Milena VARBANOVA
At the very beginning of the 90s of the 20th century, the Italian "Etruscologist" Bonfante raises (or rather resurrects) the thesis about the non-Indo-European origin of the Etruscans. It is based mainly on the names of the numbers in the Etruscan decimal number system (the prototype of the Roman one), which the "scientist" in question found no analogues in ancient Indo-European languages. This is an entirely political, anti-scientific theory that seeks to suggest that another, non-Indo-European ethnicity underlies Etruscan, Roman, and European civilization. Bonfante launches his groundless thesis in opposition to the opinions of most researchers of the Etruscan language and culture, among whom is our academic Vl. Georgiev.
I emphasize that Bonfante's theory is ridiculous, given that there is a complete disagreement in scientific circles about the Etruscan names of numbers. These names are actually not sufficiently identified, some of them appear only once in the surviving Etruscan epigraphic monuments. However, official Etruscanology has adopted the following terms for the names of the numbers from one to ten:
one - θu, θun
two - zal
three - ci, ki
four - sa, hut
five - makh
six - huθ or sa
seven - semφ, semp
eight - cezp, ketsp
nine - nuφ, nurφ
ten - sar, zar, halk
As can be seen from the scheme, even in the official representation of the "identified" names, there is no unanimity.
Defenders of the Indo-European origin of the Etruscans point out that the strange name of the number "two - zal" can be explained by the German zwei - two. In my opinion, they cite an unfortunate example that undermines rather than supports their fair point - the initial z sound in the word zwei is a matter of later pronunciation, and the ancient name for the number "two" remains dwei - two, two.
I believe that scholars have misunderstood the Etruscan names of the numbers "one" and "two" - they just swapped their places. I think so because θu - tu, du - is much more likely to be "two", and zal ( "two", according to previous readings), actually means "one" - "whole" - that is, "one whole". Zal - "whole" is a common Etruscan and Bulgarian word. I am sure that my idea is valid because the Etruscan name for the number "ten" is "zar" - is sonically very close to zal, inasmuch as the first digit in the number ten is one. The very presence of the concept zar in the decimal number system of the Etruscans arouses extreme interest. "Ten" is "king" of the prime numbers, but this gives reason to think that the word "king" in the Etruscan language in ancient times it had the same meaning as in Bulgarian - supreme ruler, although the title of the Etruscan kings-priests, known to historical science, is lucumon (which in turn refers us to the wolf as a supreme religious symbol).
Zal - "one" in the Etruscan language also reminds me of the meaning of the old Bulgarian name Tsalo - whole.
The Etruscan number "three" in the "official scheme" of prime numbers revealed by Etruscanology is ci, ki. In the Persian language "three" sounds like si, su, in Georgian like sami, and in Kurdish like se with a circumflex on "e". The Kurdish language is a pure Indo-European Anatolian language and can be an invaluable aid in reading Etruscan inscriptions. The names of prime numbers in Kurdish are very close to their counterparts in Sanskrit and Persian.
The Etruscan names of the numbers from "four" to "six" are quite uncertain, so I will not dwell on them, but those of the "seven" to "nine" have their obvious counterparts in Persian and Kurdish as well as Latin.
So much for the non-Indo-European origin of the names of the numbers in Etruria.
In my opinion, the name of the supreme god in the Etruscan pantheon - Tinia - does not come from "day", as parroting old and worn-out assumptions " some false historians and "people's awakeners", and from the "titan", "son", "carmen" from Earth - tyn. I associate the name of the god Voltumna with "wolf" and even with "wolf cave", "wolf lair". I discovered that the name of the God - blacksmith Setlans does not mean Svetlan (what a funny pun, whoever it is!), but is an Etruscan replica of the name Hephaestus, as Hephaestus is not a Greek, but a Pelasgian word and probably means "blacksmith" or "metal". In Kurdish "iron" is hesin.
Language - the word - is the most conservative, the most unsustainable part of the culture and being of a people. Words keep in their crystal grid the entire history of a given ethnic group, even when its past is hidden and obliterated. When does language change so that we have some dual - Indo-European and non-Indo-European - characteristic of a particular language? Only when the people in question have suffered a colossal blow to their identity - thousands of years of slavery, as happened, for example, in Syria. But despite centuries of Arabization, the Aramaic language in this ancient country is still preserved and it indicates who is the original ethnic group. And in Lydia and in Etruria - before the melting of the Etruscan people by the Romans - there are no recorded data on the mass presence of a foreign non-Indo-European infiltrate. Nor has any phantasmagoric non-Indo-European underpinning been established in the lands of Etruria prior to the arrival of the Lydian Racens.
All the monuments of the Etruscan material and spiritual culture speak of belonging not only to the Indo-European gene, but also specifically to the Thracian and Bulgarian national blocks.
I will briefly add a few more parallels unknown to the Bulgarian public, in which I find an ancient Thracian imprint.
First of all I will explain the meaning of the names of three important Etruscan cities (different from those I have already deciphered) - Vulci, Cortona and Clusia. Vulci (in Italian, in Latin Vulci) in today's region of Lazio, province of Viterbo, was a large city of exceptional importance in Etruria, part of the Etruscan dodecapoli - a union of the 12 most important Etruscan cities. Its Etruscan name is Velch or Velx - taking into account the fact that in Etruscan inscriptions some vowels are not written. In my opinion, Velch ( Velx ) means Wolf, Wolves, Wolves, as may easily be supposed from the Latin and from its modern Italian name. Today's Cortona, also an important Etruscan lucumonia, is an extraordinarily beautiful city in Tuscany, in the province of Arezzo. It is the seat of the "Etruscan Academy" and the Etruscan Museum to it, which are worth talking about in another article. We owe the preservation of unique Etruscan relics such as the famous bronze lampadarium from Cortona to the wise creators and maintainers of the Academy and the Museum.
I will point out that while we simple and disinterestedly drive our Thracian treasures around the world and leave them in foreign halls for an enormous period of time - often more than a year - for which foreigners could easily work out and to return cheap duplicates to us, the Etruscan Academy of Cortona is proud that the lampadari, which is at once a utilitarian object, a relic of high Etruscan art and an epigraphic monument, has left the museum only twice - in 1930 and 2022, to participate exhibitions in Rome and Milan respectively. The Latin name of Cortona is Korthun and the Latin is Korito. I think that the name of the Etruscan settlement comes from the "trough", "hollow", taking into account the possible omission of the vowel "i". This is also the meaning of the Pelasgian name of the city of Corinth, this city having a strong presence in Etruscan history. Virgil calls Cortona - "mother of Troy and grandmother of Rome". Clusium (lat.) - the modern Tuscan city of Chiusi, in the province of Siena, had the Etruscan name Clevsin. Both its Etruscan, Latin and Italian names derive from the word "key" - probably "cluz" in Pelasgian - locked, closed.
The Etruscan term Larth is also of interest, from which Larthia - a common name for the nobility in Etruria - was born. From these concepts, in my opinion, derive the titles Lord and Leard, respectively in Britain and Scotland, which confirms the ancient information about the Thracian origin of the Britons - from refugees from the defeated Troy.
I see an amazing parallel between some characters from Etruscan mythology and one of the brightest Bulgarian spring holidays, which later became the Christian celebration of Lazarus Day, the Saturday before Palm Sunday. Girls - children and peasants - lazarkas, dressed in their most colorful costumes, adorned with flowers, go from door to door, sing and send wishes for happiness and birth to their fellow villagers, who thank them with small gifts. But why was the Gospel character Lazarus so popular among our people? It is clear that this holiday inherited some pagan belief. And I found out what it is. The Etruscans worshiped the female deities "lazi", often appearing in the form of beautiful girls. I claim with almost complete certainty that the Christian Lazarus Day is a response from the ancient celebration of the "creeps" and the chant "Lazare, Lazare" once sounded like "Lazo le, Lazo le". In this way, the text of the old song, which came from the ancestors, which my mother sang with her warm voice on Lazarov Day, becomes completely understandable:
"The old boy crowed the horse,
Lazarus, Lazarus,
on the green meadows,
Lazarus, Lazarus!
So he went to the fountain,
Lazarus, Lazarus,
there he found three maidens,
Lazarus, Lazarus!
Three girls - one person,
Lazarus, Lazarus!
Changed in one fell swoop,
Lazarus, Lazarus!
They gave him three feathers,
Lazarus, Lazarus!
Dor three peacock feathers,
Lazarus, Lazarus!"
It is clear that the appearance of the three divine maidens, with the same facial features and with the same clothes, donating magical objects - peacock feathers, has nothing to do with the buried and resurrected Lazarus. These are the "creeps".