Tabula Cortonensis

Tabula Cortonensis
	Front view
Material	bronze
Height	458 mm
Width	285 mm
Writing	Etruscan
Created	2nd century BC
Discovered	October 1992; Cortona
Present location	MAEC, Cortona

The Tabula Cortonensis (sometimes also Cortona Tablet) is a 2200-year-old, inscribed bronze tablet of Etruscan origin, discovered in Cortona, Italy.[1] 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, two-sided inscription is the third longest inscription found in the Etruscan language, and the longest discovered in the 20th century.[2] While the discovery was made in October 1992, the contents were not published until seven years later, in 1999. The delay was due to the tablet's having been brought to the police by someone who claimed to have found it at a construction site. When provided to the police, the tablet had been broken into seven fragments, with the original right bottom corner missing. Investigators believed that, if the existence of the tablet were not initially disclosed, it would have been easier to ascertain whether the tablet had really been found at that location (examination of the construction site did not reveal any other Etruscan remains) and possibly locate the missing portion.

Interpretation

The tablet is thought by some scholars, notably Larissa Bonfante and Nancy de Grummond, to be a notarized record of the division of an inheritance or sale of real estate. Reference is made on the tablet to a vineyard (cf. lines 1 and 2: vinac), cultivated land (line 2: restm-c), and an estate located in the territory of Lake Trasimeno (cf. lines 35 and 36: celti nɜitisś tarsminaśś).[3] The lake lies east of Cortona in modern-day Western Umbria.

In addition to the references to land, the tablet includes several references relating to table furnishings. The tablet includes words that appear to refer to plates (line 3: spante, a loan word from Umbrian) and salt (line 9: salini, also the Latin word for salt cellar, as well as 'a number of linguistically similar words such as the various forms of larisal). Additionally, several words (pav, clθii, zilci, atina, larz) that appear on the tablet have been found inscribed on Etruscan plates, drinking cups, or wine jugs or jars.[4]

Physical description

The tablet measures 50 centimetres (20 in) by 30 centimetres (12 in), and is about between 2 millimetres (0.079 in) and 3 millimetres (0.12 in) thick.

When discovered, the tablet had been broken into multiple pieces, of which only seven have been found.[5] The missing portion is believed by Etruscanists to contain only names and not details of the estate.

Text

The text contains thirty-four known Etruscan words and an equal number of previously unattested Etruscan words. Moreover, a new alphabetic sign Ǝ (a reversed epsilon) is present on the tablet. This implies that, at least in the Etruscan dialect spoken in Cortona where this letter exclusively appears, the letter Ǝ marks a different sound from that of the letter E.[5] The inscription dates ca. 200 B.C.[2]

References

Luciano Agostiniani, Francesco Nicosia, 'Tabula Cortonensis'. Studia Archaeologica 105. Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2000.
Giulio M. Facchetti, Frammenti di diritto privato etrusco, Firenze, Olschki, 2000.
Scarano Ussani & Torelli, La Tabula Cortonensis. Un documento giuridico, storico e sociale (Napoli, 2003).
de Simone, Carlo (2007) 'Alcuni termini chiave della Tabula Cortonensis', Rasenna: Journal of the Center for Etruscan Studies, Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 1.
Wylin, Koen (2006) 'Pyrgi B et la rédaction de la Tabula Cortonensis'. Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire 84/1, pp. 35–44.

External links

Curtun (Modern Cortona) Information about the ancient city of Curtun as well as details about this artifact found there
Tavola di Cortona e Lamine di Pyrgi - traduzione (italiano)
The Roman Law Library (Cf. Lingua Etrusca) by Professor Yves Lassard and Alexandr Koptev
Images of the Tabula
Images and textual analysis

Bibliography

Grenoble website with transcription and Bibliography
Atti dell'Incontro di Studio, 22 giugno 2001, CNR (Roma, 2002):
- Benelli, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, pp. 93–100.
- Maggiani, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 11–15, 65-75.
- Nicosia, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 17–25.
- Bruschetti, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 27–38.
- Peruzzi, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 39–42.
- Roncalli, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 43–52.
- Pandolfini–Angeletti, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 53–64.
- Rix, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 77–86.
- Facchetti, in Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 87–99.

Others:

De Simone, Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 3, 1998, pp. 1–122.
De Simone, Ocnus, 9-10, 2001–02, pp. 69–114.
De Simone, Incontri Linguistici, 25, 2002, pp. 77–85.
Eichner, in The Complete Linguist : A collection of papers in honor of Alexis Manaster Ramer (München, 2001), pp. 141–152.
Facchetti, Frammenti di diritto privato etrusco, (Firenze, 2000).
Facchetti, Appunti di morfologia etrusca. Con un’appendice sulla questione delle affinità genetiche dell’etrusco (Firenze, 2002).
Facchetti, Archivio Glottologico Italiano, 88, 2003, pp. 203–219.
Facchetti, Lingua Posnaniensis (Poznan, 2005), pp. 59–63.
Maggiani, Rivista di Archeologia, 25, 2001, pp. 94–114.
Rix, Incontri linguistici, 23, 2000, pp. 11–31.
Scarano Ussani & Torelli, La Tabula Cortonensis. Un documento giuridico, storico e sociale (Napoli, 2003).
Wylin, Studi Etruschi, 65-68, 2002, pp. 215–223.
Wylin, Archivio Glottologico Italiano, 87, 2002, pp. 88–108.
Wylin, Etruscan News, 3, 2003, pp. 11–12.
Zamboni, Ath, 90, 2002, pp. 431–441.

Notes

Luciano Agostiniani; Francesco Nicosia (2000). Tabula cortonensis. "L'Erma" di Bretschneider. ISBN 978-88-8265-090-2.
Simon Hornblower; Antony Spawforth; Esther Eidinow (29 March 2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. OUP Oxford. pp. 387–. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8.
Jean MacIntosh Turfa (13 November 2014). The Etruscan World. Routledge. pp. 363–. ISBN 978-1-134-05523-4.
Archived November 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
Bonfante, Larissa; Bonfante, Giuliano (2002). The Etruscan Language. Manchester University Press. pp. 178–179. ISBN 0719055407.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[AgostinianiNicosia2000-1] Luciano Agostiniani; Francesco Nicosia (2000). Tabula cortonensis. "L'Erma" di Bretschneider. ISBN 978-88-8265-090-2.

[HornblowerSpawforth2012-2] Simon Hornblower; Antony Spawforth; Esther Eidinow (29 March 2012). The Oxford Classical Dictionary. OUP Oxford. pp. 387–. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8.

[Turfa2014-3] Jean MacIntosh Turfa (13 November 2014). The Etruscan World. Routledge. pp. 363–. ISBN 978-1-134-05523-4.

[4] Archived November 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

[BonfanteBonfante-5] Bonfante, Larissa; Bonfante, Giuliano (2002). The Etruscan Language. Manchester University Press. pp. 178–179. ISBN 0719055407.

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