investigator in Italy have spent the last several month translating anancient textbook recovered from a 2,500 - year - quondam Etruscan tabernacle , and believe they may have slip up upon the name of a previously unheard of goddess . The dedication makes reference to a character named Uni , who the archaeologists say could have been the patroness of a fertility cult .
The text is among the largest ever divulge in the Etruscan language , and was inscribed into a 225 - kilo ( 500 pounds ) Harlan F. Stone slab – known as a stele – buried beneath a temple at the Poggio Colla sanctuary , once a keyEtruscansettlement .
reside much of northerly Italy from 400 to 800 BCE , the Etruscans are attributed with shew many of the major cities that afterward become prominent center field of action during the Roman Empire . However , because very few lesson of Etruscan writing have been recuperate , slight is known about their way of life or belief system of rules .
As such , lead researcher Gregory Warren hasdescribedthe stela as “ one of the most crucial Etruscan discoveries of the last few decade , ” since it provide some cardinal insights into the ancient civilization ’s language and practices .
The stela contain one of the largest Etruscan textual matter ever discovered . Mugello Valley Project
Other artifacts unearthed at Poggio Colla include a ceramic - free-base line drawing of a nascence aspect , leading scientist to speculate that the temple may have had connexion to a rankness cultus . Warren and his colleagues mistrust that the I. F. Stone slab may contain the name of the divinity to whom the temple was dedicated , and therefore consider that Uni may have been the web site ’s titular god .
Containing a amount of 120 different character reference , the stele has help archaeologists read linguistic process and grammar . However , after more than two and a half millennia of erosion , much of the text has faded to the point where it is scantily visible . Researchers have therefore spent the past several months carefully examining and reconstruct the dedication using photogrammetry and laser scanning , and are due to present their finding on August 27 at an exhibit in Florence .
According to Warren , the discovery “ will offer not only valuable data about the nature of consecrated practices at Poggio Colla , but also fundamental data for understanding the concepts and rituals of the Etruscans , as well as their piece of writing and perhaps their language . ”
