phyllostachys 49: Minute Tech 34 show notes

34 - Who were the Etruscans?

Good morning, this is the Minute Tech podcast -

coming to you for Monday, November 19th, 2007

We take a few minutes to talk about technology
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This is Alex Landefeld with minute tech 34 - Who were the Etruscans?

Minute Tech podcast is brought to you in part by:

Larry Tolbert's Sunday Morning Wu Style Taiji - 9:30 every Sunday morning at the Dunamis Baptist Church, in Wilkinsburg, PA.
"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji" - e-mail leonardtolbert-[at]-hotmail-[dot]-com for more info.

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Tech items:

googles news site brings us this from Time's web presence - a relatively new variant of the common cold, an adenovirus called AD14, seems to be making the rounds. This variant was originally detected back in 1955, but has been making its way through small human populations in the US over the past 18 months, sickening 140 but only killing about 10.

Also, Pakistan courts have ratified Musharraf's re-election...after he cleared the courts of those he feared would not ratify...and Bloomberg reports that Japan's whaling fleet is out to kill some 1000 whales in an apparently scientific expedition to analyze the arctic whale population. I hope they don't try to analyze other populations...


Tech Question:

Who were the Etruscans? The people whom modern English names the Etruscans, were called the Turraynioi in Attic Greek - the dialect of Greek used by those we know of as the "ancient Greeks", and the Rasenna or Rasna by the people themselves, lived in Northwestern Italy from about 800 BC until their assimilation into the Roman culture commencing with the sack of the Etruscan city of Veii in 396 BC. The Etruscans were predated in that region by an Iron Age culture known as Villanovan - so named for a 19th century excavation near the village of Villanova.

It seems from various accounts referenced on wikipedia's Etruscan article that the Etruscans were ancient - moreso that Romans or the classical Greeks - inhabitants of north-central italy who had many sea-faring roots, perhaps coming originally from as far as Troy, in Asia Minor - the name Tursci in the Etruscan language has the meaning of "tower builders"...and the Trojans were known for this also.

As scant written historican items remain from the Etruscans, most of what we know about them survive through Roman and Greek authors whose writing survive. What the Etruscans seem to have given the modern world may have been the founding of Rome and culture in that section of Italy, as well as a mixture of trade and cultures between Spain and other western Mediterranean cultures and the eastern Mediterranean cultures, namely Greece. The Etruscans tended to build high walled cities up on hilltops...and indeed Rome is known for its seven hills. And, the Etruscans liked arches:

"In addition to their walls, the Etruscans insisted on sewage and drainage systems, which are extensive in all Etruscan cities. The cloaca maxima, “great sewer”, at Rome is Etruscan. The initial Roman roads, dikes, diversion channels and drainage ditches were Etruscan. More importantly, the Etruscans brought the arch to Rome, both barreled arches and corbelled arches, which can be seen in gates, bridges, depictions of temple fronts, and vaulted passages."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_architecture

Most of all, the Etruscans brought mystery to this region of antiquity, and perhaps influenced later peoples through their lack of written histories. Although we know that conquerors write the histories, and many times destroy the written works of predecessor cultures, it seems unusual that we only really know the Etruscans through references by Greek and Roman historians, and by the art within their elaborate well-constructed tombs.


podcasting/blogging tidbit:

Check out http://nemu-nemu.com, the site of some very interesting web cartoons. They've recent completed the artwork on cartoon #202 (a la twitter) - stay tuned. Also, about their blog: anyone who can geek out over some specialized drawing erasers may be producing some interesting material. Just a circumstantial observation on my part.

Books are most incredible things, probably only to be surpassed at some point by computers...but not yet. Please make sure you take care of books, rescue books, and frown upon people who used them for kindling. Als

"Each famous author of antiquity whom I recover places a new offence and another cause of dishonor to the charge of earlier generations, who, not satisfied with their own disgraceful barrenness, permitted the fruit of other minds, and the writings that their ancestors had produced by toil and application, to perish through insufferable neglect. Although they had nothing of their own to hand down to those who were to come after, they robbed posterity of its ancestral heritage."
Petrarch


Thats all for today on Minute Tech podcast.
you can reach me at minutetech@gmail.com -
and my blog is at minutetech.blogspot.com

"Move with the motion of the planet - move with Taiji"

- Adenovirus AD14 making the rounds;
- Who were the Etruscans?
- Nemu-Nemu.com & Petrarch.

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