Etruria between the Iron Age and Orientalizing Period and the Adoption of Alphabetic Writing

In this paper we try to combine a cultural approach (Naso) with a philological (Benelli) to examine the emergence of Etruscan alphabetic writing in the 8th century BC. Naso outlines changes in settlement patterns in Etruria in this period, detailing a shift from villages to cities followed shortly afterwards by a shift from huts with thatched roofs to houses with tile-covered roofs. Largely in consequence of intensified exploitation of major natural resources with associated maritime trade, massive social transformations also occur at this time, resulting in changes in the social status of some individuals and a more stratified society. The spread of exotic goods throughout Etruria, those from the eastern Mediterranean in particular, illustrates both this narrative and the high degree to which during the 8th and 7th centuries BCE the developing cultural context was receptive to alien goods and ideas encountered through the hyper-mobility of individuals. Benelli focuses more on the mechanism through which the new idea was taken up. Noting that epigraphy is by no means a necessary and immediate consequence of the adoption of writing skills, he argues that the oldest Etruscan inscriptions provide evidence of a system of gift-exchange amongst the newly forming aristocracy and that this was strongly tied up with ritualised friendship between kinship groups and peer groups, and that it was within this milieu that alphabetic writing was articulated and disseminated. As for the question of the actual origins of Etruscan graphemes, Benelli shows that all forms of Etruscan letters can be traced back to Euboean prototypes, with the possible exception of the so-called san.