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Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
Sun Mar 6, 2016, 03:21 AM Mar 2016

Tomb of 2500yr old French Celtic Prince found with many Treasures

The tomb of an Iron Age Celtic prince has been unearthed in a small French town.
The 'exceptional' grave, crammed with Greek and possibly Etruscan artefacts, was discovered in a business zone on the outskirts of Lavau in France's Champagne region.
The prince is buried with his chariot at the centre of a huge mound, 130 feet (40 metres) across, which has been dated to the 5th Century BC.


The most exciting find, he said, was a large bronze-decorated cauldron that was used to store watered-down wine. It appears to have been made by Etruscan craftsmen from an area that is today in Italy.
The cauldron has four circular handles decorated with bronze heads that depict the Greek god Acheloos.
The river deity is shown with horns, a beard, the ears of a bull and a triple mustache.





The pieces 'are evidence of the exchanges that happened between the Mediterranean and the Celts,' said Garcia.
Inrap said burial chamber is one of the largest recorded for this period.
The end of the sixth and beginning of the fifth centuries BC were characterised by the rise of Etruscan and Greek city states like Marseilles in southern France.
Mediterranean merchants, seeking slaves, metals and other precious goods, opened trading channels with continental Celts.

The Celts gained valuable objects of Greek and Etruscan origin as a result of the trade. Many have been found in other mounds in Heuneburg and Hochdorf in Germany.

Researchers say excavation at the site will be complete at the end of this month.




more photos and maps


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2983404/Massive-tomb-Celtic-prince-unearthed-France-Exceptional-2-500-year-old-burial-chamber-reveals-stunning-treasures.html#ixzz426XZH700

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Tomb of 2500yr old French Celtic Prince found with many Treasures (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Mar 2016 OP
This is really cool Lunabell Mar 2016 #1
Man I love archaeology... Docreed2003 Mar 2016 #2
Fantastic flamingdem Mar 2016 #3
Etruscan word still in use today cer7711 Mar 2016 #4
Etruscan civilization came from Turkey Ichingcarpenter Mar 2016 #5
Not so fast: muriel_volestrangler Mar 2016 #9
Its still under debate Ichingcarpenter Mar 2016 #10
Thank you for the post. I have always had a fascination Bohunk68 Mar 2016 #6
The article mentions the burial mount in Hochdorf, Germany lebkuchen Mar 2016 #7
Cool! trusty elf Mar 2016 #8

cer7711

(502 posts)
4. Etruscan word still in use today
Sun Mar 6, 2016, 05:21 AM
Mar 2016

Tavern.

Amazing, isn't it? The entire culture gone and that word still with us...

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
5. Etruscan civilization came from Turkey
Sun Mar 6, 2016, 05:39 AM
Mar 2016

Which is also interesting


They gave us the word "person" and invented a symbol of iron rule later adopted by the fascists. Some even argue it was they who really moulded Roman civilisation.

Their language, which has never properly been deciphered, was unlike any other in classical Italy. Their origins have been hotly debated by scholars for centuries.

DNA studies have proven now where they came from.

snip


The latest findings confirm what was said about the matter almost 2,500 years ago, by the Greek historian Herodotus. The first traces of Etruscan civilisation in Italy date from about 1200 BC.

About seven and a half centuries later, Herodotus wrote that after the Lydians had undergone a period of severe deprivation in western Anatolia, "their king divided the people into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who departed".

snip


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/18/italy.johnhooper


muriel_volestrangler

(101,159 posts)
9. Not so fast:
Sun Mar 6, 2016, 02:11 PM
Mar 2016

A later study, looking at ancient Etruscan burials, not modern inhabitants:

The Etruscan culture is documented in Etruria, Central Italy, from the 8th to the 1st century BC. For more than 2,000 years there has been disagreement on the Etruscans’ biological origins, whether local or in Anatolia. Genetic affinities with both Tuscan and Anatolian populations have been reported, but so far all attempts have failed to fit the Etruscans’ and modern populations in the same genealogy. We extracted and typed the hypervariable region of mitochondrial DNA of 14 individuals buried in two Etruscan necropoleis, analyzing them along with other Etruscan and Medieval samples, and 4,910 contemporary individuals from the Mediterranean basin. Comparing ancient (30 Etruscans, 27 Medieval individuals) and modern DNA sequences (370 Tuscans), with the results of millions of computer simulations, we show that the Etruscans can be considered ancestral, with a high degree of confidence, to the current inhabitants of Casentino and Volterra, but not to the general contemporary population of the former Etruscan homeland. By further considering two Anatolian samples (35 and 123 individuals) we could estimate that the genetic links between Tuscany and Anatolia date back to at least 5,000 years ago, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan culture developed locally, and not as an immediate consequence of immigration from the Eastern Mediterranean shores.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055519

Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
10. Its still under debate
Mon Mar 7, 2016, 07:30 AM
Mar 2016

In 1885 a stele carrying an inscription in a pre-Greek language was found on the island of Lemnos, and dated to about the 6th century BC. Philologists agree that this has many similarities with the Etruscan language both in its form and structure and its vocabulary

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070616191637.htm

A Genome-Wide Study of Modern-Day Tuscans: Revisiting Herodotus's Theory on the Origin of the Etruscans

Published: September 17, 2014


Background

The origin of the Etruscan civilization (Etruria, Central Italy) is a long-standing subject of debate among scholars from different disciplines. The bulk of the information has been reconstructed from ancient texts and archaeological findings and, in the last few years, through the analysis of uniparental genetic markers.

Methods

By meta-analyzing genome-wide data from The 1000 Genomes Project and the literature, we were able to compare the genomic patterns (>540,000 SNPs) of present day Tuscans (N = 98) with other population groups from the main hypothetical source populations, namely, Europe and the Middle East.

Results

Admixture analysis indicates the presence of 25–34% of Middle Eastern component in modern Tuscans. Different analyses have been carried out using identity-by-state (IBS) values and genetic distances point to Eastern Anatolia/Southern Caucasus as the most likely geographic origin of the main Middle Eastern genetic component observed in the genome of modern Tuscans.

Conclusions

The data indicate that the admixture event between local Tuscans and Middle Easterners could have occurred in Central Italy about 2,600–3,100 years ago (y.a.). On the whole, the results validate the theory of the ancient historian Herodotus on the origin of Etruscans.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0105920#pone-0105920-g001

MY Article is newer than yours thus more current.

but like I said under debate.

Bohunk68

(1,364 posts)
6. Thank you for the post. I have always had a fascination
Sun Mar 6, 2016, 06:03 AM
Mar 2016

for the Etruscans, ever since as a young teenager reading Mika Waltari's book "The Etruscan." Looking at my own words, I wonder if the word "fascination" is related to fasces. Just checked my old dictionary and indeed it could be inasmuch as one of the meanings is "captivate" and the second meaning is "to hold spellbound as by terror or awe." Thanks again, Ichingcarpenter.

trusty elf

(7,350 posts)
8. Cool!
Sun Mar 6, 2016, 08:11 AM
Mar 2016

That's exciting. There was another major Celtic find in that area in the 50's, south of Troyes, just down the road from where my brother lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vix_Grave

[img][/img]

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