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The Etruscan Case

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Annals of Global History Volume 1, Issue 3, 2019, PP 20-39 ISSN 2642-8172 THYRGWAUNAS vs. GWAULGWAUNAS: The Etruscan Case Giampietro Fabbri1,2* 1Eubios Study Centre, Bologna, Italy, 2Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy *Corresponding Author: Giampietro Fabbri, Eubios Study Centre, Bologna, Italy, and Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT This study focuses on the Etruscan case and develops a recent diffusion theory based on the analysis of the time and space distributions of ancient ethnonyms and toponyms integrated with historical attestations. Estruscans are considered as a confederation of tribes belonging to two distinct lineages descending from *Thyrgwaunas, speaking a Proto-Altaic language, and *Gwaulgwaunas, speaking a Proto-Indo-European one. Such a confederation had been known in the Aegean area as “the Mixed People”, i.e. *Mykgwaunas (whence Mygdonianians and Mycenaeans). The descendants of the two lineages are recognised in Italy and distinguished as Tyrsinians and Volsinians, according to the terminology of Greek and Roman historians. The phonetic changes in the names of the tribes with respect to the original common forms are analysed. The diffusion of Tyrsinian and Volsinian tribes along the Italic peninsula is then investigated by analysing the origins of the main Etruscan and related cities. Keywords: Etruscan tribes, Etruscan cities, Proto-Altaics, Proto-Indo-Europeans, Migrations. INTRODUCTION different languages and descending from two distinct lineages. The aim of this work is to In a recent study [1, 2] introducing a new develop and validate that theory by finding diffusion theory, Etruscans have been presented traces of the two lineages in ancient and modern as a mixed people composed of tribes speaking geographical names of Italy. Figure1.Westward migrations of *Thyrgwaunas and *Gwaulgwaunas (from [1, 2]). By observing the time and space distributions of *Thyrgwaunas and *Gwaulgwaunas (Fig. 1). ancient Euro-Asian ethnonyms, toponyms, and According to the cited study, these two lineages eponyms, it is possible to distinguish some were originally opposite and fighting each other, migration waves departing from Central Asia. but successively interacted and joined into a Among the migrating peoples, some tribes can confederation of peoples. In the west direction, be individuated, whose name can be derived these peoples started to move in the second half from those of two distinct ancestors: of the III millennium BC and settled around the Annals of Global History V1 ● I3 ● 2019 20 THYRGWAUNAS vs. GWAULGWAUNAS: The Etruscan Case Aegean area mainly during the period from the by *Thyrswagwautas / *Thyrgwaunas were great migration of the XIX-XVIII century BC to Proto-Altaic. Moreover, it is interesting to that of the XIII-XII century. In course of the observe that the –na derivation, occurring in the latter, they were pressed towards Central Europe forms *Thyrswagwau-nas and *Thyrgwau-nas, is and whence they spread to the peripheral areas very common in the language of Etruscans [12], of the continent. In Italy, the descendants of this who were the Italic Tyrsenians and Tyrrhenians people confederation were known as Etruscans according to Herodotus [11] and Strabo [10], and considered by Romans as a homogeneous respectively. population. Actually, they were a confederation In the III millennium BC some tribes of of tribes still having different customs and *Swagwautas broke into the lands by Volga speaking different languages, which had settled River, separating *Thyrgwaunas into two along the Italian peninsula before the Roman branches (Fig. 1). A western branch was pushed age. towards Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Eastern W W W THYRG AUNAS AND G AULG AUNAS Europe, an eastern one towards Mongolia and China. The latter would then flow back to the In the cited study, the name *Swagwau-tas was west during the great migration of the XIII-XII reconstructed for the ancestors of Scythians. century BC, due to the pressing of Mongol and From that name, in fact, the Greek forms - Chinese peoples. ζαγέηαι (-sagetae [3]) and Σκύθαι (Scythians [4]) and the Ass. Askuzai (Scythians [5]) can be easily On the border between *Swagwautas and derived through common phonetic changes. To the *Thyrgwaunas, it is probable that the terms name *Swagwau-tas the meaning of “breeders of *Gwaulgwaunas and *Gwaulgwauas diffused to cow” has been attributed. The ancestors of distinguish the ones, who had kept the original Scythians and their descendants were also indicated language and customs of the cow-breeding by the alternative forms *Swagwau-nas (from people, from the others. From the name of whose ablative *Swagwaunat the Hebr. Askenaz [6, *Gwaulgwauas that of the Volga River derives, in 7] comes) and *Swagwau-las, and the derivations of whose territory they remained settled for a long derivations *Swagwau-ta-las, *Swagwau-la-tas time. Hence, *Gwaulgwaunas were pushed by (whence the Gr. Σκολόηοι, Scolotoi [4]), *Swagwau- Eastern *Thyrgwaunas towards Central Europe la-nas, and the abbreviations Gwau-tas, Gwau-nas, during the XII-XIII century BC great migration. It Gwau-las. Originally, *Swagwautas lived in the is also possible that by analogy with the term prairies between southern Russia and Sogdiana *Gwaulgwaunas, in which the root gwau is repeated and probably spoke the language that is called with an intensifying function, the name *Thyrthyras Proto-Indo-European or common Indo- was coined to indicate *Thyrgwaunas. From this European. term the name of Tartars can be derived. Among the Scythian tribes, Herodotus mentions *Gwaulgwaunas stayed in contact with that of Thyssagetae (Θσζζαγέηαι [8]). This name *Thyrgwaunas for a long time before migrating to has been derived from *Thyrswagwautas [1], Europe. In the contraposition of *Gwaulgwaunas term by which some *Swagwautas were and *Thyrgwaunas the term gwauna lost over time indicated, who lived on the border (cf. Gr. θύρα, the original meaning of "bovine", “related to cows”, door) with mongoloid morphology populations, "fodder for cows", “fence for cows”, "cow breeder", that they interbred changing their own "group of cows" and acquired that of “shelter”, morphology and language. *Thyrswagwau-tas “refuge”, “fortified place”, "village", "group of were probably indicated also by the name breeders", "community". Through the phonetic *Thyrswagwau-nas, whence the name of the changes that we will discuss in the next section, we Schytian people of Issedones (Gr. Ἰζζηδόνες [9]) can recognise the term gwauna with the meaning of derives, as we will see. Alternative names also were village or community for example in Celt. bona (cf. *Thyrgwau-nas and *Thyrgwau-as, from which the Ratisbona, Vindobona, Bona) and in Etr. zena forms *Thyrghunas, *Thyr‟hunas, *Thyr‟unas, translated into Lat. sena / sina (cf. Bolsena, Cesena, *Thyrkunas, *Thyrsunas, *Thyrk-, Huna and Felsina, Sarsina, Sena). Actually, in Celtic *Sunas can be derived. These forms lead to the languages, due to the influence of the descendants names of Tyrrhenians (or Tyrrhinians, Gr. of *Thyrgwaunas, the term gwauna also results in Τσρρηνοί, Tyrrhenoi [10]), Tyrsenians (or din / dun, latinised in dinum / dunum (cf. Vindinum, Tyrsinians, Gr. Τσρζηνοὶ [11], Tyrsenoi), Turks, Londinum, Lugdunum, Noviodunum, Dunum). and Huns. Since the language of Turks and Huns Similarly, due to the influence of the descendants is Altaic, it is probable that the dialects spoken of both *Gwaulgwaunas and *Thyrgwaunas, the 21 Annals of Global History V1 ● I3 ● 2019 THYRGWAUNAS vs. GWAULGWAUNAS: The Etruscan Case term gwaus assumed in Germanic languages the during the period between the XX-XIX century meaning of country or region (cf. Ger. gau as in BC great migration and the XII-XIII century BC Breisgau and Thurgau, both from *Thyrgwauas, one, we find th changed to s e gw to d in the Dutch gouw, Frisian goa). name of Shardana or Sharden (< *Thyrgwaunas), th fallen and gw changed into z (< dh) in the names Over the centuries the tribes of *Gwaulgwaunas of Arzawa (< *Thyrgwauas), and th mutated to ph and *Thyrgwaunas interacted, clashed and allied and gw to g in the name of Phrygians (Gr. Φρύγες themselves, constituting in the last half of the II [13] < *Phyrges < *Thyrgwauas). The phonetic millennium BC a sort of confederation that in change of th into ph (also not aspired as in Lith. the Aegean area was known as the “Mixed Perkūnas or Etr. Pursenas) was due to the influence People”, namely *Mykgwaunas or *Mykgwauas. of Proto-Gaul-Latin (*Gwaulas / * Gwaulatas / * PHONETIC CHANGES Gwaulatanas [2]) peoples (cf. Gr. θύρα with Lat. foris, door), that settled for a long time in the area The Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Altaic dialects, between Baltic Sea and Black Sea on the border spoken respectively by *Gwaulgwaunas and with the Mixed People, before the latter pressed *Thyrgwaunas, evolved with linguistic exchanges, them to Central Europe. For example, we can find but maintained distinct characteristics. It is probable such a phonetic change to the East in the name of that, when Western and Eastern *Thyrgwaunas Ferghana (<*Thyrgwauna) Valley, between current were separated, their language still was not very Uzbekistan and Kyrghizia, and to the West in the different from that of *Swagwaunas. The language name of Fersina (< Etr. Pherzna < *Thyrgwauna) of Western *Thyrgwaunas would have then been torrent near Trento in Italy. partially influenced by Proto-Indo-European peoples, while Eastern
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  • Introduction Roger D

    Introduction Roger D

    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-56256-0 — The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages Edited by Roger D. Woodard Excerpt More Information chapter 1 Introduction roger d. woodard 1.1 Preliminary remarks What makes a language ancient? The term conjures up images, often romantic, of archeol- ogists feverishly copying hieroglyphs by torchlight in a freshly discovered burial chamber; of philologists dangling over a precipice in some remote corner of the earth, taking impres- sions of an inscription carved in a cliff-face; of a solitary scholar working far into the night, puzzling out some ancient secret, long forgotten by humankind, from a brittle-leafed manuscript or patina-encrusted tablet. The allure is undeniable, and the literary and film worlds have made full use of it. An ancient language is indeed a thing of wonder – but so is every other language, all remarkable systems of conveying thoughts and ideas across time and space. And ancient languages, as far back as the very earliest attested, operate just like those to which the linguist has more immediate access, all with the same familiar elements – phonological, morphological, syntactic – and no perceptible vestiges of Neanderthal oddities. If there was a time when human language was characterized by features and strategies fundamentally unlike those we presently know, it was a time prior to the development of any attested or reconstructed language of antiquity. Perhaps, then, what makes an ancient language different is our awareness that it has outlived those for whom it was an intimate element of the psyche, not so unlike those rays of light now reaching our eyes that were emitted by their long-extinguished source when dinosaurs still roamed across the earth (or earlier) – both phantasms of energy flying to our senses from distant sources, long gone out.