words as well as the
influence of Etruscan grammar as spoken by the upper class of Romans, while
Etruscan was not an Indo European language at all. While it had some
loanwords from IndoEuropean neighbors its grammar was totally unlike any of
them.

Etruscan was an agglutinated language like FinnoUgrian , Altaic, Sumerian and

Dravidian of India.
It didn’t have voiced stops like (b,d,g) just as early Finno-Ugrian, these were
rarely used.
Words put the emphasis on the start of the word as FinnoUgrian and Altaic.
Words were of the "open structure" type where they ended with a vowel, such as
old FinnoUgrian languages.
The language has many signs that vowel harmony was used, just like
Finnougrian , Altaic and Sumerian.
Vowels in suffixes are meaningless and adjust to the sound harmony of the root
word.
The normal word order is Subject, Object, Verb as it is also in Finno-Ugrian and
most agglutinated languages,
although it is possible to vary that order for special emphasis.
Etruscan had no letters for o, ö, w, j (y) just like Sumerian.
Etruscan also has many common words with Finno-Ugrian and Sumerian and
some Turkic languages but especially
with its southern Ugrian, Hungarian which was geographically much closer to it.
Many of its words and morphemes that link with root words are nearly identical
to Hungarian, but some common words are found in other FinnoUgrian
languages also.
Naturally in the amateur linguist community of the Internet there is a great
amount of disagreement about who the Etruscans were, and where they came
from, just as there are about just about anything, however professionals claim
that Etruscan was not Indo-European, but of unknown isolated origin. The two
labels "not Indo-European" and "isolated" unfortunately normally goes hand in
hand in dealing with old extinct culture languages. One of the stranger things
about the Etruscan orthography is that it occasionally reverses the starting
Consonant Vowel at the start of the word or simply drops the first vowel.
Something like this occurred in short Sumerian root words also. This perhaps
was to simplify the writing with the presumption that the vowel will be
reconstructed in sounding out the initial consonant.

Pronouns, Numbers, Word morphemes

Additions by Fred Hamori from Mario Alinei’s work 2005 and my own grammatical analysis.

Definition Etruscan FinnUgor Hungarian Finn Tu

pronoun pronoun pronoun pronoun

1st . I, me mi=I, mini=me *ime én (m>n) minä be

2nd you ti *ti te si-na (#ti>si) sän

3rd he/she _an (#s>blk) *so(n) _ö_ (#s>blk) hen (#s>h) o,

1st pl. we mi-r *mi-n mi ma mi

2nd pl. you ? *ta-n ti si-

3rd pl. they _ein (#s>blk) *se-n _ö_-k (#s>blk) on

profession or -u *wa or *pa -o -va

participle

relative pronoun fas, fashe

plural suffix -r *n -k n -la
(animate)

plural suffix -xva n -k

(inanimate)

Ethnic names of southern FU may have had r plurals, Cimm-

er-(ian), Magy-ar, Mari, Tau-ri scythian.

Definition Etruscan FinnUgor Hungarian Finn Turkish

one (thu) *üηeśe>ükse egy=1, yksi

(egész=whole)

two ( zal, *käktä két,kettö kaksi

es(a)l )

three ci_ (deleted *kor’ma, hár-om kol-me üch

-am) *kol-ma

four ( sha_ *naljä négy nelja

variant of 2)

five max** *witte _öt viisi

( m~w)

six hut *kutte hat kuusi

seven semφ, sempf *sapte (IE?SM) _hét

(p>mp)
eight nur-p (L~R) X nyol-c (2x4)

ten -alx (suffx) *luke=count,10, _olv_=read alk=10/Vogul on

sar decipher –on= -l0
( L~N)
tiz < desa /IE

hundred X száz < *sat-em

/IE
(t/z/V_V )

thousand etera X ezer =1000

"miles" ( t/z/V_V)

times zar szer, szor

The original FinnUgor number system was base 6, not base 10 and because of
that the base numbers can only be derived from 1 to 6,
and afterwards they become combinations, 7 through 9 are derivations, and 10,
100 are sometimes loans from other languages or adaptations
of the old multipliers. Strangely enough what we know about Etruscan number
names comes from a set of dice, which has six sides and where
the name of the number was written instead of the usual dots. There are still
some disagreements about which name is what number.

Noun Case Markers

In comparison to many agglutinated languages Hungarian has a very large set of
case markers(21?27), which in other FU languages is less extensive and were
probably also less extensive in Hungarian in the past. Some case markers are
simply the joining of two cases. Some of the added cases originated from
independent words that became case markers later. So in comparison to Etruscan
it should be expected that there will be a simpler, more original form to some of
these cases than there are today with similarity to the derivatives. All particles
suffixes, prefixes, case markers, mood etc use vowel harmony, when added to
the root word. The root however doesn’t change, except the shorthand of scribes,
who deleted some internal vowels to shorten their writing. There appears to be
something like that or at least the remnants of that in Etruscan, since the
particles vary in the type of vowels that use them, indicating that the vowel
usually doesn’t matter, but the consonant has most of the information.

Most examples are just too few in number to be absolutely

certain about their precise function, only their approximate
meaning is certain. However that may be, a case can be made
for the following.

Definition Etruscan example Hungarian exa

Nominative -ca -blank apa

mar

Accusative -cn -Vt (was *m) t is

is a
m.

-na,
Genitive (of) ais-na=of the gods -na-k <*-nä iste
and Possessive -ni, spur-na=of the city vár
case lein-e=(at) the age of sub
(-al is tuthi-na =of the public obj
claimed) <tuthi=public; ver
ras-na =of Etruria

Dative, (for) -in man-in= for the dead -na-k ver

causal -nac tuthi-n =public? (for the public)

Dative -shi, -i Kaviie-shi=of/from Kaviie -i Bud

>Agentive calusura-shi=has died to/for his nyá
case.
Alsa-she=of/from Alsa
Tulera-she=of/from a foreign
 (land)

Instrumental -el, -al vac-al=libation (with drink) -(v)al, -(v)el iv-á

( with) xur-al =within time kor
also used as kor-val =with the age haj
genetive at times. avil-x-val =with the end of the
year

Elative -ana eleiv-ana=of oil -bol =elative ola

(out of, from) (-na =locative)

Allative (to) -hoz < *s'e ház

Illative (into) apl ? ve-ls (*p>v) =in?central -ba,-be <*pälse ház

Innesive -us, -su,-as api-ase=in April -ba-n, -be-n ház

(in sometimes –va(r), -vi celi-us =in September << *pälse bel
also at ) -ben xur-var=in the season/time
-pile acal-vi=in June (p>v >u)
[*p>v>u] lai-va= left side (in the left?)
heram-ve=the place of Hermes
kelu-ben=in place
pul =in, at
an-pile =in May

Sublative -ra,-re tame-ra=upon the grave -ra, -re tem

(onto/into/ from) (e)s-re-n=realize? /MA <ränke the
th-ra ész
lu-ri=from him the

Adessive (at) -na cexa-na=(at) the summit? -nál, -nél heg

or just locative mountain < nä= locative ez-
ete-nel =at/with this

Lative -e kl-umi-e= at the oven’s opening -e, me

 -ol, -ul, -ül tel-
also see next fel-
al-u
fel-

-ale, -al, -l -to-l

Ablative (away -ri arithi-ale=from Arathea –bo-l -tol
from) Uni-al=from Uni –ro-l -bo
(-als, alas & Rasna-l =from Etruria -rol
es) lu-ri =from him Estonian -lt ( el

Terminative -ce ar-ce =reached, attained -ig ház

(as far as) –x (ar=build) év-
avil-x -val=until the end of the
year

Time Locative -an thes-an =at dawn -án, -en tél-

us_l-ane =at noon rég
kor

Locatives -na, auri-na=(at) town; -(V)n < *nä vár

-ni, lu-xum-na=palace<<lu- Bud
xum=king
hup-ni =sepulchral place

Locative -tu, ti, thi fala-tu =sky <above -(v)tt <*ttä fel-
(in/at) cela-ti =in/at the grave ben
tush-ti =in/at the fire köz
Uni-al-ti =from (place of) Uni Péc
(mo
the
in O

Noun formatives, modify noun root words to create variations. There are a lot
more in Hungarian than this.
deverbal and -tala, -tale ca-us-tla =undieable, -atlan (neg. hal-hat-
noun (immortal) formative) atlan=undiable
formatives selei-tala =border area -etlen
-delem

noun -vani, mulu-vene=ofering, gift -vány, -vény tör-vény =law

formative -veni tiur-unias =law nö-vény=plants
--vene, zelar-venas =family grow
vena(s) véle-mény=opp

Verbal and Adjectival suffixes

Description Etruscan Etruscan examples Hungarian Hung

Deverbal -at zil-at=ruler, king -at, -et él-et=

Suffixes -al, -il ziv-al=heart; ith-al=a drink -ol, it-al =
–er, cap-er=cloak< cover; cv-er=gift; -ar, drink
-ac, -ak, -ek vez-é
-ax, mal-ac=votive offering<<mal= -ás, -és lél-ek
-um give -am, -om áldoz
-na ali-xa =gift, present <ali = -any, -ony foly-a
offering (togod) szur-o
pul-um=hallway < pul=through
cexa-na =upper < cexa=up

Adverbial -an alpa-n =gladly, willingly -an gyors

Suffix avil-an =yearly boldo
év-en
 -su,
Adjectival calu-su =a needed (quality) -s kelö-
Suffix -za acn-es =terror (state of?) agg(o
vel-su = inner (#p/v) bel-sö
pher-su ="masked", actor- tor-os
disguised wake
tur-za =funerary object?

Deadjectival -se cexa-se =magistracy title "high- -ság, -ség hegy-

Suffix -asha ness" tag-sá
tan-asha =(family) "member-
ship"

Infinitive? -ma, -am rabi-ma =to pull, tear, tug -ni ir-ni=
tn-am =to see ídé-z-
tes-am =to cure see.

V Vocabulary
The initial dictionary was borrowed from the collection of Neil Gratton 2002-
203 and additional data was added from the works of Mario Alinei and others,
with Finno ugrian references by Alinei and myself as well as the analysis of
grammatical particles and the tables of numbers, pronouns, cases and suffixes.
This dictionary is still in the process of development because there are many
other Uralic and Altaic links that need to be researched and included. This
represents my first major attempt at explaining the basic words from FinnUgor. I
am not trying to decipher texts and guessing at possible meanings, but left that
to those who do it for a living. Rather I am only trying to give close equivalents
to the presumed meanings that are already stated by others.