Etruscan Warrior Prince Really a Princess

Oops! Etruscan Warrior Prince Really a Princess

Last month, archaeologists announced a stunning find: a completely sealed tomb cut into the rock in Tuscany, Italy.

The untouched tomb held what looked like the body of an Etruscan prince holding a spear, along with the ashes of his wife. Several news outlets reported on the discovery of the 2,600-year-old warrior prince.

But the grave held one more surprise.

A bone analysis has revealed the warrior prince was actually a princess, as Judith Weingarten, an alumna of the British School at Athens noted on her blog, Zenobia: Empress of the East
Etruscan tomb

Historians know relatively little about the Etruscan culture that flourished in what is now Italy until its absorption into the Roman civilization around 400 B.C. Unlike their better-known counterparts, the ancient Greeks and the Romans, the Etruscans left no historical documents, so their graves provide a unique insight into their culture.

The new tomb, unsealed by archaeologists in Tuscany, was found in the Etruscan necropolis of Tarquinia, a UNESCO World Heritage site where more than 6,000 graves have been cut into the rock.

"The underground chamber dates back to the beginning of the sixth century B.C. Inside, there are two funerary beds carved into the rock," Alessandro Mandolesi, the University of Turin archaeologist who excavated the site, wrote in an email.

When the team removed the sealed slab blocking the tomb, they saw two large platforms. On one platform lay a skeleton bearing a lance. On another lay a partially incinerated skeleton. The team also found several pieces of jewelry and a bronze-plated box, which may have belonged to a woman, according to the researchers.
news.yahoo.com...

In other words she was just BOSS! I like how historical assumptions gets turned on it's head at times.

reply to post by Spider879

In other words she was just BOSS! I like how historical assumptions gets turned on it's head at times.

Come now, that is an assumption. So she was buried with a spear. We do not know the customs, never will. There are many possibilities.

Perhaps she was buried with the spear that ended her life.
Perhaps she killed the warrior who killed her husband.
Perhaps the spear wards of evil spirits on her journey to the afterlife, men don't need one but women do.

With all respect, you are making the same type of assumptions that many archeologists do.

The only fact is you have a female skeleton buried with a spear. You have no idea what her rank was! You have no idea who the other skeleton belongs to. It is all a bunch of assumptions based largely on the imagination of those who uncovered the site.

It seems to me that the fanciful nonsense is largely an attempt for more and more funding! Fire the public's imagination and watch more money flow in.

P

pheonix358
reply to post by Spider879

 

In other words she was just BOSS! I like how historical assumptions gets turned on it's head at times.

Come now, that is an assumption. So she was buried with a spear. We do not know the customs, never will. There are many possibilities.

Perhaps she was buried with the spear that ended her life.
Perhaps she killed the warrior who killed her husband.
Perhaps the spear wards of evil spirits on her journey to the afterlife, men don't need one but women do.

With all respect, you are making the same type of assumptions that many archeologists do.

The only fact is you have a female skeleton buried with a spear. You have no idea what her rank was! You have no idea who the other skeleton belongs to. It is all a bunch of assumptions based largely on the imagination of those who uncovered the site.

It seems to me that the fanciful nonsense is largely an attempt for more and more funding! Fire the public's imagination and watch more money flow in.

P

edit on 20/10/2013 by pheonix358 because: (no reason given)

I donno Phoenix according to the article the woman was of high status and Etruscan females enjoyed a standard of social freedom higher than the later Roman females and most definitely better than the earlier Greeks.

Their unique position in history – the Etruscans lived from 1000 B.C. until the first century A.D. – is the focus of an extraordinary exhibition on Etruscan women organized by the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden or RMO) in Leiden and running from Oct. 14 until March 18, 2012.

“Tomb paintings are the most important source of information about Etruscan women,” according to Patricia Lulof, professor of Mediterranean archaeology at the University of Amsterdam and chief editor of the Etruscan exhibition catalog.

The frescos Professor Lulof is talking about show aristocratic Etruscan women moving freely in public places, including attending sporting events, banquets, and theater productions.

Etruscan Women Enjoyed Equal Status with Men
Gold brooch with ruby
500 B.C.
Among the carved inscriptions on Etruscan tombs are the names of the mother and father of the deceased. Not only is it notable that the Etruscans thought it important to mention both parents’ names, but also that a married Etruscan woman could elect to use her own first name as well as her maiden name. Some of the inscriptions also reveal that Etruscan women owned possessions and passed them on to their children of their own volition.

www.womenetics.com...

That she could be Boss?? would not have been unusual IMO.

reply to post by Spider879

Historians know relatively little about the Etruscan culture that flourished in what is now Italy until its absorption into the Roman civilization around 400 B.C. Unlike their better-known counterparts, the ancient Greeks and the Romans, the Etruscans left no historical documents, so their graves provide a unique insight into their culture.

They know squat by their own admission. Why the word 'princess.' High born, yes due to her having an expensive grave, perhaps, but then she may have been a rich call girl! Who knows.

On the one hand the article says they know next to nothing and on the other they are telling us that females had more freedom. No written records exist. It is all pie in the sky assumptions. It always is. There are a hundred other assumptions all just as valid. Hell, the painting has a chook running around inside. I could look at the top of that painting and claim the whole culture was gay and for that reason died out! LOL

Don't listen to what they say, look for yourself!

That cat looks like it hasn't been fed for a month so they didn't look after their animals. LOL

So much of our history is just pure drivel!

P

reply to post by Spider879


How cool is that? Liked the last paragraph too - highlights how so many sciences, including biology for gawdsake, are NOT based on fact - just bias and preconceptions.

"Until very recently, and sadly still in some countries, sex determination is based on grave goods. And that, in turn, is based almost entirely on our preconceptions. A clear illustration is jewelry: We associate jewelry with women, but that is nonsense in much of the ancient world," Weingarten said. "Guys liked bling, too."

pheonix358
reply to post by Spider879

 

Historians know relatively little about the Etruscan culture that flourished in what is now Italy until its absorption into the Roman civilization around 400 B.C. Unlike their better-known counterparts, the ancient Greeks and the Romans, the Etruscans left no historical documents, so their graves provide a unique insight into their culture.

They know squat by their own admission. Why the word 'princess.' High born, yes due to her having an expensive grave, perhaps, but then she may have been a rich call girl! Who knows.

Unlikely.

Call girls never came from the highest ranks of the culture -- they were slaves or came from lower ranks. In addition, though they may be wealthy they are not put in graves in the "best" part of the cemetery. A high status woman will have different features on her skeleton that will show she had a better diet (teeth tell a big story here) and had fewer injuries than the rest of the population.

She might have been the lover of whoever's body is burned next to hers, but until we can have a nice seance over them, we're probably not going to find out.

soficrow
reply to post by Spider879

 

How cool is that? Liked the last paragraph too - highlights how so many sciences, including biology for gawdsake, are NOT based on fact - just bias and preconceptions.

"Until very recently, and sadly still in some countries, sex determination is based on grave goods. And that, in turn, is based almost entirely on our preconceptions. A clear illustration is jewelry: We associate jewelry with women, but that is nonsense in much of the ancient world," Weingarten said. "Guys liked bling, too."

Based on "best interpretation of the facts."

If we had EVERYTHING available at our fingertips, we could say exactly what things are and how they fit together. But the Earth is one huge cosmic Crime Scene, with missing pieces, missing information, and we don't have the Ultimate Tools that we can point at things and extract their entire information.

It's CSI Earth. Like detectives, we have a theory about "who done it" and it gets changed when we get better crime labs, more information, or more serial crimes.

reply to post by Byrd

...It's CSI Earth. Like detectives, we have a theory about "who done it" and it gets changed when we get better crime labs, more information, or more serial crimes.

Most often, yes, I know. But I always hark back to that little "conspiracy" of Darwin's designed to "protect" Victorian sensibilities - the one that was falsely substantiated for a hundred plus years. ...The one about birds mating for life when in fact the females were quite promiscuous. Apparently, they mated with the best provider and then messed around for other reasons.