THE ETRUSCANS - PART 1: ETRURIA, THE LAND OF WINE

Little by little, vine-growing spreaded over Sicily, Apulia, Campania, Tuscany, Latium, up to reaching ancient Rezia, that vast North-Eastern Italian area embracing Trentino, Valtellina and Friuli. According to scientists, some grape seeds found in Chianti tombs (Tuscany) would testify the fact that the Etruscans brought this plant from Oriental regions and then let it acclimate in Italy; while according to most recent researches, it seems that vine had been existing in Tuscany already before the appearance of man on earth. When they found it, the Etruscans -whose origins still today remain obscure, and who first colonized inland Tuscany and were probably the first inhabitants of the Chianti region- would "tame" it and transform it into a domestic plant. So, according to this version of the story, Phoenician navigators were not the ones who brought the plant with them to Tuscany, as it was common knowledge, since it was already there: proof of it would be some travertine finds which appeared in San Vivaldo area, on which scientists found evident fossil marks of "vitis vinifera", already growing over there. The Etruscans drank wine (which Homer called "honey of the heart") from the "patera", an ovoidal two-handle cup, which was in use already 7 centuries before Christ.

Anyway, in the Etruscan culture (as it was for most of the ancient populations) the cult of wine melted with rites dedicated to spirituality and also day-to-day life. With wine, people used to honour the dead, together with dances and flute music. Especially among the aristocrats, religious celebrations in honour of "Fufluns" (Bacchus), the god of wine, were very common. During these secret rites -only initiates could attend them, due to the state of intoxication that wine would cause- men were meant to reach the "possession" of the god on this earthly world, in order to guarantee themselves in advance a happy afterlife. Some frescos found inside Etruscan tombs depict couples while toasting, and on a bucchero vase found in Chiusi you can admire a woman giving two men a cup full of wine while they play dice sitting at a table. As a matter of fact, contrary to what happened among the Romans where it was considered dissolute and the proof of poor morality, Etruscan women were free to do as they pleased: they could drink wine and also participate in banquets, leaning on "klinai" (kind of sofas) by their men.

Wine was also connected to episodes of game and amusement. On frescos found in Tarquinia tombs, you can see guests at the end of a banquet leaning on klinai and throwing in turn wine from a cup at a little plate positioned on top of an almost 2-meter-high pole. Maybe the purpose of the game was to obtain sounds which then the guests would imitate. This game -called "kottaboi"- required high interpretation ability and at the end the winner received a prize.