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Ελληνικά07 · Port of Caere · two tongues before a goddess
Uni was also Astarte
The gold laminae of Pyrgi
A ruler wrote his devotion in Etruscan and Phoenician, by the sea where merchants arrived.
Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.
History and context
Three gold laminae appeared beside temple B of Pyrgi: two carry Etruscan texts and one a Phoenician text. They name Thefarie Velianas and link the Etruscan goddess Uni with Astarte, known in the Phoenician Mediterranean.
They are not identical translations nor a perfect Rosetta Stone. Their differences show religious and political negotiation: a port sanctuary could speak to distinct communities without erasing the particularities of each language.
The laminae measured approximately nineteen by nine centimetres and were fixed to a frame of temple B. Their material choice made the dedication visible and linked writing, architecture and political authority at a maritime point of arrival.
Phoenician summarises in place of translating word for word the two Etruscan texts. That asymmetry is historical: each version attended to its own linguistic conventions and audiences while commemorating the same act of Thefarie Velianas.
Evidence and interpretation
Documented fact: the laminae date from the end of the sixth century BCE, come from Pyrgi and name Thefarie Velianas, Uni and Astarte. Interpretation and caution: the exact office of the dedicant and the political relationship with Carthage or Phoenicia are not resolved solely by these texts. Expanded documented fact: Three gold laminae, two in Etruscan and one in Phoenician, were found in 1964 and are attributed to temple B of Pyrgi towards 510 BCE. Expanded interpretation and caution: The exact title of Thefarie Velianas and the sense of some Etruscan formulae are debated; do not call them an "Etruscan Rosetta" nor identical translations.
Catalogue facts
- Narrative date
- Towards 510 BCE
- Location
- Port sanctuary of Pyrgi, Santa Severa, Lazio
- Material
- Incised gold lamina
- Context
- Foundation or ritual deposit beside temple B
- Curatorial reading
- The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
- Find context
- 1964
- Measurement
- Approximately 19 × 9 cm each lamina
- Languages
- Two Etruscan texts and a Phoenician synthesis
- Documentary coverage
- 2 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.
A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS
Objects connected through time
Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.
The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.
Gold32 dated objects
Towards 4600–4200 BCE
The Gold of Varna
Thracians
Date of the Varna funerary assemblage, not of an individual piece.
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ca. 2600–2450 BCE
Puabi headdress
Sumer
Approximate dating according to the record.
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ca. 2600–2400 BCE
The goat from PG 1237
Sumer
The function as support is not resolved.
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20th–18th centuries BCE
Before Phoenicia
Phoenicians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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death towards 1323 BCE
Tutankhamun's grave goods
Ancient Egypt
Approximate date of burial, not date of manufacture of the entire trousseau.
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14th–13th centuries BCE
Stag Vessel
Hittites
Approximate dating according to the record.
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second half of the 14th century–beginning of the 13th century BCE, according to NAIM; other publications use wider intervals from the Late Bronze.
Valchitran
Thracians
The full 14th–13th centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 14th and early 13th century according to NAIM; other chronologies for the assemblage are broader.
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Final Bronze, c. 1000 BCE
Before the Iberias
Iberians
Date of the treasure, not of the preceding general period.
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c. 800 BCE
Tomb 1 at Kuntur Wasi
Pre-Inca cultures
Approximate date of the funerary context.
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c. 721–664 BCE
Kushite king
Nubia, Kerma and Kush
Interval attributed to the specimen in the catalogue.
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c. 800–550 BCE
Gold at Kuntur Wasi
Pre-Inca cultures
Approximate dating according to the record.
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ca. 675–650 BCE
Regolini-Galassi tomb
Etruscans and Rome
Date of the funerary assemblage.
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6th century BCE
Overlapping datesCondomina Earring
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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You are viewingTowards 510 BCE
Uni was also Astarte
Etruscans and Rome
Approximate dating according to the record.
Current record
5th century BCE · chronology discussed in the bibliography
Ezerovo Ring
Thracians
The attribution to the 5th century BCE is discussed.
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Second half of the 5th century – beginning of the 4th century BCE
Coțofenești helmet
Thracians
The full 5th–4th centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 5th and early 4th century.
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Early 4th century BCE
A battle on a comb
Scythians and Saka
The fourth century BCE is used in its full extent as an outer ordering framework; the entry specifies the beginning.
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4th century BCE
The Kul-Oba vase
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
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4th century BCE
The Solokha gold comb
Greek worlds
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Type introduced from the late 6th century; specimen from the 4th century BCE.
The archer in gold
Achaemenid Persia
Century of the specimen; not an earlier introduction date of the type.
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4th century BCE
Treasure of Jávea
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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c. 350 BCE
Susa grave goods
Achaemenid Persia
Date of the funerary assemblage.
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664–30 BCE
Overlapping datesThoth in the form of a baboon
Ancient Egypt
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Second half of the 4th century BCE
Faces of the Steppe
Scythians and Saka
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Second half of the 4th century BCE
Poroina Mare Rhyton
Thracians
Second half of the 4th century BCE; the specific ritual is not known.
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Jewellery from the 4th–3rd centuries BCE; concealment at the end of the 3rd century BCE.
Treasure of Cheste
Iberians
Interval of the jewellery, not of the later concealment.
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Jewellery: 5th–2nd centuries BCE; concealment probably around 80–73 BCE.
Marina Alta Hoard
Iberians
Interval of the jewellery, not of the Sertorian concealment.
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late 4th century – early 3rd century BCE, towards 300 BCE
Panagyurishte
Thracians
«Towards 300 BCE.» It is explicit orientation of the whole.
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3rd century BCE
Mairena Hoard
Iberians
Approximate dating according to the record.
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Second half of the 2nd–beginnings of the 1st century BCE
Patera from Perotito
Iberians
The full 2nd–1st centuries BCE provide broad limits for chronological ordering; the record specifies the second half of the 2nd century and the early 1st.
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9th–11th centuries CE
Moulds for gold
Mande Worlds
Date range of the archaeometallurgical material in its documented context.
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ca. 1220–1290; found in 1933
Gold rhinoceros
Bantu-speaking worlds
Date of the object/context; 1933 is the year of discovery.
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A closer look
About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .
The shine even reached the heads of the nails
The study by Agostini and Zavaroni describes the bronze nails with gold heads recovered alongside the rolled sheets. It was not only the words that mattered: their installation also participated in the visual presentation of the dedication. The perforations at the edges and the fastening elements allow us to move from an isolated text to a displayed object. Their folded state also obliges us to distinguish the place of deposit from the location where they may have been read. The exact position of each element requires archaeological reconstruction, not merely linguistic translation.
Where it is held
Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia
Item or group in the record · Documented collection
The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.
Sources and references
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