The Tabula Cortonensis (sometimes also Cortona Tablet) is a 2200-year-old, inscribed bronze tablet in the Etruscan language, discovered in Cortona, Italy. It may record for posterity the details of an ancient legal transaction which took place in the ancient Tuscan city of Cortona, known to the Etruscans as Curtun. Its 40-line, 200-word, two-sided inscription is the third longest inscription found in the Etruscan language, after the Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis and the Tabula Capuana, and the longest discovered in the 20th century.
Provenance The tablet was brought to the police in October 1992 by someone who claimed to have found it at a construction site in September 1992. When provided to the police, the tablet had been broken into seven fragments, with the original right bottom corner missing. Investigators attempted to find the missing portion and confirm the existence of the site. It was subsequently recognized that the tablet was broken in antiquity, so the missing portion may have been separated centuries ago. It was also determined that the "discoverer" of the tablet had lied about where he found it, and he was put on trial for mishandling of artifacts, but was found innocent. Local researchers believe that the tablet had actually been found on a different construction site and was deliberately concealed so that construction could be completed on time without being delayed by archaeological work. The real origin of the tablet is unknown to this day.La Tavola di Cortona (Tabula Cortonensis)
Interpretation The tablet is thought by some scholars, notably Larissa Bonfante and Nancy de Grummond, to be a notarized record of the division of an inheritance or sale of real estate. Reference is made on the tablet to a vineyard (cf. lines 1 and 2: vinac), cultivated land (line 2: restm-c), and an estate located in the territory of Lake Trasimeno (cf. lines 35 and 36: celti nɜitisś tarsminaśś). The lake lies east of Cortona in modern-day Western Umbria.
The legal document centered around the aristocratic Cusu family and Petru Scevas and his wife. Two groups of witnesses or listeners helped to certify the document, along with Larth Cucrina Lausisa, zilath mechl rasnal (‘a chief magistrate of the territory of Cortona’). The document ends officially dating itself according to the two magistrates in office that year.Hillary Becker "Evidence for Etruscan Archives: Tracking the epigraphic habit in tombs, the sacred sphere, and at home" in Etruscan Literacyin its Social Context ed. Ruth Whitehouse, Accordia Research Institute, London, 2020. p. 172
Wallace points out that "we know that, in third- and second-century Tuscany, redistribution of land took place in which large plots were parceled up into smaller chunks to be worked by individual families. It is possible, then, that [the Tabula Cortonensis] may well be concerned with just such an allocation of land..."Wallace, R. (2000) Review of L. Agostiniani-F. Nicosia, Tabula Cortonensis, in Etruscan Studies VII, pp. 5-10. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/etruscan_studies/vol7/iss1/1
Additionally, several words (pav, clθii, zilci, atina, larz) that appear on the tablet have been found inscribed on Etruscan plates, drinking cups, or wine jugs or jars.
Physical description The tablet measures just over 8 inches wide by about 11 inches long, and is about between and thick.Wallace, R. (2000) Review of L. Agostiniani-F. Nicosia, Tabula Cortonensis, in Etruscan Studies VII, pp. 5-10.
When discovered, the tablet had been broken into multiple pieces, of which only seven have been found. The missing portion is believed by Etruscanists to contain only names and not details of the estate.
Text The text contains thirty-four known Etruscan words and an equal number of previously unattested Etruscan words. Moreover, a new alphabetic sign Ǝ (a reversed epsilon) is present on the tablet. This implies that, at least in the Etruscan dialect spoken in Cortona where this letter exclusively appears, the letter Ǝ marks a different sound from that of the letter E. The inscription is datable to the late 3rd to early 2nd century bce, so near 200.Hillary Becker "Evidence for Etruscan Archives: Tracking the epigraphic habit in tombs, the sacred sphere, and at home" in Etruscan Literacyin its Social Context ed. Ruth Whitehouse, Accordia Research Institute, London, 2020. p. 272
Contents
The following transcribes the special reversed epsilon as ɜ. There are clear zigzag marks in the text (marked here by \\) that presumably end sentences or sections, and each such section will be treated separately here:
On the front
First section
01: et . pɜtruiś . scɜvɜś . ɜliuntś . v 02: inac . restmc . cenu . tɜnθur . śar . cus 03: uθuraś . larisalisvla . pesc . spante . tɜnθur . 04: sa . śran . śarc . clθii . tɜrsna . θui . spanθi . ml 05: ɜśieθic . raśna s IIIIC inni . pes . pɜtruś . pav 06: ac . traulac . tiur . tɜn[θ]urs . tɜnθa[ś] . za cina t pr 07: iniserac . zal \\
Notes: The forms pɜtruiś (1)/pɜtruś (5) (and other forms throughout the text) are probably forms of a name, compare Latin Petronius. As noted above, vina-c and restm-c(2) probably indicate "vineyard" and "cultivated land" (or "garden"?) respectively, the final -c meaning "and."
If ɜliuntś(1) can be connected to Etr. eleivana "of oil" from the Greek *elaiwa > élaion "(olive) oil", we may be dealing with an olive orchard, a vineyard and a cultivated field or garden presumably belonging to Petronius Scaevus (compare Gaius Mucius Scaevola "lefty," legendary Roman hero who held his right hand over his captors' fire until it was burnt off, to show how much he loved Rome). Rex Wallace considers ɜliuntś to be a title of pɜtruiś . scɜvɜś, since all three agree in case marking.Rex E. Wallace "Language, Alphabet, and Linguistic Affiliation" in A Companion To The Etruscans editors S. Bell and A. A. Carpino, Wiley Blackwell, 2016, pp. 203 - 224; p. 221
Facchetti (2000) (and Wylin) has proposed that cenu is a passive verb, also found in the Cippus Perusinus, that means "is obtained"; though Maggiani (2002) takes it to mean "is ceded."The first chapter of the Cortona inscription, Koen Wylin in Etruscan News 5 (2006), pp. 6‑7. https://www.umass.edu/etruscannews/articles/WylinENews5.pdfFacchetti, Giulio M. 2000. Frammenti di diritto privato etrusco. Firenze: Leo S. Olschki.Maggiani, Adriano. 2002. Riflessioni sulla Tavola di Cortona. La Tabula Cortonensis e il suo contesto storico‑archaeologico. Atti dell’Incontro di studio, 22 giugno 2001, a cura di Maristella Pandolfini e Adriano Maggiani, pp. 65‑75. Roma.
The word spante(3) elsewhere seems to refer to a kind of bowl or plate (cf ETP 289) (versus sparza (18, 36) “tablet.”) But it is possible that here it and spanθi (4) are locatives of span "plain."Wallace, Rex E. (2000) "Tabula Cortonensis," Etruscan Studies: Vol. 7, Article 1.
śar(-c) (2,4) is "ten" and zal is "two" (7), and the "Roman" numeral 'IIIIC'(5) had been sometimes interpreted as "400," though Etruscans generally had a different sign for "100" than C, at least early on. More recent analyses read it as SIIIIC (re-segmenting the s from raśna-s) as "14.5."The first chapter of the Cortona inscription, Koen Wylin in Etruscan News 5 (2006), pp. 6‑7.
Notable is raśna(s) (5) (and in line 24 raśna-l), perhaps a form of the endonym for the Etruscan people (but also claimed to be just the generic term for "people, public"), here perhaps indicating that Etruscan measurements are being used (see Wylin's translation below). cusuθuraś and larisalisvla (3), seen in various forms throughout the text and beyond, also seem to be names.
In lines 5-6, the coordinated elements pava-c traula-c seem to show up in slightly altered form in the Liber Linteus (4.21-22) eisna . pevach . vinum . trau . pruchś, which van der Meer translates "a ritual (eis-na) young? (peva-ch) (> a new(?) ritual): wine, a pouring (trau) from the (wine-)jug (pruch-ś)," pointing out that peva/pava probably means "boy, youth", but also admitting that trau may be an agent noun, like zichu "writer."L. B. van der Meer. Liber linteus zagrabiensis. The Linen Book of Zagreb. A Comment on the Longest Etruscan Text. Louvain/Dudley, MA 2007 pp. 91-92 C. De Simone translates traula- here as "he who libates," and he connects zacinat with the functions of a priest.C. De Simone. La Tabula Cortonensis: tra linguistica e storia, Annali della Scuola Sup. Norm. di Pisa. Classe di littere e filosovia, S. IV, III, 1, 1998. pp. 29, 110
WylinWylin, "The first chapter of the Cortona inscription." In Etruscan News 2006 (Winter). pp. 6-7. proposes a translation of the whole section, building on Facchetti and Maggiani (loc. cit.): (1) So by Petru Scevas, the êliun (olive grove? or title of Petru?), (2) a vineyard and a restm (garden?) of 10 tenthur are obtained from the Cushu, (3) and (also) a farm (pes-c) in the plain (span-te), of 4 tenthur and (4) 10 śran [is obtained] from these same [folks]; the entire property (tɜrsna) here (θui), in the plain and in the mlesia (5) (costs) 14.5 rasna. With respect to the farm for Petru, (6,7) the zacinat prinisherac has a month (tiur) to size up the two measures, [these are] the pava and the traula."
("fundus" in the original was replaced by the English "farm" here.)
In this analysis, a tenthur is a unit of land measure that is more than ten times larger than a śran; perhaps comparable to the Latin jugerum (.623 acre = 27,200 sq.ft.) versus an actus simplex. Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, Anon. (trans.) (1745) L. Junius Moderatus Columella of Husbandry, in Twelve Books: and his book, concerning Trees. Translated into English, with illustrations from Pliny, Cato, Varro, Palladius and other ancient and modern authors London: A. Millar. pp xiv, 600. Pages 208–216Wallace, Rex E. (2000) "Tabula Cortonensis," Etruscan Studies: Vol. 7, Article 1. p.8 In line 4, tɜrsna, translated here "property", may be related in some way to Latin terra < *tersa Walter William Skeat. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 1882. Oxford U.P. p. 632 Also in line 4, mlesia contrasts with span- "plane" so must mean "surrounding hills," a conclusion supported by the fact that this seems to be where the orchard and (perhaps) the vineyards were.The first chapter of the Cortona inscription, Koen Wylin in Etruscan News 5 (2006), p. 7.
More recently, van der Meer, following Maggiani's 2002 analysis,Maggiani, A. (2002) “Introduzione ai lavori” and “Riflessioni sulla Tavola di Cortona” in Pandolfini Atti dell'Incontro di studio, op. cit., pp. 11–15, 65–75 has reversed the transaction so that the land is being ceded by Petru to the Cusu family:
Petru Scevas the olive merchant hereby has ceded 10 tenthur (probably amounting to about 2.5 hectares) of both vineyard and garden to the Cusu (family), as well as 410 tenthur of farmland in the valley. (Outside) of these (lands) which (have just been specified) in this (agreement), the lands in the plain and on the hill (shall be) public (lands), (being worth) 204.5 units of silver.
As to the farmland of Petru, let both the haruspex and the libation pourer be present in the (appropriate) month (to perform their rites), and let the measurer and the two bearers of oak poles (?prinisera) measure the acreage.Van der Meer, L. B. (2021) "The Tabula Cortonensis and Land Transactions" in Studii Etrusci pp. 157-181
Second section
07 (continued) cś . ɜsiś vere cusuθurśum . 08: pes . pɜtruśta . scɜv[aś] \\
Notes: The first part is obscure, while the rest repeats names treated above. pes (8) also repeats pes(c) (3,5) from the first section. If Wylin's conclusion is correct that pes = "farm, fundus ", perhaps then it is related to Umbrian peř-ae "(on the) ground"? Bronze tables of Iguvium by Poultney, James Wilson. 1959. p. 316 https://archive.org/details/bronzetablesofig00poul/page/316/mode/2up