Abstract
The peoples of central Italy came into contact with alphabetic writing as soon as Greeks and Phoenicians-who had already been using it for some time-began visiting their coasts. Of the two models, the Greek was preferred; it offered a complete alphabetic system of vowels that were derived from the repurposing of certain Semitic letters that originally denoted consonants. During the eighth century BCE, the script appears to have already been in use both in Etruria and in Latium, as is attested by a few sigla (isolated letters) and brief inscriptions whose reading and interpretation are not unambiguous, which appear to belong to a period that was still experimental. In such an ancient period, an epigraphic culture did not yet exist. Written expression remained a very sporadic phenomenon; the great variability in letterforms derives from the fact that not even in the Greek world had the future epichoric alphabets yet become stabilized, and different graphic realizations were possible in the same locality, including certain crucial choices related to the so-called “bound couples.” (It. coppie legate). The Etruscan alphabet as we know it came into being more or less in conjunction with the birth of an epigraphic culture at the beginning of the Orientalizing period. The first real inscription known to date dates to around 700, but there are a few earlier sigla (isolated letter(s)) that, at least in part, must be written in this type of script, and not to the preceding experimental phase. The oldest of these is probably the siglum recently found on a wooden vase from Tarquinia (ea. 730). In the Etruscan world, epigraphy arose to meet a need that derived from models ofbehavior of the aristocratic classes, to which is owed-to a large degree-the birth and development of that entire cultural phenomenon we call “Orientalizing.” The history of the Etruscan language and its epigraphy is divided into a series of very well differentiated chronological periods. In general, “Archaic” refers to the period from the origins through the fifth century, and “Recent,” to the fourth through first centuries BCE. The Archaic period in turn is divided into three parts endowed with very specific characteristics: an initial phase (corresponding to the Early and Middle Orientalizing periods, ea. 730-630), a High Archaic (from 630 to the end of the sixth century), and the Late Archaic. The language certainly had different local and perhaps also social dialects, but their identification has begun only in very recent times.