Etruscan numbering

The Etruscan numerals were used by the ancient Etruscans. The system was adopted from the Attic numerals used by the ancient Greeks and served as a precedent for Roman numerals.

etrusco	decimal	symbol	Old Italian
θu	1
maχ	5
śar	10
muvalχ	50
?	100	o C

General consensus

Etruscologists today agree on the following assessments of numeral signs. Doubts remain about whether huθ and śa are "four" or "six", even though a recent study claims to have settled the question (in the sense that huθ would be "six" and śa "four") by mathematical calculations:

An interesting aspect of Etruscan numbering is that some numbers, as in the Roman system, are represented as subtractions. For example 17 = 20-3, 18 = 20-2, 19 = 20-1.

The remains of the use of these numbers that have reached us are scarce. Examples are known for larger numbers, but it is not always possible to be sure which number each symbol represents. As a result, modern scholars still do not agree on all aspects of Etruscan numbering.

There is archaeological evidence that strongly indicates a correspondence of 4 with huθ and 6 with śa. For example, the frescoes of the tomb of the Charons in the Monterozzi necropolis, on a hill in Tarquinia, show four charons, each accompanied by an inscription: next to the fourth appears the text χarun huθs ("the fourth charon"). In the same necropolis, in the tomb of the Anina, which contains six burials, an inscription says: śa suθi χeriχunce, which has been translated as: "he built six tombs/sepulchres". As recently as August 2011, G. Artioli et al., based on the analysis of 93 Etruscan dice, have presented mathematical proofs "that allow us to safely attribute the numeral 6 to the graphic value of huθ i>, and the 4 to śa». They have obtained other interesting conclusions about the position of the numbers in the Etruscan dice.

In 2006, S. A. Yatsemirsky presented evidence that zar = śar meant '12' (cf. zal '2' and zaθrum '20') while halχ meant '10'. According to his interpretation, the form huθzar was used for 'sixteen', not for 'fourteen', assuming that huθ was four.

There has been much debate about the possible Indo-European origin of the Etruscan cardinals. In the words of Larissa Bonfante (1990), "What these numerals show, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is the non-Indo-European nature of the Etruscan language." On the contrary, some scholars, including Francisco R. Adrados, Albert Carnoy, Marcello Durante, Vladimir Georgiev, Alessando Morandi and Massimo Pittau have proposed a phonetic proximity between the first ten Etruscan numerals and the corresponding numerals in other Indo-European languages. The Italian linguist and glottologist Massimo Pittau has argued that "each of The first ten numerals have congruent phonetic coincidences in many other Indo-European languages" and "fit perfectly within the Indo-European series", supporting the idea that Etruscan was of Indo-European origin.