๐๐ซ๐-๐๐ง๐๐จ-๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ฒ:
An overview of the autochthonous people of the peninsula.
When discussing Italy's first non-Indo-European (IE) peoples, a clear classification is evident between the Sardinian tribes, the Tyrrhenians and the contentious Ligurian-Sicanians.
We will broach the topic following this distinction.
The ancient tribes of Sardinia are broadly split between two people groups; the Balari and Iolei, each of them divided into their own respective tribes.
These Nuragic peoples would confederate as the Sherden and terrorize the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age.
Toponymic evidence indicates a link between the Paleo-Sardinian language, Proto-Basque, and the Pre-IE Iberian language.
By this logic, the tribes that became the Nuragic civilization likely came to the island due to prehistoric migration from the Iberian peninsula.
According to Pausanias, the northern Balari derived their name from "Punic mercenaries, possibly Libyans or Iberians, who, disputing over spoils, rebelled and joined the natives. Their name in the Cyrnian (Corsican) language is Balari, which is the word for fugitives."
To the Greeks, the southern Iolei derive their name from Iolaos, nephew of Herakles. He supposedly founded a colony in Sardinia and gave his name to the locals.
Others suggest that Trojans settled there and intermingled with the natives, keeping the name of their city, Ilion.
The Tyrrhenians as we understand them today consist of the Etruscans, Rhaetians and Pre-Greek Lemnians
The latter are excluded from today's range of study, so I recommend @hermahai if you wish to know more about Aegean matters.
The Etruscans, who called themselves, Rasenna, were composed of a league of twelve cities (and subsequent colonies) and inhabited most of north-central Italy.
Their origins are a matter of extreme debate, but two positions stand out:
The autochthonous (indigenous) theory asserts the Etruscans stem from the original human settlers of the region, with all "foreign" cultural elements having been a result of later Greco-Phoenician contact.
This is supported by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Book I, sections 29-30).
The allochthonous theory claims an Anatolian provenance, namely due to Herodotus' attributing Lydian origins for the Etruscans.
This is however refuted by both the Lydian historian Xanthus and Dionysius (see the above quotation).
Turkish conspiracists are very fond of this one.
The Rhaetians were a group of tribes inhabiting the eastern Alps, famed for their savagery in combat and their resistance to conquest.
Their name is an exonym coming from the Celtic "Rait", meaning peaks or high-tops.
The Rhaetians would then be the "Mountain-Men".
According to Pliny, they were originally Etruscans who followed the prince Reto on his flight north from the Gauls when they invaded.
As the Etruscans were influenced by the Greeks, so were the Rhaetians influenced by the Celts, as seen with their use of Gallic names and arms.
Unlike the Sardinians and Tyrrhenians, the tentative term of "Ligurian-Sicanian" describes a series of peoples who ๐๐๐ฆ have had a linguistic correlation dating back to Italian prehistory.
There is still debate about whether or not these people were non-IE in the first place.
The Ligurians get their name from the Greek ฮฮฏฮณฯ ฯ (Ligys).
In archaic history, the Ligurians were thought to be the archetypical north-western barbarian, just as the Scythians were the north-east and the Aetheopians the south.
It was more of a blanket term than a specific name.
The debate about their IE origins stems from the lack of linguistic evidence and the influence of both IE (Celts) and non-IE (Iberians & Etruscans) peoples in their culture.
This is only galvanized by how old settlements in the region are, with copper mines dating to ~3000 PVC.
The matter is complicated by the Corsi people of Corsica.
According to Seneca, they were Ligurian exiles who mixed with the natives (presumably the Sardinians) and took the name of their Ligurian leader, Corsa.
Toponymic evidence suggests paleo-Corsican to be non-IE.
The Sicani are the oldest of the three Sicilian peoples, and were sandwiched in the central highlands between the Elymians and the Sicels, whom are thought to both be IE peoples (likely Italic, ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฆ Illyrian).
Like Ligurian, the absence of linguistic evidence is a cause of debate.
What we have of Sicanian toponyms ๐ ๐๐๐ similiar to other non-IE languages (reoccurring suffixes like: -๐๐๐, -๐๐๐, -๐๐๐, -๐ ๐ ๐ข๐ ,-๐ ๐ ๐), but the lack of material makes this not conclusive.
There are others whom we may theorize to be non-IE, the Pelasgians, Oenotrians and Ausones among them.
Most, however, are lost to myth or were supplanted by later peoples, erasing all trace of them.
This was but an introduction, I will go in depth on each people at a later date.
@cainntear We know very little about Northern Picene other than it is not related to the IE Italic Southern Picene.
My theory is that it is most likely a paelo-Italic language that was replaced with the expansion of the Osco-Umbrians into the peninsula.
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In Italian folklore, the Befana is an old witch thought to deliver gifts to children on the eve of the christian epiphany (commemoration of the baptism of yeshua and visit of the Magi).
Yet her origins likely lie in the indigenous beliefs of Italy, namely in the goddess Strenua;
Some argue that the name 'Befana' is an Italian mispronunciation of the Greek ๐๐๐๐โ๐๐๐๐๐.
Others more convincingly put forward that it is a derivative of the ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐๐, the specific offerings made to the goddess of the new year and purification Strenua.
To many, Rome is considered the paragon of ancient 'civilisation'.
While such laurels are well deserved, this romanticized view can eclipse a time in her history where she was far more 'primitive', nearly indistinguishable from those she would later call 'barbarians';
What is called the Villanovan age refers to Early Iron Age Italy, a period where the peoples of the peninsula were indistinct in regards to material culture (physical objects/architecture, opposed to non-material culture which consists of language and beliefs).
Venice is deservedly famed for its history vis-ร -vis the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, yet this focus often eclipses the regionโs earlier history, as is the case with todayโs object of study; the Veneti
The Veneti are unique in their being placed at convergence of 3 distinct cultures, the Celts, the Illyrians and the Etruscans.
This has however lead to several conflicting claims regarding their origins:
Prior to the 'colony rush' of the archaic period, Greek presence in the region was known through several foundation myths attributed to Achaean heroes returning from the sack of Ilium, namely Nestor, Epeios, Menestheus, Philoctetes and Diomedes.
Many are the legacies the Etruscans imparted unto Rome, most notable of which being their understanding of the Gods, the fashion of their veneration and the manner in which to ascertain their will;
The 'religion' of the Rasenna, that is the method of their worship of the Immortals, is based on a series of scriptures referred to as the ๐ธ๐ก๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ ๐ท๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ in latin.
This corpus of texts is based on the revelations of two prophets; Vegoia and Tages.
๐ ๐๐ก๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ :
Part 3: The afterlife
Continuing our overview of the foundational principles of the ancestral faith, today we cover the oft-discordant and misinterpreted concept of the afterlife.
Prior to the debilitating restrictiveness of semitic scripture, there were as many perceptions of the after-life as there were differing schools of philosophy.
There is however a generally agreed upon outline of the journey of the soul and the geography of the underworld;