\f1 \fs22 The Etruscans used their alphabet to write their records and their books. From the literary sources we kn
ow that they had an extensive literature made up of religious texts, history books in the form of annals, and scripts for dramas, but unfortunately none of this copious output has survived. All that we are left with is around a thousand inscriptions, mos
t of them funeral epigraphs, telling us no more than the particulars of the deceased (given name, family name, and \b \cf1 \ATXht16 patronymic\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 ). More complex texts such as the book of the <<Zagreb \b \cf4 \ATXht26 mummy\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 >
>, the \b \cf4 \ATXht5041 <<Capua tile>>, the <<inscribed pillar\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 of Perugia>>, and the <<\b \cf4 \ATXht3049 Pyrgi tablets\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 >> are extremely rare. \par
Texts that are perfectly legible but not completely comprehensible. In
fact the Etruscan tongue does not seem to be related to any other ancient or modern idiom. Its syntactical and grammatical structure are only partly understood. And yet it is not an obscure and mysterious language. It has yielded up its secrets to schol
ars step by step through detailed comparison of the various inscriptions with facts that have been brought to light by a number of different and complex methods. It is not impossible that the discovery of some bilingual inscription in the future will mak
e a new and fundamental contribution toward its thorough comprehension.\par
