The Etruscan numerical system included the following digits with known values:[1] (With the proper Unicode font installed, the first two rows should look the same.)
)[1] These digits were used throughout the Etruscan zone of influence, from the plains of northern Italy to the region of modern Naples, south of Rome.
[1] The Etruscan digits for 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 ("๐ ", "๐ก", "๐ข", "๐ฃ", and "๐") have been assigned specific codes in the Unicode computer character set, as part of the Old Italic block.
In that hypothesis, the early inhabitants of the region counted from 1 to 4 by extending the same number of long fingers (index to little); gestures that were represented in writing by "๐ ", "๐ ๐ ", "๐ ๐ ๐ ", "๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ".
The numbers 6 to 9 then would be signaled by one fully open hand and 1 to 4 long fingers extended in the other; which would be depicted as "๐ก๐ ", "๐ก๐ ๐ ", "๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ ", "๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ".
Finally 10 would be signaled by two hands with all fingers and thumbs extended; which, in writing, would be represented by the upper and lower halves of the digit "๐ข".
], is that the Etrusco-Roman numerals actually derive from notches on tally sticks, which continued to be used by Italian and Dalmatian shepherds into the 19th century.
The paucity of material severely limits current knowledge about the Etruscan words for numbers, and their grammar.
The phonetic notation [pสฐ] (ฯ), [tสฐ] (ฮธ) and [kสฐ] (ฯ) denotes aspirated stops, which in Etruscan are distinguished from non-aspirated [p], [t], [k].
In the same necropolis, in the Tomb of the Anina, which contains six burial places, an inscription reads: sa suthi cherichunce, which has been translated as: "he built six tombs/sepulchres".
These 15ย possibilities are identified by the pairs of numbers that occur on opposite faces: For unknown reasons, Roman dice generally used the last pattern, (1-6, 2-5, 3-4), in which every pair of opposite faces adds to 7; a tradition that continued in Europe to the present day, and has become the standard all over the world.
[8] That assignment would imply that the Tuscany dice follow the pattern (1-6, 2-5, 3-4); that is, they are of the "late" (Roman) type.
L. Bonfante (1990) claimed that what the numerals "show, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is the non-Indo-European nature of the Etruscan language".
[9] Conversely, other scholars, including F. Adrados, A. Carnoy, M. Durante, V. Georgiev, A. Morandi and M. Pittau, have posited a "perfect fit" between the ten Etruscan numerals and words in various Indo-European languages (not always numerical or with any apparent connection), such as ฮธu 'one' and Sanskrit tvad 'thou', zal 'two' and German zwei 'two', ci 'three' and Iranian sih 'three' (from proto-Indo-European *trรฉyes, which is not a match to Etruscan [ki]), huฮธ 'four' and Latin quattuor 'four', etc.