<P> The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas - reliefs are different types of pipes, such as the plagiaulos (the pipes of Pan or Syrinx), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the tintinnabulum, tympanum and crotales, and later by stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara . </P> <P> Knowledge of the Etruscan language is still far from complete . The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a non-Indo - European language; the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which in itself is an isolate family, that is, unrelated directly to other known language groups . Since Rix (1998), it is widely accepted that the Tyrsenian family groups Raetic and Lemnian are related to Etruscan . </P> <P> No etymology exists for Rasna, the Etruscans' name for themselves, although Italian historic linguist Massimo Pittau has proposed the meaning of' Shaved' or' Beardless', backing the opinion of ancient figurines collector and author Paolo Campidori . The etymology of Tusci is based on a beneficiary phrase in the third Iguvine tablet, which is a major source for the Umbrian language . The phrase is turskum...nomen, "the Tuscan name", from which a root * Tursci can be reconstructed . A metathesis and a word - initial epenthesis produce E-trus - ci . A common hypothesis is that * Turs - along with Latin turris, "tower", come from Greek τύρσις, "tower ." The Tusci were therefore the "people who build towers" or "the tower builders ." This venerable etymology is at least as old as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who said "And there is no reason that the Greeks should not have called them by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers ." </P> <P> Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante (Bonfante, 2002) speculate that Etruscan houses seemed like towers to the simple Latins . It is true that the Etruscans preferred to build hill towns on high precipices enhanced by walls . On the other hand, if the Tyrrhenian name came from an incursion of Sea Peoples or later migrants, then it might well be related to the name of Troy, the city of towers in that case . </P>

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