Not an Indo-European language. Not an Indo-European people. Holdovers from an earlier time, before the great Indo-European Volkerwanderungen in to the West. By the time Rome got up and going the Etruscans were more or less surrounded by Indo-Europeans. Doomed to be aborbed, assimilated, by the Romans and their Latin/Italic kin. They had a good run, though. And were it not for Horatius, the Captain of the Gate, they would have burned Rome.
Up steps AI. I am sure some linguist will apply AI to the text and decipher it. AI will be very useful, but also dangerous. Interesting times ahead.
Thanks for the interesting, informative video, Neo.
Second Post, different subject.
I have been reading some about how people are upset about the “Real ID”, and not having heard about it. Well, it has been around for some time now. Our drivers licenses here in Deep Blue Colorado have had the Gold Star for a while now. If a state hasn’t done what it was suppose to do, it isn’t the fault of the US Govt, and Trump.
Derby Day tomorrow! Don’t forget to make your picks.
I am sure some linguist will apply AI to the text and decipher it.
Don’t think that’s possible. AI depends on human input/programming, and humans don’t have the requisite knowledge to “educate” AI in the Etruscan script. AI might recognize patterns that have eluded linguists, but that’s unlikely.
Same goes for the Linear A (Minoan) script, another non-Indo-European language.
The Real ID Act was passed in 2005, supposed to be implemented nationally by 2008. Created as a security measure following the September 11 attacks.
My home state of Maine has requested further delay, a request that I read has been rebuffed. It is reported that just 27% of Mainers have moved to Real ID. I would argue that it doesn’t help that the state charges more (+$20-$25) for a Real ID compliant driver’s license, but I also suspect a good number of the 73% that have not gotten one don’t need it.
Of course, for all the low information Democrats this is all Trump’s fault. Bastard.
In other open-thread news, FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan has been placed on “terminal leave”:
People have been complaining about the lack of rolling heads at DOJ/FBI. Could that be starting to change?
Ruth Buzzi has died at 88. Evidently she’d been disappearing into dementia for some years and then had a series of strokes in 2022 which left her bedridden. She was in 2020 still able to make a coherent promotional video in spite of the Alzheimer’s.
== https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU_p3bmqpBI&t=7s
==
SHIREHOME & IrishOtter49,
Finding the patterns in a language’s script is well suited for AI. Large Language Models already demonstrate the in depth level to which programmers have been able to codify human communication patterns. And software like Google Lens demonstrate how well current technology can recognize visual patterns. And, tools like ChatGPT, Grok and CoPilot demonstrate the depth of information AI can access if asked to focus on a certain geographic region at a certain time.
This all seems well suited to inputting visual images of script, providing some basic information of the time, place and civilization behind it, and asking AI to see if it recognizes consistent patterns that would correlate with logical text for that time and place.
Funny, how all of these various strands of information about things formerly thought to be in tin foil hat territory, and illusory–as, for instance, UFOs, and remote viewing–are now appearing, to show them to be realities.
Thus, Remote Viewing is apparently a very real phenomenon, and one that our government is actively using.
Take a look at this long Joe Rogan interview with Physicist and Engineer Dr. Hal Puthoff, who has been involved with multiple classified government research projects spanning several decades, and who was involved in running the more than 10 year long “Stargate” remote viewing project, as he describes how his initial, and continuing scepticism was overcome by the results he obtained, how the program worked, and as he gives many instances of successful remote viewing experiments and their results.*
It sounds as if whatever the U.S. government says about how their attempts at remote viewing were unsuccessful, and that remote viewing is not a reality, in fact, the U.S. government, and other adversary governments as well, are all apparently using remote viewing.
@IrishOtter49:By the time Rome got up and going the Etruscans were more or less surrounded by Indo-Europeans. Holdovers from an earlier time…
It’s an unwarranted assumption that those Indo-European speakers are a different people from the Etruscans. They were people who spoke a different language. Languages can be adopted, remember. The people were not necessarily replaced, just because the languages were. It’s an easy and commonly made assumption that the actual populations were replaced, and sometimes it’s true, but in this case not borne out. Etruscan speakers eventually gave up Etruscan and started speaking Latin later than the other Latin speakers did. Latins and Etruscans don’t have significant genetic differences.
Back in the day, I bought a book in Venezuela by an author of Italian origin–an author with a doctorate–which claimed that the Etruscans came from the Andes. It claimed the Etruscan language had Quechua and Aymara—main Indian languages of the Andes—roots. I read the book, but it did not survive one of my moves. Mysteries of the first language
Natalia Rossi de Tariffi, to this day we consider this Philological investigation the most expertised, deep and coherent, with respect to locating the mysterious cradle of the Etruscans in her work published in 1969, America cuarta dimension, los etruscos salieron de los Andes ( America fourth dimension, the Etruscans came from the Andes).
I have not seen the book for sale on Amazon, but one can read it online. Maybe I will do so. For those who read Spanish:America cuarta dimension, los etruscos salieron de los Andes (I used a translator app to read a book in French that was about Stalin’s purported half-brother.)
I’m not surprised that someone who believes we are visited by aliens would believe in remote viewing.
Nicholas Choniates:
Wrong. I have been formally studying Indo-European linguistics for many years, particularly in regard to equine husbandry and the development of chariots and chariot warfare (I’m presently writing a book on the subject), and based on my studies I must conclude that in this instance you don’t really know what you’re talking about.
Rufus:
Ugaritic was deciphered many long years ago. I’m thoroughly familiar with the voluminous Ugaritic archive of clay documents, preserved by the fires that the Sea Peoples set when they sacked and burned the city in c. 1177 BC.
SHIREHOME: My point was, scholars studying the as-yet undeciphered Etruscan script have probably recognized all of the aforementioned patterns. It is unlikley that AI will discover new patterns.
Snow on Pine,
See the book Phenomena, by Annie Jacobsen.
@IrishOtter49: I have been formally studying Indo-European linguistics for many years
And you also have family trees or genetic heredity evidence stretching back so many years? I don’t dispute what you know of the languages, I dispute a hypothesis of population replacement.
Fascinating stuff.
What say the various Roman historians on the matter?
Or Virgil—not sure I’m gonna re-read The Aeneid.
(I assume they have written about it…not that they’re always non-partisan or reliable—in fact, they’re often downright chauvinistic, but then most cultures were at the time…and many still are. Still, one might be able to triangulate…)
Constitutional scholar John Eastman has submitted a brilliant brief to SCOTUS, persuasively arguing against Birthright Citizenship.
This case is a Big One before the Court and shaping public policy under Trump #47. Eastman’s devoted dives into US citizenship, in theory and history, will, I believe, prove fundamental to their forthcoming decision. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31J9TjPuA8Y
This walk through of his brief is longer than I enjoy delving. But Eastman’s great knowledge of history kept my attention wrapt throughout. Amazing.
I barely get by English some days, more fascinating to me is why Etrucan writing on cloth was thought a good bargain to use up to wrap a dead body.
@Skip – one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I suppose no one could see any use for all those old writings Great-Grandpa left behind, that they couldn’t read anyway.
It’s somewhat similar to people cutting up what are now recognized as precious parchments to pad the covers of new-fangled books.
I have some 19th-century books where you can see the writing on the interior of the cover where it has come apart, but I don’t think the materials are anything other than recycled unused pages from other books.
AesopFan—Supposedly Westerners discovered Japanese prints when a French artist received a package which used such prints—often advertisements for upcoming Kabuki and other plays, and the actors in them—and meant to be posted up, then discarded—for wrapping.
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Not an Indo-European language. Not an Indo-European people. Holdovers from an earlier time, before the great Indo-European Volkerwanderungen in to the West. By the time Rome got up and going the Etruscans were more or less surrounded by Indo-Europeans. Doomed to be aborbed, assimilated, by the Romans and their Latin/Italic kin. They had a good run, though. And were it not for Horatius, the Captain of the Gate, they would have burned Rome.
Up steps AI. I am sure some linguist will apply AI to the text and decipher it. AI will be very useful, but also dangerous. Interesting times ahead.
Thanks for the interesting, informative video, Neo.
Second Post, different subject.
I have been reading some about how people are upset about the “Real ID”, and not having heard about it. Well, it has been around for some time now. Our drivers licenses here in Deep Blue Colorado have had the Gold Star for a while now. If a state hasn’t done what it was suppose to do, it isn’t the fault of the US Govt, and Trump.
Derby Day tomorrow! Don’t forget to make your picks.
I am sure some linguist will apply AI to the text and decipher it.
Don’t think that’s possible. AI depends on human input/programming, and humans don’t have the requisite knowledge to “educate” AI in the Etruscan script. AI might recognize patterns that have eluded linguists, but that’s unlikely.
Same goes for the Linear A (Minoan) script, another non-Indo-European language.
The Real ID Act was passed in 2005, supposed to be implemented nationally by 2008. Created as a security measure following the September 11 attacks.
My home state of Maine has requested further delay, a request that I read has been rebuffed. It is reported that just 27% of Mainers have moved to Real ID. I would argue that it doesn’t help that the state charges more (+$20-$25) for a Real ID compliant driver’s license, but I also suspect a good number of the 73% that have not gotten one don’t need it.
Of course, for all the low information Democrats this is all Trump’s fault. Bastard.
In other open-thread news, FBI Special Agent Elvis Chan has been placed on “terminal leave”:
https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2025/05/01/west-coast-messed-coast-top-fbi-biden-laptop-censor-elvis-chan-has-left-the-building-n4939422
Remember Elvis Chan? Here’s a refresher from a December 2022 thread on this forum:
https://thenewneo.com/2022/12/07/how-the-fbi-got-the-hunter-laptop-story-suppressed-while-attempting-to-preserve-plausible-deniability-for-itself/
People have been complaining about the lack of rolling heads at DOJ/FBI. Could that be starting to change?
Ruth Buzzi has died at 88. Evidently she’d been disappearing into dementia for some years and then had a series of strokes in 2022 which left her bedridden. She was in 2020 still able to make a coherent promotional video in spite of the Alzheimer’s.
==
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU_p3bmqpBI&t=7s
==
SHIREHOME & IrishOtter49,
Finding the patterns in a language’s script is well suited for AI. Large Language Models already demonstrate the in depth level to which programmers have been able to codify human communication patterns. And software like Google Lens demonstrate how well current technology can recognize visual patterns. And, tools like ChatGPT, Grok and CoPilot demonstrate the depth of information AI can access if asked to focus on a certain geographic region at a certain time.
This all seems well suited to inputting visual images of script, providing some basic information of the time, place and civilization behind it, and asking AI to see if it recognizes consistent patterns that would correlate with logical text for that time and place.
And, a quick Internet search reveals it’s already happening, Ugaritic!
https://news.mit.edu/2010/ugaritic-barzilay-0630
RE: REMOTE VIEWING
Funny, how all of these various strands of information about things formerly thought to be in tin foil hat territory, and illusory–as, for instance, UFOs, and remote viewing–are now appearing, to show them to be realities.
Thus, Remote Viewing is apparently a very real phenomenon, and one that our government is actively using.
Take a look at this long Joe Rogan interview with Physicist and Engineer Dr. Hal Puthoff, who has been involved with multiple classified government research projects spanning several decades, and who was involved in running the more than 10 year long “Stargate” remote viewing project, as he describes how his initial, and continuing scepticism was overcome by the results he obtained, how the program worked, and as he gives many instances of successful remote viewing experiments and their results.*
It sounds as if whatever the U.S. government says about how their attempts at remote viewing were unsuccessful, and that remote viewing is not a reality, in fact, the U.S. government, and other adversary governments as well, are all apparently using remote viewing.
* SEE https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2314-hal-puthoff/id360084272?i=1000705718176
@IrishOtter49:By the time Rome got up and going the Etruscans were more or less surrounded by Indo-Europeans. Holdovers from an earlier time…
It’s an unwarranted assumption that those Indo-European speakers are a different people from the Etruscans. They were people who spoke a different language. Languages can be adopted, remember. The people were not necessarily replaced, just because the languages were. It’s an easy and commonly made assumption that the actual populations were replaced, and sometimes it’s true, but in this case not borne out. Etruscan speakers eventually gave up Etruscan and started speaking Latin later than the other Latin speakers did. Latins and Etruscans don’t have significant genetic differences.
Back in the day, I bought a book in Venezuela by an author of Italian origin–an author with a doctorate–which claimed that the Etruscans came from the Andes. It claimed the Etruscan language had Quechua and Aymara—main Indian languages of the Andes—roots. I read the book, but it did not survive one of my moves.
Mysteries of the first language
I have not seen the book for sale on Amazon, but one can read it online. Maybe I will do so. For those who read Spanish:America cuarta dimension, los etruscos salieron de los Andes (I used a translator app to read a book in French that was about Stalin’s purported half-brother.)
I’m not surprised that someone who believes we are visited by aliens would believe in remote viewing.
Nicholas Choniates:
Wrong. I have been formally studying Indo-European linguistics for many years, particularly in regard to equine husbandry and the development of chariots and chariot warfare (I’m presently writing a book on the subject), and based on my studies I must conclude that in this instance you don’t really know what you’re talking about.
Rufus:
Ugaritic was deciphered many long years ago. I’m thoroughly familiar with the voluminous Ugaritic archive of clay documents, preserved by the fires that the Sea Peoples set when they sacked and burned the city in c. 1177 BC.
SHIREHOME: My point was, scholars studying the as-yet undeciphered Etruscan script have probably recognized all of the aforementioned patterns. It is unlikley that AI will discover new patterns.
Snow on Pine,
See the book Phenomena, by Annie Jacobsen.
@IrishOtter49: I have been formally studying Indo-European linguistics for many years
And you also have family trees or genetic heredity evidence stretching back so many years? I don’t dispute what you know of the languages, I dispute a hypothesis of population replacement.
Fascinating stuff.
What say the various Roman historians on the matter?
Or Virgil—not sure I’m gonna re-read The Aeneid.
(I assume they have written about it…not that they’re always non-partisan or reliable—in fact, they’re often downright chauvinistic, but then most cultures were at the time…and many still are. Still, one might be able to triangulate…)
He wasn’t speaking Etruscan, but effect would have been similar.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wander_out_of_hole_in_roman_ruins_speaking_latin.jpg?w=382
Constitutional scholar John Eastman has submitted a brilliant brief to SCOTUS, persuasively arguing against Birthright Citizenship.
This case is a Big One before the Court and shaping public policy under Trump #47. Eastman’s devoted dives into US citizenship, in theory and history, will, I believe, prove fundamental to their forthcoming decision. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31J9TjPuA8Y
This walk through of his brief is longer than I enjoy delving. But Eastman’s great knowledge of history kept my attention wrapt throughout. Amazing.
I barely get by English some days, more fascinating to me is why Etrucan writing on cloth was thought a good bargain to use up to wrap a dead body.
@Skip – one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I suppose no one could see any use for all those old writings Great-Grandpa left behind, that they couldn’t read anyway.
It’s somewhat similar to people cutting up what are now recognized as precious parchments to pad the covers of new-fangled books.
I have some 19th-century books where you can see the writing on the interior of the cover where it has come apart, but I don’t think the materials are anything other than recycled unused pages from other books.
AesopFan—Supposedly Westerners discovered Japanese prints when a French artist received a package which used such prints—often advertisements for upcoming Kabuki and other plays, and the actors in them—and meant to be posted up, then discarded—for wrapping.