Many theories
have been elaborated in order to try to explain the origins of the Etruscans,
the most common belief is that they came from Lydia (currently Turkey), but from where these people originate is still a mystery.
They populated wide regions of Italy from the Po River
Basin to Tuscany and from Latium to Campania, where they came in contact with the Greeks and ended by being assimilated by the Romans.
The information that we have about their footwear has
come to us from paintings which adorn tombs in the necropolis prevailing from Tuscany and Latium or from bronze, clay
and stone statues of same
origin.
A lot of the people portrayed inside these hypogea
wear up-turned shoes similar to Hittite footwear which confirms the theory of the oriental origins of the Etruscans.
In picture n.° 23 a model of such footwear,
drawn from a cippus from Chiusi (Italy) and kept at the British Museum
in London is represented and the model portrayed in picture n.° 24, which
is of the same origin, could represent a predecessor of the Roman shoes
called "Perones" even if those had a slot with leather straps on the back of
the foot (see 6th chapter)
Picture n.° 25 shows a pair of sandals which are part
of a statue found in the tomb of Isis at Vulci (Italy) which still bears the
signs of the red pigments with which it was coloured.
Sandals were also used like those worn by dancers
in the tomb of triclinium or like those worn by the flute player in the tomb of leopards, both at Tarquinia (Italy).
23 24 25
in order to know something else about the Etruscans...
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Last revision: 05/02/2008