I.

Introduction

Etruscan Civilization, culture of the ancient people of Etruria, an area roughly equivalent to modern Tuscany, Italy, which flourished between about 800 and 300 bc.

At the height of its power, between the 7th and 5th centuries bc, Etruria probably covered a territory stretching from the Alps to the Tiber. The name “Etruria” is the Latin version of the Greek name “Tyrrhenia” or “Tyrsenia”; the ancient Romans called the people Etrusci or Tusci, from which is derived the name of the modern Italian region of Tuscany.

The origins of the Etruscans are obscure and even in antiquity there was much speculation about their identity. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus maintained that the Etruscans came from Lydia, an ancient country in western Asia Minor. The later Roman historian Livy and Greek historian Polybius agreed with Herodotus, as did the Roman poets Publius Papinius Statius and Tiberius Catius Silius Italicus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, however, held that the Etruscans were an indigenous people, a view taken by many modern scholars.

Archaeological discoveries have shed much light on early Etruscan history. It is now generally agreed that the earliest settlements of Etruria were along the low, marshy coastal lands of Tuscany. The first permanent settlements, Vetulonia and Tarquinii (now Tarquinia), probably date to about the end of the 9th century bc. Finds from that period include new types of burial chambers that differ greatly from earlier tombs and that contain luxurious funeral goods of amber, silver, gold, and gems from other regions of the known world, such as Egypt and Asia Minor.