The Etruscans.. and the provable lies told by some modern historians.
The area know as Tuscany, Italy holds a deep, and long history with a people know as the Tyrrhenians and Tyrsenians, the Greeks had a well documented trading history with them for nearly 1,000 years.
Rome has been rewriting history since the beginning of modern recorded history. There is no big secret there. The Pagan histories, and faiths were beginning to be erased by the Romans starting as early as 300 BC. One of the first targets of these erasures were their neighbors, the Etruscans.
The Etruscans were known to the Greeks as the (Tyrsenians + Tyrrhenians) they had a trading and living history with them that spanned a period of nearly 1,000 years from around 1200 BC to 300 BC. For the sake of historical correctness the Etruscans will be referred in my writings to as the earliest name they told to the Greeks when describing themselves the “Tyrsenian” people. It was this name that later led to the Greeks naming of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The name Tyrsenian has one of the simplest etymological breakdowns that the modern historians for some reason just can not acknowledge.
Tyr - Indo-European God (ironically local)
sen - meaning “ son of “ see suffix “son” alt.
ian - meaning “From, Related to, or Like”
The Tyrsenian ( Etruscan ) people were the tribes of Tyr, or the descendants of them. The explanation could not be more simple. The god Tyr ( Tiwaz ) was also known further to the north and northeast from Tuscany to the Alban Hills, in modern Switzerland and Germany his name took on a few different forms from Tyr, to Tiwaz - Tiw - Tuisco. The Romans equated him to Mars not Figuratively but quite literally.
The other Odd similarities here are in the recent Archeological evidence, it is showing that the origin story of Romulus and Remus may have come out of the area between Tuscany and the Alban Hills in the heart of the Etruscan Empire. Tyr / Mars was the father to Romulus and Remus who were mothered by a human woman. Romulus and Remus were said to be the Founders of Rome circa 750 BC. According to history this would make Romulus the First king of Rome as of 753 BC and his Reign ending around 717 BC but according to most Historical accounts, Romulus was taken with Mars to the heavens (he died) 2 years later around 715 BC.
So where did the big disconnect happen that caused the Romans to commit a near Genocide on their Predecessors just a few hundred years later ?
The Timing of the fall of the Etruscan empire is most commonly attributed to the events of the Latin War of 341-338 BC. When I say most commonly attributed, it's simply because of the amount of variance between the multiple different Greek, and Roman sources. So within a period of not much more than 400 years after it's founding, the Romans scattered the Etruscan empire with a 3 year long battle, this is most likely because of a breach of an agreement over splitting spoils of war in previous allied battles, but history is written by the victors so the whole truth may never be known. The most telling details of the links to the downfall of the Etruscans are probably in the newly founded religious practices that were coming into popularity around 350 BC, it was these religious differences that probably triggered the inevitable erasure of the Etruscans who had held on to the Polytheistic beliefs of their forefathers.
The evidence of the links between the Etruscans and Tyr are far more than mere coincidental happenings. Tyrsenian people (Etruscans) had an enormous Necropolis that was recently discovered with several thousand tombs, and a few large ones with some interesting artwork. It is the findings inside of the Largest of these Tombs, that I personally believe to be the most telling evidence of Tyr based European paganism among the Tyrsenians. Within what these historians have oddly decided to coin the “Tomb of the Blue Demon” we can see these large blue and black beings battling with the Tyrsenian people. This is quite Obviously the “Jotun” represented in a few forms fighting them. The Tombs appear to have been sacked and looted possibly years prior to their recent “historic” rediscovery so any other evidence including the remains are long gone.
The Necropolis of Monterozzi is a truly breathtaking thing to see, the many tombs carved into the natural landscape, with thousands more smaller graves sites similarly chiseled into the stone of the surrounding valley, and hillsides. Only a small portion of this remote valley Necropolis has currently been uncovered, and it's only 1 of the many Etruscan necropolis sites found. In my opinion that is probably for the best seeing that most of the information would probably not be released to the public anyways, and what was released would be perverted through a Smithsonian, or Christian lense. We know the Vatican library in Rome to this day has a vast wealth of information that only a select few are privy to, it would just land in a shelf right next to all of that. It's also a possibility much of it would land in a box in the Smithsonian archives.
The real reason for the Etruscan Erasure.
This is my opinion let me be clear, A new group of Monotheistic religions suddenly pop up and want to enact some changes, but have inconvenient polytheistic truths living right next door, that also so happen to be their predecessors. This is seeming the more likely explanation, especially since we can also see the cascade of battles against “Germanic Tribes” for the next 800 + years and beyond into the pagan eradications of Constantine, Theodosius I +II, Valentinian III and many more Roman leaders that followed behind them who continued the same pattern of “erase the pagan folk” behaviors.
The Etruscans were just the first in a long line of Pagan eradications that continued all the way up to the slaughter of the Native Americans, and the Witch trials of colonial America. In other words it was an attempt that lasted 2,000 years, and decimated cultures on nearly every continent.
Thanks Rome, that was a great example to set.
Sources:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1158/
https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2022/08/025.html
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/138-1407/features/2162-exciting-etruscan-finds-at-vulci-slideshow
https://www.worldheritagesite.org/list/Etruscan+Necropolises
https://ehl.princeton.edu/events/2023/seminar-etruscan-town-medieval-castle-recent-excavations-central-italian-hilltop
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numa_Pompilius
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullus_Hostilius
https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome/Romes-foundation-myth#ref287550
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Etruscan
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remus
https://oldworldgods.com/norse/norse-god-tyr/