1889.] OUy [Brinton. 



two hundred and ninety years before the founding of Rome, 

 while other writers are inclined to put it earlier by five hundred 

 years. Between a thousand and twelve hundred years before the 

 Christian era is probably as near as we can now fix it. 



Now that the extensive excavations in Etruscan sites enable us 

 to have a survey of the whole field of their operations, it is con- 

 ceded more and more that the line of their migration was from 

 south to north, from cisapennine to transapennine localities. 

 Their settlements at Marzabotto, Bologna and beyond were visi- 

 bly later and of briefer duration than in Etruria proper.* The 

 Etruscan alphabet of North Italy also reveals plain marks of 

 degeneration, and the forms of tiie inscriptions are less archaic.f 



§ 2. Physical Traits of the Etruscans. 



We do not have to depend upon guess-work for a knowledge of 

 the physical features of the Etruscans ; we have a vast realm of 

 mimetic art preserved, much of it unquestionably faithful to tlie 

 originals, and in spite of the frequent custom of incineration, 

 hundreds of genuine Etruscan skeletons have -come down to us 

 in a good state of preservation. 



It surprises me that, in spite of this, and although the anthro- 

 pometric results I am about to quote have been published for 

 years, Dr. Deecke, in his recent edition of Miiller's Eirusker, 

 takes no note of them, but repeats the old statement that this 

 people was short in stature, lieavy-set, obese and dark.| Of 

 course Dr. Isaac Taylor ,§ in order to give countenance to his 

 theory that the Etruscans were Turanians, is glad to adopt this 

 opinion. He would not have liked to take cognizance of the 

 modern anthropologists who have studied the subject, for nothing 

 more fatal to his theory can be imagined than their results. 



The old notion seems to have arisen from expressions in two 

 late Roman poets, Yirgil and Catullus, who speak of the Etrus- 

 cans as fat ; pinguis Etruscus and obesus Etruscus are their 



*Speaking of Marzabotto, the " Etruscan Pompeii," Prof. Eduard Meyer .say.s in a re- 

 cent article: "Sie zeigt, dass die Nachricht der Alten richtig ist, welche die Etrusker 

 von Silden her ins Po-Land vordringen lassen." Correi^pondniz-Blatt der deutschen Oesetl. 

 fur Anthrop.. Ethnol. und Urgeschiclite, Januar, 1889. He is fully supported by Prof. Sergi 

 and most of the Italian archaeologists who have studied the remains on the spot. 



tMUller, Die Etrusker, Bd. ii, s. 529. 



I Die Etrusker, Bd. i, s. 64, note. 



§ In his work entitled Etruscan Researches. 



