Tabula Cortonensis
Encyclopedia
The Tabula Cortonensis is a 2200-year-old, bronze
artifact of Etruscan
origin, discovered in Cortona
, Italy
. It may record for posterity the details of an ancient real estate
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. While the discovery was made in October 1992, its contents weren't published until seven years later in 1999. This was because the tabula has been brought to the police
by one who, allegedly, found it in a construction site; it was broken in eight fragments, one of which, the right bottom one, was missing. The investigators thought that, if the existence of the table were not disclosed, it would have been easier to ascertain where the tablet had been really dug (the construction site didn't hold any other Etruscan remains) and what happened to the missing fragment.
record of the division of an inheritance
or sale of real estate consisting of a vineyard (cf. lines 1 and 2: ), cultivated land (line 2: ), and an estate located in the territory of Lake Trasimeno (cf. lines 35 and 36: ). The lake lies east of Cortona in modern day Western Umbria
.
The word spantu,a variation of spante, is an Umbrian word used by the Etruscans and means plate. 'pav' is also a word found inscribed on a kylix or drinking cup,also laris,larisal,cloil,zilci,atina,larza,celt,tiu are all found inscribed on plates, drinking cups or wine jugs or jars.
In the Liber Linteus we have the words"pe va'ch'. vinum . trau".
Vinum is shared with the Latins and means wine.In the Tabulae Cortonensis we have " vinac" for Latin vinaceus which means-pertaing to wine and "trau lac" appears in line six.
The tablet seems more to be an inventory for vessels. Besides the wine, on the front and the back, the words relate to salt and the salt cellar. The word salini in latin means salt cellar. The word sal and salis mean salt in latin so salini, larisal, lari salis-a, sal-t are derived from that.
When discovered, the tablet had been broken into eight pieces, of which only seven have been found (Larissa & Giuliano Bonfante. The Etruscan Language, p. 179. 2002). The missing piece is believed by Etruscanists to contain only names and not details of the estate.
The word vinac is found in the inscription above the men carrying the wine jars in the 'Tomb of the Inscriptions' at Tarquinnia and reads
"ara'th' vinac na"
) is present on the tablet. This implies that, at least in the Etruscan dialect spoken in Cortona where this letter exclusively appears, the letter marks a different sound from that of the letter E (Larissa & Giuliano Bonfante. The Etruscan Language, pp. 178–9. 2002).
as :
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
artifact of Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...
origin, discovered in Cortona
Cortona
Cortona is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic center of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo.-History:...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It may record for posterity the details of an ancient real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
transaction which took place in the ancient Tuscan
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
city of Cortona
Cortona
Cortona is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic center of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo.-History:...
, known to the Etruscans as Curtun. Its 40-line, two-sided inscription is the third longest inscription found in the Etruscan language
Etruscan language
The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization, in what is present-day Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna...
, and the longest discovered in the 20th century. While the discovery was made in October 1992, its contents weren't published until seven years later in 1999. This was because the tabula has been brought to the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
by one who, allegedly, found it in a construction site; it was broken in eight fragments, one of which, the right bottom one, was missing. The investigators thought that, if the existence of the table were not disclosed, it would have been easier to ascertain where the tablet had been really dug (the construction site didn't hold any other Etruscan remains) and what happened to the missing fragment.
Interpretation
The tablet is thought by some scholars like Larissa Bonfante and Nancy De Grummond to be a notarizedNotary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
record of the division of an inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
or sale of real estate consisting of a vineyard (cf. lines 1 and 2: ), cultivated land (line 2: ), and an estate located in the territory of Lake Trasimeno (cf. lines 35 and 36: ). The lake lies east of Cortona in modern day Western Umbria
Umbria
Umbria is a region of modern central Italy. It is one of the smallest Italian regions and the only peninsular region that is landlocked.Its capital is Perugia.Assisi and Norcia are historical towns associated with St. Francis of Assisi, and St...
.
The word spantu,a variation of spante, is an Umbrian word used by the Etruscans and means plate. 'pav' is also a word found inscribed on a kylix or drinking cup,also laris,larisal,cloil,zilci,atina,larza,celt,tiu are all found inscribed on plates, drinking cups or wine jugs or jars.
In the Liber Linteus we have the words"pe va'ch'. vinum . trau".
Vinum is shared with the Latins and means wine.In the Tabulae Cortonensis we have " vinac" for Latin vinaceus which means-pertaing to wine and "trau lac" appears in line six.
The tablet seems more to be an inventory for vessels. Besides the wine, on the front and the back, the words relate to salt and the salt cellar. The word salini in latin means salt cellar. The word sal and salis mean salt in latin so salini, larisal, lari salis-a, sal-t are derived from that.
Physical description
The tablet measures 50 centimetres (19.7 in) by 30 centimetres (11.8 in), and is about between 2 millimetre (0.078740157480315 in) and 3 millimetre (0.118110236220472 in) thick.When discovered, the tablet had been broken into eight pieces, of which only seven have been found (Larissa & Giuliano Bonfante. The Etruscan Language, p. 179. 2002). The missing piece is believed by Etruscanists to contain only names and not details of the estate.
The word vinac is found in the inscription above the men carrying the wine jars in the 'Tomb of the Inscriptions' at Tarquinnia and reads
"ara'th' vinac na"
Text
The text contains thirty-four known Etruscan words and an equal number of previously unattested Etruscan words. Moreover, a new alphabetic sign (a reversed epsilonEpsilon
Epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a close-mid front unrounded vowel . In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 5. It was derived from the Phoenician letter He...
) is present on the tablet. This implies that, at least in the Etruscan dialect spoken in Cortona where this letter exclusively appears, the letter marks a different sound from that of the letter E (Larissa & Giuliano Bonfante. The Etruscan Language, pp. 178–9. 2002).
Contents
The following transcribes the special reversed epsilonEpsilon
Epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a close-mid front unrounded vowel . In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 5. It was derived from the Phoenician letter He...
as :
-
- On the front
-
- 01:
- 02:
- 03:
- 04:
- 05:
- 06:
- 07:
- 08:
- 09:
- 10:
- 11:
- 12:
- 13:
- 14:
- 15:
- 16:
- 17:
- 18:
- 19:
- 20:
- 21:
- 22:
- 23:
- 24:
- 25:
- 26:
- 27:
- 28:
- 29:
- 30:
- 31:
- 32:
-
- On the back
-
- 33:
- 34:
- 35:
- 36:
- 37:
- 38:
- 39:
- 40:
Sources
- Luciano Agostiniani, Francesco Nicosia, 'Tabula Cortonensis'. Studia Archaelogica 105. Roma: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 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.
See also
- CortonaCortonaCortona is a town and comune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. It is the main cultural and artistic center of the Val di Chiana after Arezzo.-History:...
- The modern city in which this artifact was found. - Liber LinteusLiber LinteusThe Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis is the longest Etruscan text and the only extant linen book...
- An Etruscan inscription. - Cippus perusinusCippus PerusinusThe Cippus Perusinus is a stone tablet discovered on the hill of San Marco, near Perugia, Italy, in 1822. The tablet bears 46 lines of Etruscan text exquisitely carved into it...
- An Etruscan inscription. - Pyrgi TabletsPyrgi TabletsThe Pyrgi Tablets, found in a 1964 excavation of a sanctuary of ancient Pyrgi on the Tyrrhenian coast of Italy , are three golden leaves that record a dedication made around 500 BC by Thefarie Velianas, king of Caere, to the Phoenician goddess ʻAshtaret. Pyrgi was the port of the southern Etruscan...
- An Etruscan inscription. - Etruscan civilizationEtruscan civilizationEtruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...
- EtruriaEtruriaEtruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...
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