Liber Linteus | |
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Material | Linen |
Created | 3rd century BC |
Discovered | 1867 Zagreb, Croatia |
Present location | Zagreb, Croatia |
Language | Etruscan |
![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(February 2013) |
The Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis (Latin for "Linen Book of Zagreb", also known rarely as Liber Agramensis, "Book of Agram") is the longest Etruscan text and the only extant linen book (libri lintei), dated to the 3rd century BC, making it arguably the oldest extant European book. (The second longest Etruscan text, Tabula Capuana, also seems to be a ritual calendar.) Much of it is untranslated because of the lack of knowledge about the Etruscan language, though the words and phrases which can be understood indicate that the text is most likely a ritual calendar. Miles Beckwith states with regard to this text that "in the last thirty or forty years, our understanding of Etruscan has increased substantially," and L. B. van der Meer has published a word-by-word analysis of the entire text. [1] [2] [3]
The fabric of the book was preserved when it was used for mummy wrappings in Ptolemaic Egypt. The mummy was bought in Alexandria in 1848 and since 1867 both the mummy and the manuscript have been kept in Zagreb, Croatia, now in a refrigerated room at the Archaeological Museum.
In 1848, Mihajlo Barić (1791–1859), a low ranking Croatian official in the Hungarian Royal Chancellery, resigned his post and embarked upon a tour of several countries, including Egypt. While in Alexandria, he purchased a sarcophagus containing a female mummy, as a souvenir of his travels. Barić displayed the mummy at his home in Vienna, standing it upright in the corner of his sitting room. At some point he removed the linen wrappings and put them on display in a separate glass case, though it seems he had never noticed the inscriptions or their importance.
The mummy remained on display at his home until his death in 1859, when it passed into possession of his brother Ilija, a priest in Slavonia. As he took no interest in the mummy, he donated it in 1867 to the State Institute of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia in Zagreb (the present-day Archaeological Museum in Zagreb). Their catalogue described it as follows:
The mummy and its wrappings were examined the same year by the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch, who noticed the text, but believed them to be Egyptian hieroglyphs. He did not undertake any further research on the text, until 1877, when a chance conversation with Richard Burton about runes made him realise that the writing was not Egyptian. They realised the text was potentially important, but wrongly concluded that it was a transliteration of the Egyptian Book of the Dead in the Arabic script.
In 1891, the wrappings were transported to Vienna, where they were thoroughly examined by Jakob Krall, an expert on the Coptic language, who expected the writing to be either Coptic, Libyan or Carian. In 1892, Krall was the first to identify the language as Etruscan and reassemble the strips. It was his work that established that the linen wrappings constituted a manuscript written in Etruscan. [4]
At first, the provenance and identity of the mummy were unknown, due to the irregular nature of its excavation and sale. This resulted in speculation that the mummy may have had some association with either the Liber Linteus or the Etruscans. A papyrus found within her sarcophagus was identified as an Egyptian Book of the Dead, which included the details of an Egyptian woman named Nesi-hensu, the wife of Paher-hensu, a tailor from Thebes. This discovery has been used as evidence to suggest that the mummy is the Nesi-hensu mentioned on the papyrus. [5] However, later analysis of the papyrus has suggested that it postdates the mummy by nearly a century, which could suggest that the mummy is not Nesi-hensu. [6]
She was 30–40 years old at the time of her death, and wore a necklace, with traces of flowers and gold in her hair. Among the fragments of the accompanying wreath, there was a cat skull. [7]
On paleographic grounds, the manuscript is dated to approximately 250 BC (though carbon dating put manufacture of the linen textile itself at 390 BC +/- 45 years). [8] Certain local gods mentioned within the text allow the Liber Linteus's place of production to be narrowed to a small area in the southeast of Tuscany near Lake Trasimeno, where four major Etruscan cities were located: modern day Arezzo, Perugia, Chiusi and Cortona. [9]
The book is laid out in twelve columns from right to left, each one representing a "page". Much of the first three columns is missing, and it is not known where the book begins. Closer to the end of the book the text is almost complete (there is a strip missing that runs the entire length of the book). By the end of the last page the cloth is blank and the selvage is intact, showing the definite end of the book.
There are 230 lines of text, with 1330 legible words, but only about 500 distinct words or roots. [10] Only about 60% of the text is thought to have been preserved. Black ink has been used for the main text, and red ink for lines and diacritics. [11]
In use, it would have been folded so that one page lay on top of another like a codex, rather than being wound along like a scroll. Julius Caesar is said to have folded scrolls in similar accordion fashion while on campaigns.
Though the Etruscan language is not fully understood, many words and phrases can be deciphered, enough to give us an indication of the subject matter. Both dates and the names of gods are found throughout the text, giving the impression that the book is a religious calendar. Such calendars are known from the Roman world, giving not only the dates of ceremonies and processions, but also the rituals and liturgies involved. The lost Etrusca disciplina are referred to by several Roman antiquarians. [12]
The theory that this is a religious text is strengthened by recurring words and phrases that are surmised to have liturgical or dedicatory meanings. Some notable formulae on the Liber Linteus include a hymn-like repetition of ceia hia in column 7, and variations on the phrase śacnicstreś cilθś śpureśtreśc enaś, which is translated by van der Meer as "by the sacred fraternity/priesthood of cilθ, and by the civitas of enaś". [13]
Though many of the specific details of the rituals are unclear, they seem to have been performed outside cities, sometimes near specific rivers, sometimes on (or at least for) hilltops/citadels, sometimes apparently in cemeteries. Based on the two unambiguous dates that survive — June 18 in 6.14 and September 24 in 8.2 — it is supposed that roughly columns 1-5 deal with rituals occurring in the months before June (probably starting in March, and perhaps there was introductory or other material here as well), column 6 with June rituals, column 7 may refer to rituals in July and possibly August, column 8 September rituals, and 9-12 concerning rites to be performed from October through February. Other numbers are mentioned which are probably also dates, but as the months aren't indicated, we cannot be sure where exactly they fall in the year. [14]
Throughout this calendar there is also a fairly clear progression of which kinds of deities are to be propitiated in which months and seasons. Only two individual gods are set off by being preceded by the term farθan fleres, probably "the Genius (or Father?) of the spirit of/in..." These are Crap- and Neθuns , the first probably equivalent to Tin , the Etruscan Jupiter, and the second roughly equivalent to Latin Neptune. It is notable that Crap-/Jupiter is mentioned in the first half of the text (in columns 3, 4, and 6), that is, up to June (specifically before the summer solstice on June 21), but he is not ever mentioned later in the calendar (as far as we can see in the text that is legible). On the other hand, Neθuns/Neptune does not occur (again, as far as we can see) in these earlier passages/months/seasons, but only after the autumnal equinox on September 21 (specifically just after September 24, mentioned in 8.3, then also 8.11, 9.18 and 9.22).
Similarly, on the one hand, other deities of light, such as θesan "Dawn" and Lusa are only mentioned in the earlier part of the calendar: θesan at 5.19-20 θesan tini θesan eiseraś śeuś probably "Dawn of (bright) Jupiter (and) Dawn of the Dark Deities," (probably referring to Venus as morning and evening star) and Lusa at 6.9; while, on the other hand, various terms thought or known to refer to specifically underworld deities exclusively appear later in the calendar: Satrs "Saturn/Cronos" (11.f4), Caθ- (in columns 10 and 12), Ceu- (at 7.8), Velθa (7, 10, and 11), and Veive-/Vetis = Latin Veiovis/Vedius, (described by van der Meer as an "underworld Jupiter") in 10 and 11.
But some of the apparent underworld deities, such as Zer, show up in both halves (4, 5, 9), while Lur, also thought to be chthonic, only appears in columns 5 and 6. van der Meer claims that many of the locations in the year of these deities' rituals correspond to the same deities' locations on the Liver of Piacenza and in other Etruscan sources that hint at how they divided the heavens or the divine realm. [14] On the other hand, Belfiore considers Crap to be an underworld deity. [15]
There are a variety of types of ritual (the general term for which seems to be eis-na/ ais-na literally "for the gods, divine (act)") described in the text. The most frequently mentioned include vacl, probably "libation", usually of vinum "wine" (sometimes specifically "new wine") but also of oil faś and other liquids whose identities are unclear; nunθen "invoke" or possibly "offer (with an invokation)"; θez- probably "sacrifice" but possibly "to present" sacrifice(s) or offering(s) (fler(χva)) often of zusle(va) "piglet(s)" (or perhaps some other animal). Offerings and sacrifices were placed: on the right and/or left hamΦeś leiveś (and variations thereof); on fire raχθ; on a stone (altar?) luθt(i); on the ground cel-i; or with/on a decorated (?) litter cletram śrenχve among others. They were often performed three times ci-s-um/ci-z and often happened or were concluded during the morning cla θesan (a term that seems to mark the end of rituals in this text, since blank lines follow it, followed by a new (partial or complete) date). Column 7 (July and/or August?) may be devoted to describing a series of funereal rites connected to the Adonia festival ritually mourning the death of Aphrodite's lover Adonis.
A variety of types of priest, cepen, (but notably not civil authorities) are mentioned, but the exact distinctions between them are not completely clear: tutin "of the village"(?); ceren, θaurχ both "of the tomb"; cilθ-l/cva "of the citadel(s)/hiltop(s)". Less clear are the kinds of priest indicated by the following (if they refer to priests at all): zec, zac, sve, θe, cluctra, flanaχ, χuru ("arch-"?), snuiuΦ ("permanent"?), cnticn- ('"ad hoc"?), truθur ("omen interpreter from lightening"?), peθereni ("of the god Peθan"?), saucsaθ ([priest] or [holy area]"of the god Saucne") at 3.15 (3.15-3.17): vacl . an . ścanince . saucsaθ . persin / cletram . śrenχve . iχ . ścanince . ciz . vacl / ara roughly "The libation which was poured to Sauc- Pers- (should be performed) with the decorated litter just as it had been poured (before); perform the libation three times." [16]
This seems to present a notable connection between the Liber Linteus and the second longest Etruscan text which happens to also be a ritual calendar, the Tabula Capuana (line 2), since the root sauc- seems to occur in both with the root vacl "libation" and also in a part of each text that probably corresponds to March (though that month is not directly named in any obvious way in either text). [14]
Column 3, strip C (There are no punctuation marks in the original beyond interpuncts between most words. Those provided here are to make it easier to match the original with the translation.)
A tentative partial translation: "The sacrifice, be it funerary, [or] be it chthonic [is to be put] on the decorated litter. [Then] say: 'The sacrifice and the dog(?) are presented as the offering.' And collect the goblets; and then present the puppy(?) and the dog(?). The libation that was poured in the [sacred area] of Saucne Persi [should be poured] just as it was poured on the decorated litter. Make the libation three times. Make the offering [as it has been] established, carry [it] out as is appropriate, [and] observe [the appropriate rituals](?)." [17]
Notes: Persi may refer to Perugia whose ancient name was Perusia. The last word, male is related to the well-attested Etruscan words for "mirror": mal(e)na and malstria. [18]
Etruscan was the language of the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria, in Etruria Padana and Etruria Campana in what is now Italy. Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventually completely superseded by it. The Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions that have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length; some bilingual inscriptions with texts also in Latin, Greek, or Phoenician; and a few dozen purported loanwords. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study, with it mostly being referred to as one of the Tyrsenian languages, at times as an isolate and a number of other less well-known theories.
Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the Etruscan civilization was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic from the 4th century BC, the Etruscan religion and mythology were partially incorporated into ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced back to the Villanovan culture.
Nortia is the Latinized name of the Etruscan goddess Nurtia, whose sphere of influence was time, fate, destiny, and chance.
The Pyrgi Tablets are three golden plates inscribed with a bilingual Phoenician–Etruscan dedicatory text. They are the oldest historical source documents from pre-Roman Italy and are rare examples of texts in these languages. They were discovered in 1964 during a series of excavations at the site of ancient Pyrgi, on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy in Latium (Lazio). The text records the foundation of a temple and its dedication to the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who is identified with the Etruscan supreme goddess Uni in the Etruscan text. The temple's construction is attributed to Thefarie Velianas, ruler of the nearby city of Caere.
The Tabula Capuana, is an ancient terracotta slab, 50 by 60 cm, with a long inscribed text in Etruscan, dated to around 470 BCE, apparently a ritual calendar. About 390 words are legible, making it the second-most extensive surviving Etruscan text. The longest is the linen book (Liber Linteus), also a ritual calendar, used in ancient Egypt for mummy wrappings, now at Zagreb. The Tabula Capuana is located in the Altes Museum, Berlin.
Calu is an epithet of the Etruscan chthonic fire god Śuri as god of the underworld, roughly equivalent to the Greek god Hades ; moroeover, as with Hades, this god-name was also used as a synonym for the underworld itself.
Helmut Rix was a German linguist and professor of the Sprachwissenschaftliches Seminar of Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany.
The Tabula Cortonensis is a 2200-year-old, inscribed bronze tablet in the Etruscan language, discovered in Cortona, Italy. It may record for posterity the details of an ancient legal transaction which took place in the ancient Tuscan city of Cortona, known to the Etruscans as Curtun. Its 40-line, 200-word, two-sided inscription is the third longest inscription found in the Etruscan language, after the Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis and the Tabula Capuana, and the longest discovered in the 20th century.
The Adonia was a festival celebrated annually by women in ancient Greece to mourn the death of Adonis, the consort of Aphrodite. It is best attested in classical Athens, though other sources provide evidence for the ritual mourning of Adonis elsewhere in the Greek world, including Hellenistic Alexandria and Argos in the second century AD.
The Cippus Perusinus is a stone tablet (cippus) discovered on the hill of San Marco, in Perugia, Italy, in 1822. The tablet bears 46 lines of incised Etruscan text, about 130 words. The cippus, which seems to have been a border stone, appears to display a text dedicating a legal contract between the Etruscan families of Velthina and Afuna, regarding the sharing or use, including water rights, of a property upon which there was a tomb belonging to the noble Velthinas.
Lammert Bouke van der Meer is a Dutch classicist and classical archaeologist specialized in Etruscology. He studied classics and archaeology at the University of Groningen, and received his Ph.D. from the same university in 1978 with a dissertation entitled Etruscan urns from Volterra. Studies on mythological representations, I-II. Van der Meer is retired associate professor of Classical Archaeology at Leiden University.
Mummy paper is paper that is claimed to be made from the linen wrappings and other fibers from Egyptian mummies imported to America circa 1855. The existence of this paper has not been conclusively confirmed, but it has been widely discussed.
The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Croatia is an archaeological museum with over 450,000 varied artifacts and monuments, gathered from various sources but mostly from Croatia and in particular from the surroundings of Zagreb.
Satre or Satres was an Etruscan god who appears on the Liver of Piacenza, a bronze model used for haruspicy. He occupies the dark and negative northwest region, and seems to be a "frightening and dangerous god who hurls his lightning from his abode deep in the earth." It is possible that Satre is also referred to with the word "satrs" in the Liber Linteus, the Etruscan text preserved in Ptolemaic Egypt as mummy wrappings.
Culsans (Culśanś) is an Etruscan deity, known from four inscriptions and a variety of iconographical material which includes coins, statuettes, and a sarcophagus. Culśanś is usually rendered as a male deity with two faces and at least two statuettes depicting him have been found in close association with city gates. These characteristics suggest that he was a protector of gateways, who could watch over the gate with two pairs of eyes.
Lur is an Etruscan underworld deity with not much known history. Lur does not have many depictions but the ones that have been found show the deity as a male. He has been noted to be associated with a prophetic nature, while also bearing oracular and martial characteristics. He has been linked to another deity by the name of Laran, which, it has been suggested, is where Lur derives his name from. The context of the name has been associated with darkness and the underworld. A fifth century vase found near a sanctuary in San Giovenale bears an inscription that translates: "I am Lurs, that of Laran." Another inscription has been found with the spelling lartla, noting relations to a Lar, which gives a label to Lur that describes features of protection. The name may be related to Latin luridus "pale".
Frederik Christiaan Woudhuizen was a Dutch independent scholar who studied ancient Indo-European languages, hieroglyphic Luvian/Luwian, and Mediterranean protohistory. He was the former editor of Talanta, Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society.
Curzio Inghirami, was an Italian archaeologist and historian, but also a forger of Etruscan artifacts.
The Lead Plaque of Magliano, which contains 73 words in the Etruscan language, seems to be a dedicatory text, including as it does many names of mostly underworld deities. It was found in 1882, and dates to the mid 5th century BC. It is now housed in the National Archaeological Museum in Florence.
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