Divining the Etruscan World

Abstract

The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar is a rare document of omens foretold by thunder. It long lay hidden, embedded in a Greek translation within a Byzantine treatise from the age of Justinian. The first complete English translation of the Brontoscopic Calendar, this book provides an understanding of Etruscan Iron Age society as revealed through the ancient text, especially the Etruscans' concerns regarding the environment, food, health and disease. Jean MacIntosh Turfa also analyzes the ancient Near Eastern sources of the Calendar and the subjects of its predictions, thereby creating a picture of the complexity of Etruscan society reaching back before the advent of writing and the recording of the calendar.

A Genetic History of Continuity and Mobility in the Iron Age Central Mediterranean

“…Across the sea, Etruscan-speaking city-states flourished in central and northern Italy. Their material culture suggests continuity with the preceding Villanovan culture, but there are also strong indications of contact with other cultures, both by sea and land 3 . Insights into the relationship between these trans-Mediterranean neighbors are limited.…”

“…Insights into the relationship between these trans-Mediterranean neighbors are limited. Few Punic or Etruscan written sources have survived to the present day, and most of these are short inscriptions 3,4 . As a result, much of the historical record is filtered through the lens of Greek, Roman and Egyptian sources 5 .…”