The Number 12

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Board: Etruria
Topic: Origins of the Etruscans 
Topic Editor: Nesnut Hatshepsut
Topic Description: The origin of the Etruscans...

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Message: The Number 12
Author: Lauchum - Camitlnas Tullius, Patron 
Date: Jun 14, 2000 18:57
      We know that there was a league of 12 cities in Etruria, and Werner Keller 
      in "The Etruscans", suggests two other leagues of 12: The Northern 
      Etruscan cities and the Campagna league. 

      The number 12 also comes into the libri fatales. Man's life was thought to 
      have been made of seven 12 year periods of time. 

      According to De Die Natali, after the age of 84, life is not under the 
      control of the gods, or subject to the "miracles of the gods". It was past 
      the use-by date as it were. 

      Cities too had a lifespan determined according to periods of 12 years. The 
      Etruscan name was determined by a period of 10 "Saecula" each lasting 
      approximately 120 years. There are a number of other references in which 
      the number 12 keeps popping up. 

      We have 12 months in a year, not necessarily determined by the number of 
      full moons- If you divide 365 by 28 you get 13. 

      We have 12 hours in a day, and each hour consists of 5 lots of 12 minutes. 
      The reasons for the division of time in this way goes back to the Ancient 
      Sumerians, who, I understand, used a duodecimal numbering system (correct 
      me if I am wrong here). 

      I believe it is a reasonable proposition that the prevalance of the number 
      12 in Etruscan Society and Religious life is due to their inheritance of 
      religious practices from the East, and that they brought these rituals, 
      together with the interpretation of livers (The clay models of livers from 
      Mesopotamia show an assignment of sectors of the liver to the heavens, 
      similar to the Etruscan Liver of Piacenza), and a large body of other 
      information including Engineering skills etc which was based on the 
      accumulated knowledge of three Millennia of Mesopotamian civilisation. 

      - Camitlnas      








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