Mysterious, but not forgotten
The Etruscans are often described as a lost or forgotten people, but that is not accurate. Greek and Roman writers discussed them at length, the Romans borrowed many of their customs, and their name survives in the modern region of Tuscany. Interest in Etruscan tombs and vases revived in Europe in the 18th century, and Etruscan archaeology is an active field today.
What is real is the gap in our knowledge. The Etruscans left thousands of inscriptions, but almost all are short: names, dedications and funeral texts. No Etruscan history, poetry or philosophy has survived in their own language. Much of what we know comes from outsiders, Greeks and Romans, who were often rivals and sometimes hostile. For that reason the Etruscan civilization is best described as partly understood, not forgotten.
Where and when
Etruria lay in central Italy, roughly between the Arno and Tiber rivers and the Tyrrhenian coast, in what is now Tuscany, northern Lazio and part of Umbria. At various times Etruscan cities also controlled territory in the Po valley to the north and in Campania to the south.
Archaeologists usually trace the beginnings to the Villanovan culture, which appears around 900 BCE and is known for cremation burials in biconical urns. From about 700 BCE the region shows more wealth, more imported goods and the first Etruscan writing, a period often called Orientalizing. The 6th century BCE was probably the high point of Etruscan power. From the 5th century BCE, the cities faced defeat and loss of territory, and by the 1st century BCE Etruria had been absorbed into the Roman state. This gives the rough span of 900 to 100 BCE used here, though the edges are blurred.
Cities, not a state
Etruria was never a single kingdom. It consisted of independent city-states such as Tarquinia, Caere, Veii, Vulci, Volsinii, Clusium and Volterra, each with its own territory and leaders. Roman writers speak of a league of twelve cities that met at a shared sanctuary, but its powers seem to have been religious and ceremonial more than political. In practice, cities allied, competed and sometimes fought each other.
These cities sat on hills near the coast or along rivers, often in places that gave access to metal ores, farmland and sea routes. Some, such as Marzabotto, show planned street grids. Others have left more evidence in their cemeteries than in their streets.
Language and writing
The Etruscan language is not part of the Indo-European family, which includes Latin and Greek. The Etruscans took their alphabet from Greek colonists in Italy, and the story of the Greek and Latin alphabets runs through Etruria, since the Latin script is generally thought to have come by way of Etruscan use. Scholars can read the script without difficulty, but the language is only partly understood, because there are few long texts and no real bilingual dictionary. The longest known text is the Liber Linteus (“linen book”), a ritual calendar written on linen that was later cut into strips and used to wrap an Egyptian mummy, now in Zagreb. The Pyrgi tablets, gold sheets from about 500 BCE inscribed in Etruscan and Phoenician, are another key find, because the two versions help to confirm the meaning of some words.
Wealth from land, metal and trade
The economy rested on agriculture, including grain, olives and vines, together with mining and metalworking. Metals from the hills of northern Etruria and from the island of Elba supported bronze and iron industries, and the city of Populonia was a centre of iron processing. Etruscan merchants exchanged these goods for Greek wine, painted pottery and luxury items, and they traded with Phoenician and Carthaginian partners. Both sides were active in the same sea lanes at the time of Phoenician colonization in the western Mediterranean, and Etruscan cities formed agreements with Carthage.
Ancient authors also said that the Etruscans were skilled seafarers and, sometimes, pirates. This tradition is why the sea west of Italy is called the Tyrrhenian Sea, from the Greek name for Etruscans.
Religion and everyday life
Etruscan religion was concerned with reading the will of the gods in signs: the liver of a sacrificed animal, the flight of birds and the direction of lightning. Roman writers considered Etruscans the experts in this “discipline”, and Rome later consulted Etruscan specialists. The Etruscans believed in a world of gods whose names often match Greek or Roman equivalents, such as Tinia (similar to Jupiter), Uni and Menrva, and also in spirits of the underworld.
Social life was dominated by wealthy aristocratic families. Banquets, music, dance and athletic contests appear again and again in tomb paintings. Greek authors were struck by the prominent role of women at such events. Their evidence is often hostile and should be read with care, but the tombs do show women reclining at feasts alongside men.
Art and craft
Etruscan art is known especially through painted tombs, bronze work, gold jewellery, the glossy black pottery called bucchero and terracotta sculpture. The artists absorbed ideas from the Near East and Greece but gave them a local character. Because tombs have survived better than houses, funerary art dominates the surviving record.
Relations with Rome
Rome lay on the southern edge of Etruscan influence, and Etruscan culture strongly shaped the early city. According to Roman tradition, the last three kings of Rome were of Etruscan connection. Roman symbols of office, some religious customs and some building practices are often traced to Etruria. Archaeologists generally accept strong Etruscan influence on early Rome, but they also point out that Rome was a Latin city with its own traditions, and that the later Roman accounts were written centuries after the events.
From the 5th century BCE, the Etruscans lost ground at sea to Syracuse and on land to the movement of Iron Age Celtic tribes into northern Italy, while Rome expanded northward. Veii fell to Rome around 396 BCE, and the other cities were drawn in by war, alliances and the grant of citizenship. After the Social War of 91 to 88 BCE, the Etruscans became Roman citizens, and the Etruscan language disappeared from public use over the following generations. Roman expansion therefore explains the end of Etruscan independence, but the long process was gradual and not a single conquest.
Where did the Etruscans come from?
The Greek historian Herodotus said they had migrated from Lydia in western Anatolia. Another Greek writer, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, said they were native to Italy. Modern research favours local development, supported by archaeology and by ancient DNA studies that find Etruscan individuals genetically close to their Latin neighbours. The question is still discussed, and it is best read as a debate about ancient storytelling as well as about biology.
A people who left evidence in stone and clay
Most of what is known comes from Etruscan cemeteries, whose painted chambers and rich grave goods preserve scenes of banquets, music and ritual. These give us a view of the elite that is vivid but limited. Excavations in cities and sanctuaries, new surveys and the study of inscriptions continue to add detail. The Etruscans remain mysterious chiefly because their own voice survives in fragments, and because the main written narratives were made by their neighbours.