Etruscan Terracotta votive head of a young man 200-100 BCE
"The external history of the Etruscans, as there are no direct chronicles extant, is to be gathered only from scattered notices in Greek and Roman writers. Their internal history, till of late years, was almost a blank, but by the continual accumulation of fresh facts it is now daily acquiring form and substance, and promises, ere long, to be as distinct and palpable as that of Egypt, Greece, or Rome. For we already know the extent and peculiar nature of their civilization — their social condition and modes of life — their extended commerce and intercourse with far distant countries — their religious creed, with its ceremonial observances in this life, and the joys and torments it set forth in a future state — their popular traditions — and a variety of customs, of all which, History, commonly so called, is either utterly silent, or makes but incidental mention, or gives notices imperfect and obscure. We can now enter into inner life of the Etruscans, almost as fully as if they were living and moving before us, instead of having been extinct as a nation for more than two thousand years. We can follow them from the cradle to the tomb, — we see them in their national costume, varied according to age, sex, rank, and office, — we learn their style of adorning their persons, their fashions, and the eccentricities of their toilet, — we even become acquainted with their peculiar physiognomy, their individual names and family relationships, — we know what houses they inhabited, what furniture they used, — we behold them at their various avocations — the princes in the council-chamber — the augur, or priest, at the altar, or in solemn procession — the warrior in the battle-field, or returning home in triumph — the judge on the bench — the artisan at his handicraft — the husbandman at the plough — the slave at his daily toil, — we see them in the bosom of their families, and at the festive board, reclining luxuriously amid the strains of music, and the time-beating feet of dancers — at their favourite games and sports, encountering the wild-boar, or looking on at the race, at the wrestling-match, or other palaestric exercises, — we behold them stretched on the death-bed — the last rites performed by mourning relatives — the funeral procession — their bodies laid in the tomb — and the solemn festivals held in their honour. Nor even here do we lose sight of them, but follow their souls to the unseen world — perceive them in the hands of good or evil spirits — conducted to the judgment-seat, and in the enjoyment of bliss, or suffering the punishment of the damned.
We are indebted for most of this knowledge, not to musty records drawn from the oblivion of centuries, but to monumental remains — purer fonts of historical truth — landmarks which, even when few and far between, are the surest guides across the expanse of distant ages — to the monuments which are still extant on the sites of the ancient Cities of Etruria, or have been drawn from their Cemeteries, and are stored in the museums of Italy and of Europe."
-George Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria
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| Terracotta votive head of a young man, Etruscan, Italy about 200-100 BC. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). |
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