Tabula Cortonensis
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.
Provenance
The tablet was brought to the police in October 1992 by someone who claimed to have found it at a construction site in September 1992. When provided to the police, the tablet had been broken into seven fragments, with the original right bottom corner missing. Investigators attempted to find the missing portion and confirm the existence of the site. It was subsequently recognized that the tablet was broken in antiquity, so the missing portion may have been separated centuries ago. It was also determined that the "discoverer" of the tablet had lied about where he found it, and he was put on trial for mishandling of artifacts, but was found innocent. Local researchers believe that the tablet had actually been found on a different construction site and was deliberately concealed so that construction could be completed on time without being delayed by archaeological work. The real origin of the tablet is unknown to this day.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, cultivated land, and an estate located in the territory of Lake Trasimeno. The lake lies east of Cortona in modern-day Western Umbria.The legal document centered around the aristocratic Cusu family and Petru Scevas and his wife. Two groups of witnesses or listeners helped to certify the document, along with Larth Cucrina Lausisa, zilath mechl rasnal. The document ends officially dating itself according to the two magistrates in office that year.
Wallace points out that "we know that, in third- and second-century Tuscany, redistribution of land took place in which large plots were parceled up into smaller chunks to be worked by individual families. It is possible, then, that may well be concerned with just such an allocation of land..."
Additionally, several words that appear on the tablet have been found inscribed on Etruscan plates, drinking cups, or wine jugs or jars.
Physical description
The tablet measures just over 8 inches wide by about 11 inches long, and is about between and thick.When discovered, the tablet had been broken into multiple pieces, of which only seven have been found. 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 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. The inscription is datable to the late 3rd to early 2nd century bce, so near 200.Contents
The following transcribes the special reversed epsilon as ɜ. There are clear zigzag marks in the text that presumably end sentences or sections, and each such section will be treated separately here:First section
Notes: The forms pɜtruiś /pɜtruś are probably forms of a name, compare Latin Petronius. As noted above, vina-c and restm-c probably indicate "vineyard" and "cultivated land" respectively, the final -c meaning "and."If ɜliuntś can be connected to Etr. eleivana "of oil" from the Greek *elaiwa > élaion " oil", we may be dealing with an olive orchard, a vineyard and a cultivated field or garden presumably belonging to Petronius Scaevus. Rex Wallace considers ɜliuntś to be a title of pɜtruiś. scɜvɜś, since all three agree in case marking.
Facchetti has proposed that cenu is a passive verb, also found in the Cippus Perusinus, that means "is obtained"; though Maggiani takes it to mean "is ceded."
The word spante elsewhere seems to refer to a kind of bowl or plate
But it is possible that here it and spanθi are locatives of span "plain."
śar is "ten" and zal is "two", and the "Roman" numeral 'IIIIC' had been sometimes interpreted as "400," though Etruscans generally had a different sign for "100" than C, at least early on. More recent analyses read it as SIIIIC as "14.5."
Notable is raśna , perhaps a form of the endonym for the Etruscan people, here perhaps indicating that Etruscan measurements are being used. cusuθuraś and larisalisvla, seen in various forms throughout the text and beyond, also seem to be names.
In lines 5-6, the coordinated elements pava-c traula-c seem to show up in slightly altered form in the Liber Linteus eisna. pevach. vinum. trau. pruchś, which van der Meer translates "a ritual young? : wine, a pouring from the jug," pointing out that peva/pava probably means "boy, youth", but also admitting that trau may be an agent noun, like zichu "writer." C. De Simone translates traula- here as "he who libates," and he connects zacinat with the functions of a priest.
Wylin proposes a translation of the whole section, building on Facchetti and Maggiani :
More recently, van der Meer, following Maggiani's 2002 analysis, has reversed the transaction so that the land is being ceded by Petru to the Cusu family:
Second section
Notes: The first part is obscure, while the rest repeats names treated above. pes also repeats pes from the first section. If Wylin's conclusion is correct that pes = "farm, fundus ", perhaps then it is related to Umbrian peř-ae " ground"?Van der Meer offers: "By of this sacred action, this of Petru Scevas thus the Cusu family's land."
Third section
Notes: In line 8, nuθanatur apparently means “a group of witnesses,” from nuθe “observes” and the suffix ‐θur/‐tur which forms nouns indicating membership.Much of the rest of this section seems to be a list of names of witnesses to the contract: lart/laris/larz..., pɜtruni, pumpu. The last word is probably related to Latin Rufus and Umbrian rofu also "red", perhaps to distinguish this "Red Petronius" from "Lefty Petronius". Variants of this form from other inscriptions include rauhe and ruvfe.
In line 11, with regard to aulesa. vɜl, it may be noted that there is a statue also from Cortona of a man described in Etruscan as aulesi vel... interpreted as "Aule, son of Vel..." a name also seen here in lines 24, 26, and 39.
Also in line 11, atina may mean "maternal" from ati "mother," just as apana "paternal" < apa "father." As it is also written alone on a cup. But atina may also be a name, or theonym. A variant atana is found on another drinking cup at ETP 212. The phrase cel atina recurs at the end of the inscription, as well, and may be a particular place, or a theonym "Mother Earth."
Van der Meer offers: "The witnesses ":
Fourth section
Notes: Again, mostly names here, many of which also appear on various other inscriptions, but also kinship terms: cleniar-c "and sons", clan "son", puia "wife". In lines 15 and 19, ame is a form of the copula verb am- "to be".In line 18, the phrase cen. zic. ziχuχe probably means "this document was written". The next word, sparzɜ, seems to mean “tablet”, possibly in the locative here.
18 -19 cen. zic. ziχuχe. sparzɜśtiś śazleiś in / θuχti. cusuθuraś. suθiu. ame according to H. Becker means: "This text which was written on a tablet sazle was placed in the house of the Cusu family." But Wylin proposes: "This text has been transcribed from the original tablet, which...."; a translation supported by the fact that the phrase sparzɜśtiś śazleiś is inflected with not only the locative -i but also the ablative -s.
The following phrase in 19 - 20 tal suθive / naś. rat-m. θuχt. ceśu according again to Becker, may mean "of that having been done the deposit according to the rite in the house it stays" or "when that has been done, the deposit remains in the house as is the custom" As Becker points out, it is significant and interesting that this clearly public regal document is to reside in the presumably private residence.
According to C. De Simone, suθiu in line 19 means "funerary ceremony" and θuχt in 20 may refer to a feast in honor of the dead in "August."
Wylin interprets the phrase θuχt. ceśu. tltel tɜi as "deposited in the house, in that of that one " thus seeing it as parallel to the earlier phrase: θuχti. cusuθuraś. suθiu. ame.
In line 20, the form fratu-ce has a past tense verbal ending -ce, but it otherwise looks like the Umbrian and Latin word for "brother" frater in Umbrian context meaning a member of a holy order; so if the root was borrowed from Umbrian, this may mean something like "consulted together as brethren."
Wylin proposes for the sequence sianś./ sparzɜte. θui. salt zic. fratuce. cusuθuraś. / larisalisvla. pɜtruśc. scɜvaś. pesś. tarχian/eś \\ the translation: "The sian incised the text here on the tablet with the agreement of C.L. and of P.S. from the field of Tarchian."
The pesś of pɜtruśc. scɜvaś is mentioned again in line 22, followed by tarχian /eś which looks like a form of Tarchna, Tarquinia a town name and family name.
Van der Meer offers: " of the participants are:. This text has been copied from this bronze tablet, which text has been placed in the house of Cusuthur. The master of the house has ratified this text as incised here on the tablet for the Cusu, sons of Laris, and for Petru Scevas from the Tarchianan estate."
Fifth section
Notes: In line 23, male- according to R. Wallace means "oversee," related to malena "mirror."In line 25, we see the well attested word for "son" clan-c twice, and in 27 the plural cleniar-c "sons" also appears. Another kinship term, papal "grandson", occurs in the partly damaged line 27.
zilath is a well established Etruscan word meaning 'one who governs' from the verb zil 'to rule', thought to be equivalent of a Latin praetor in function. The full phrase zilaθ meχl.raśnal probably means "magistrate of the res publica."
A form somewhat similar to fuln can be found in the Tabula Capuana: ful/inus'nes. B. van der Meer thinks that it is a name of a god in the Tabula Capuana.
The form uslnal in 30 and 32 is similar to uslane- in Liber Linteus , which van der Meer takes to be an adjectival form of usil "Sun, sun, noon, midday," though here it may be part of a name. The context of the Liber Linteus form is as follows : citz. vacl. nunθen. θesan. tinś. θesan / eiseraś. śeuś. unuχ. mlaχ. nunθen. θesviti / favitic. faśei. cisum. θesane. uslanec / mlaχe. luri. zeric roughly: "Three times a libation. Make an offering to θesan of Tin to θesan / of the Dark Gods, for them, make an appropriate offering with oil both in the morning / and in the evening, three times in the morning and at noon / for the beautiful Lur and Zer."
Van der Meer offers: "Bearing witness to and observing these matters are: Lars Cucrina, praetor of the city, and."
On the back
Notes: This section is mainly notable for seeming to identify the name of a known lake in line 36, tarsminaśś "Lake Trasimeno", leading some to conclude, as noted above, that what precedes must be the Etruscan word for "lake": nɜitisś . The word celti that immediately precedes is the word for earth or land cel plus the locative -ti. The same root shows up in 39 and 40 in the phrase cɜl atinaś with the second element either being a name, or related to ati "mother". Or Celatina could be simply a name.On sparza "tablet" and θuχt "house" see above in section four. Wylin takes the phrase in lines 36-37 sparza in θuχt ceśu. / ratm. suθiu. suθiusa to mean: "the tablet that has been deposited in this house has also been deposited in the residences of..." followed by the names of four people.
The phrase zilci. larθal. cusuś / titinal. larisalc. saliniś. aulesla probably means "In the Zilc-ship of Lart Cusu, of Titina, and of Laris Salini, of Aule."
In full, this section roughly reads: "Aule Salini of the Cusu in the magistracy of Lart Cusu, of Titina, and of Laris Salini, of Aule in the land of Lake Trasimeno. the tablet lying in house, according to custom, are deposited, as things to be placed of: Velche Cusu, son of Aule; Velthur Titlni, son of Velthur; Lart Celatina, son of Apnei; and Laris Celatina, son of Pitlnei.