Editing Etruscan language (section)

===Inscriptions on portable objects===

====Votives====
{{See also|votive offering}}
[[File:British Museum Etruscan bronze dedication to Culsans.jpg|thumb|Bronze plaque (300–100 BC) with dedication to [[Culsans]]]]
One example of an early (pre-fifth century BC) votive inscription is on a bucchero oinochoe (wine vase): ''ṃiṇi mulvaṇịce venalia ṡlarinaṡ. en mipi kapi ṃi(r) ṇuṇai'' = "Venalia Ṡlarinaṡ gave me. Do not touch me (?), I (am) ''nunai'' (an offering?)." This seems to be a rare case from this early period of a female (Venalia) dedicating the votive.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Amann |first1=Petra |title=Women and Votive Inscriptions in Etruscan Epigraphy |journal=Etruscan Studies |date=5 November 2019 |volume=22 |issue=1–2 |pages=39–64 |doi=10.1515/etst-2019-0003 |s2cid=208140836 }}</ref>

====Mirrors====
{{More|Bronze mirror}}
A ''speculum'' is a circular or oval hand-mirror used predominantly by Etruscan women. {{Lang|la|Speculum}} is Latin; the Etruscan word is {{Transliteration|ett|malena}} or {{Transliteration|ett|malstria}}. Specula were cast in bronze as one piece or with a tang into which a wooden, bone, or [[ivory]] handle fitted. The reflecting surface was created by polishing the flat side. A higher percentage of [[tin]] in the mirror improved its ability to reflect. The other side was convex and featured [[Intaglio (jewellery)|intaglio]] or [[cameo (carving)|cameo]] scenes from mythology. The piece was generally ornate.<ref>For pictures and a description refer to the ''[http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/art/mirrors.html Etruscan Mirrors]'' article at mysteriousetruscans.com.</ref>

About 2,300 specula are known from collections all over the world. As they were popular plunderables, the provenance of only a minority is known. An estimated time window is 530–100 BC.<ref>For the dates, more pictures and descriptions, see the ''[http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/Etruscan.htm Hand Mirror with the Judgment of Paris]'' article published online by the Allen Memorial Art Museum of [[Oberlin College]].</ref> Most probably came from tombs.

Many bear inscriptions naming the persons depicted in the scenes, so they are often called picture bilinguals. In 1979, [[Massimo Pallottino]], then president of the ''Istituto di Studi Etruschi ed Italici'' initiated the Committee of the ''Corpus Speculorum Etruscanorum'', which resolved to publish all the specula and set editorial standards for doing so. Since then, the committee has grown, acquiring local committees and representatives from most institutions owning Etruscan mirror collections. Each collection is published in its own fascicle by diverse Etruscan scholars.<ref>Representative examples can be found in the U.S. Epigraphy Project site of [[Brown University]]: [http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=OH.Tol.TMA.L.1980.1340] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070512185430/http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=OH.Tol.TMA.L.1980.1340|date=2007-05-12}}, [http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NY.NY.MMA.L.96.18.16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060904033701/http://usepigraphy.brown.edu/view.php?textID=NY.NY.MMA.L.96.18.16|date=2006-09-04}}</ref>

====Cistae====
A cista is a bronze container of circular, ovoid, or more rarely rectangular shape used by women for the storage of sundries. They are ornate, often with feet and lids to which figurines may be attached. The internal and external surfaces bear carefully crafted scenes usually from mythology, usually intaglio, or rarely part intaglio, part [[cameo (carving)|cameo]].

Cistae date from the [[Roman Republic]] of the fourth and third centuries BC in Etruscan contexts. They may bear various short inscriptions concerning the manufacturer or owner or subject matter. The writing may be Latin, Etruscan, or both. Excavations at [[Palestrina|Praeneste]], an Etruscan city which became Roman, turned up about 118 cistae, one of which has been termed "the Praeneste cista" or "the Ficoroni cista" by art analysts, with special reference to the one manufactured by Novios Plutius and given by Dindia Macolnia to her daughter, as the archaic Latin inscription says. All of them are more accurately termed "the Praenestine cistae".<ref>Paggi, Maddalena. "The Praenestine Cistae" (October 2004), New York: The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], in [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/prae/hd_prae.htm Timeline of Art History].</ref>

====Rings and ringstones====
Among the most plunderable portables from the Etruscan tombs of [[Etruria]] are the finely engraved gemstones set in patterned gold to form circular or ovoid pieces intended to go on finger rings. Around one centimeter in size, they are dated to the Etruscan apogee from the second half of the sixth to the first centuries BC. The two main theories of manufacture are native Etruscan<ref>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Gem#Etruscan_Gems |display=Gem § ''Etruscan Gems'' |volume=11 |page=566 |first1=Alexander Stuart |last1=Murray |first2=Arthur Hamilton |last2=Smith}}</ref> and Greek.<ref>[http://www.cvaonline.org/Gems/Styles/Etruscan2/Script/MythFrameset.htm Beazley Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527005211/http://www.cvaonline.org/Gems/Styles/Etruscan2/Script/MythFrameset.htm |date=2011-05-27 }}.</ref> The materials are mainly dark red [[carnelian]], with [[agate]] and [[sard]] entering usage from the third to the first centuries BC, along with purely gold finger rings with a hollow engraved [[bezel setting]]. The engravings, mainly cameo, but sometimes intaglio, depict [[Dung beetle|scarabs]] at first and then scenes from Greek mythology, often with heroic personages called out in Etruscan. The gold setting of the bezel bears a border design, such as cabling.

====Coins====
Etruscan-minted coins can be dated between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. Use of the 'Chalcidian' standard, based on the silver unit of 5.8&nbsp;grams, indicates that this custom, like the alphabet, came from Greece. Roman coinage later supplanted Etruscan, but the basic Roman coin, the ''[[sesterce]]'', is believed to have been based on the 2.5-denomination Etruscan coin.<ref>[http://www.snible.org/coins/hn/etruria.html Ancient Coins of Etruria].</ref> Etruscan coins have turned up in caches or individually in tombs and in excavations seemingly at random, and concentrated, of course, in [[Etruria]].

Etruscan coins were in gold, silver, and bronze, the gold and silver usually having been struck on one side only. The coins often bore a denomination, sometimes a minting authority name, and a cameo motif. Gold denominations were in units of silver; silver, in units of bronze. Full or abbreviated names are mainly Pupluna ([[Populonia]]), Vatl or Veltuna ([[Vetulonia]]), Velathri ([[Volaterrae]]), Velzu or Velznani (Volsinii) and Cha for Chamars ([[Camars]]). Insignia are mainly heads of mythological characters or depictions of mythological beasts arranged in a symbolic motif: [[Apollo]], [[Zeus]], [[Culsans]], [[Athena]], [[Hermes]], [[griffin]], [[gorgon]], male [[sphinx]], [[hippocamp]], bull, snake, eagle, or other creatures which had symbolic significance.