The Etruscan Warrior Prince.... is a Princess.

Post Reply New Topic

Last week I posted an article on a recent finding the the majority of prehistoric cave art is more likely to have been done by women then men as was assumed previously. This was ascertained by measurements of the hand prints that often accompany the art.

Here it is in case you want to see it: Cave women artists

Recently a new very interesting (if you like this sort of thing) discovery was made in the form of the excavation of an undisturbed Etruscan double tomb. Its location indicated it was likely of nobles. This is what they found:



The larger bier on the left held an fairly intact skeleton with remains of chest brooches and and iron spear. The smaller bier on the right held the cremated remains of another individual.
A good ammount of pottery and jewelry was also on the floor and dated it to about 600BC a period when the Etruscans still ruled the Romans. The initial interpretation was a it was the tomb of a Etruscan warrior prince with cremated remains of his wife. This is what I saw reported in the archeological periodicals a month or so ago.

But as the analysis of the artifacts proceeded, it turned out the skeleton was female and the cremated remains male. So now it is being re-evaluated as a Noble Princess and her hubby and the woman having the spear has everyone scratching their heads. The story first broke in Italy and then this lady picked it up (you can get to Italian article from there). Major news is also carrying but I wanted to see original sources.

The Prince is a Princess

So, how much of current historical knowledge exactly is wrong? How many 'must be male' assumptions were made?
Scores? Hundreds? Thousands? I don't know but would guess its more then scores and it will be interesting to see if a wave of corrections occurs and the resultant changes to the story revealed in our past.

Is this sati in reverse?

Sati is the Hindu practice of the widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre to be burned alive with him.

Or did the spouses just die at different times and get interred at those different times in the same tomb?

I am pretty sure it states they were interred at different times, but it didn't go into how they determined that. The woman was estimated to be around 35-40. The man wasn't totally cremated, just mostly so, and the ashes and bone remains were deposited in the tomb. If you read the Blog article which I have titled 'The Prince is a Princess' the author gives an interesting speculative theory on whom it might have been, for the Greeks left some writings about the Etruscans of this period. If the author is right, it sounds like one lady you wouldn't want to get angry. Among other things she is reported to have murdered her sister and run over her fathers corpse (I think) as a demonstartion with a chariot, in her power persuit.