Terracotta cockerel vase: A 2,600-year-old Etruscan inkwell featuring 26 letters of the undeciphered ancient language
The terracotta cockerel vase was one of several ancient Etruscan artifacts that helped experts partially decode the mysterious ancient language, as it preserved the order of the letters in the early alphabet, archaeologist Gisela Richter wrote in a 1930 catalog of The Met's classical artifacts.
- According to The Met, the vase may have been a portable inkwell used by an ancient Etruscan who was learning how to write.
- This small terra-cotta vase, which is shaped like a cockerel or young male chicken with human feet, was discovered in central Italy and was made by the ancient Etruscans.
- But although more than 10,000 Etruscan inscriptions have been found, the language is still only partially understood because those inscriptions are short and any lengthy Etruscan literature that once existed has been lost.
(Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fletcher Fund, 1924; Creative Commons Zero (CC0)) QUICK FACTS Name: Terracotta cockerel vase What it is: A bird-shaped ceramic inkwell Where it is from: Viterbo, Italy When it was made: Circa 650 to 600 B.C.
- The chicken-shaped, black-glazed vase has an abecedarium — an inscription with the 26 letters of the Etruscan alphabet in order.
- The potter inscribed the Etruscan alphabet on the body of the chicken, giving modern researchers clues to a language that has never been fully deciphered.
- The inscription on the body of the vase is known as an abecedarium — the sequential list of letters in an alphabet.
- Thanks to the adoption of the Greek alphabet, it's possible to fully sound out the Etruscan language.
- There were 26 letters in the Etruscan alphabet, but one of them in this abecedarium is incorrect.
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