An Etruscan Inscription Rediscovered

Abstract

Abstract In 1886, a terracotta tile inscribed with an Etruscan inscription was recovered from Tomb 11 in the first cemetery of S. Antonio, located in the environs of Corchiano, an important settlement in the Ager Faliscus. Soon after the tile’s discovery, it disappeared from the scholarly record and was assumed to have been lost. A collector for the Field Museum purchased the tile and other artifacts from an antiquities dealer in Rome and shipped them to the Museum. Recently, a photograph of the tile appeared on the Field Museum’s Web site. The rediscovery of the inscribed tile in the Museum’s archives permits us to confirm the reading of the inscription and to document its distinctive paleographic features. In this paper, I discuss the inscribed tile, its background, and the Etruscan inscription.