Brinton.] 505 [Oct. 18, 



The Ethnologic Affinities of the Ancient Etruscans. 



By Daniel G. Brinton^ M.D. 



{Read before the American Philosophical Society, Oct. 18, 1889.') 



The problem of the ethnologic position of the ancient Etrus- 

 cans must be considered as yet unsolved. In spite of the pro- 

 longed labors of Corssen and Deecke, the theory that attached 

 the Etrusci to the Indo-European stock rests on such feeble 

 foundations that it is rejected by some of the ablest specialists 

 in this branch ; while the Turanian or Ugric origin, so Tehemently 

 advocated by Dr. Isaac Taylor, Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., and 

 others, is now dismissed as untenable by all the continental 

 Etruscologists. 



As for those other hypotheses which connect the inhabitants of 

 Etruria with the ancient Copts, with the Israelites, with the 

 Lydians, with the Armenians, with the Hittites, with the Celts, 

 with the Basques, and what not, they never had enough in their 

 favor seriously to attract the attention of scholars. 



One defect in these theories has been that they were all based 

 on one ethnic element only. Their authors seem unaware that in 

 the present condition of ethnologic science it is insufficient to 

 deduce conclusions from the language only, or the arts only, or 

 the legends, or the physical features only, of a nation ; all these 

 must be taken into account where the problem is complex, and 

 the verdict of each must be carefully weighed. 



My attention was especially called to this problem while spend- 

 ing some months in Italy early in the present 3'ear, where I had 

 the opportunit}^ of seeing the many museums of Etruscan anti- 

 quities which are so inteUigently preserved and displayed in that 

 country. 



I had reached the Italian shores by the most aiicient traveled 

 route from the coast of Africa, that, indeed, which was taken by 

 the pious ^neas himself, sailing from Carthage by way of the 

 Isle of Pantellaria to Marsala, the ancient Lilj^boeum. 



On a clear day one is rarely out of sight of land on this cross- 

 ing ; for no sooner do the bold headlands on either side of ancient 

 Carthage sink in the south-west than the volcanic cone of Pan- 

 tellaria rises in sight; and when that is lost to view the mount- 



