ABOUT ETP

Etruscan Texts Project (ETP) is an online editio minor of Etruscan inscriptions published under the auspices of the Classics Department and the Center for Etruscan Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The database is an integral part of the Center’s mission to advance research in the area of Etruscan language studies. Reliable web resources devoted to the study of the Etruscan language are virtually non-existent so the presence of ETP establishes a scholarly outpost on the frontier of the electronic medium.

ETP makes available to the scholarly community in a user-friendly format recently recovered Etruscan inscriptions. The corpus includes inscriptions that have been recovered since 1988 and thus not published in Rix et al. Etruskische Texte (1991). ETP updates its corpus on a monthly basis as Etruscan inscriptions are recovered and made public.

The advantage of an electronic format for the publication of inscriptions is no longer controversial. The site can be updated as inscriptions are recovered. By publishing Etruscan texts electronically the amount of time elapsing between the discovery of an inscription and its appearance in a scholarly forum can be greatly reduced thus permitting more efficient transmission of scholarly data. And given the rising cost of print productions and decreases in funding for library resources, an electronic publication ensures that an international community of scholars has free and unlimited access to the most recently edited Etruscan documents. Advances in the knowledge of the language, history, and the culture of the Etruscans take place only if Etruscan inscriptions are made available to scholarly community in a timely fashion.

Acknowledgements

ETP gratefully acknowledges the assistance of colleagues who have provided references to inscriptions and who have submitted notes about errors and other infelicities. We wish especially to thank Larissa Bonfante, New York University, Dominique Briquel, Sorbonne, Nancy de Grummond, Florida State University, Anthony Tuck, University of Massachustts Amherst, and Greg Warden, Southern Methodist University.

ETP also thanks the UMass Amherst students who have worked as research assistants since the inception of the project. We gratefully acknowledge their assistance: Curtis Bellemer (Fall 2004), Konstantina Choros (Fall 2004; Spring 2005), Janet Danylieko (Fall 2004), Andreas Breunig (Fall 2006), and Jesse Sawyer (Spring 2007). Konstantina Choros served as a research assistant for the academic year 2005–2006 thanks to a grant from the Commonwealth College at UMass Amherst.

ETP is also grateful to the staff members who work at interlibrary loan at UMass Amherst. They remain unfailingly gracious even in the face of persistent inquiries about articles for which we possess inaccurate or incomplete information.

Funding

Start-up funding for the Etruscan Texts Project was provided by the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The American Philosophical Society and the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation supported research on Etruscan inscriptions during the academic year 2003–2004. Grants from the Etruscan Foundation and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation supported work on the Project through the summer of 2005. A second grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation is supporting a conversion of the database to an XML format, a new website, and software and hardware upgrades through May of 2008. ETP wishes to thank those who have contributed financially to the success of the Project.

Project Members

The members of Etruscan Texts Project are Rex Wallace, Professor of Classics and co-director of the Center for Etruscan Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; David Mimno, a graduate student in Computer Science program UMass Amherst; James Patterson, a graduate student in Classics at the University of Texas, Austin; and Michael Shamgochian, an instructor at Worcester State University in Worcester, MA.