- Introduction –
Bietti Sestieri, on the Italic peoples of central Italy, especially the Latins).^4 The later years
of Etruscan relations with Italic peoples, especially Latins and/or Romans, are treated for
the era of Romanization of Italy, in Chapter 8.
Another major topic would be the relations of the Greeks with Etruria: the tragic
death of David Ridgway prevented publication of his planned chapter on fi rst contact
of Etruscans with the Euboeans (and others) who founded the colony of Pithekoussai.^5
(See here the relations of Etruscans in Campania, and comments of Cuozzo on the
Hellenization phenomenon in Chapter 16.) The impact of this phenomenon cannot be
overestimated, and its repercussions still resonate in Italy and Europe. The subsequent
interactions and exchanges between Etruscans and Greeks are historically complex, and
may be noted especially in the chapters here dealing with art and myth (see Chapters 6
and 48 on the Orientalizing and on-going phenomenon of foreign artisans settling in
Etruria, and Chapters 24 and 25 on the impact of Greek myth and religion; see also the
Chapters on art in Part VII; Chapters 45 and 46 indicate the reaction of Etruria to Greek
athletics, spectacles, and music.)
This volume begins essentially with the dawn of the Etruscan identity in the Iron
Age, around the beginning of the fi rst millennium bc, the era of proto-history when the
places that were to become cities, and where the distinctive technology (metallurgy) and
material culture (pottery, agriculture, housekeeping etc.) were developed. For prehistory
and Bronze Age associations, see Chapter 5 (Protovillanovan and Villanovan culture), and
Chapter 10 (the western Mediterranean), and Chapters 11 to 13 on the wide-ranging pre-
and proto-historic links to cultures from Mesopotamia to the Atlantic. The subsequent
periods of Etruscan history, through the Hellenistic period/end of the fi rst millennium
bc, are covered (Chapters 8 and 9), as well as the later rediscovery/reception of Etruscan
civilization (Chapters 61–63). The centuries between, the heydays of Etruscan culture, are
developed through specialist studies of different aspects of government, society, religion,
economy and trade, and the development of material culture. Etruscans, too, had their
own era of colonization, although it progressed differently from the famous Phoenician
and Greek waves of commercial migration. Etruscan colonization impacted upon the
development of Europe and thus of modern Europe, ultimately bequeathing to us ways
of life, transport, and technology – and especially literacy. Those “Roman numerals”
that we use are, like our “Latin alphabet,” an Etruscan invention. Etruscan art may have
delved deeply into Greek conventions and themes, but in turn it was the inspiration for
the long-lived Celtic art of Europe (as noted in Chapter 17).
With introductory background on the study of the Etruscans and their environment
and the physical factors of their lives, and a fi nal section on the post-antique reception
of Etruscan culture and history, this volume covers major topics and fi elds of material
culture. Part I begins with the physical environment of Etruria, indicating how this
volcanic, storm-prone, agriculturally rich land fostered the unique culture of the Etruscans;
Chapter 2 considers the old “origins” question in modern perspective as developed by
Massimo Pallottino before DNA became an issue; that approach still offers useful means of
appraising the new announcements of non-Etruscologists about their recent projects. This
question of origins is old, at least as old as Herodotus and the Greeks who saw Etruscans
as Others to be disdained or as foils for the burgeoning power of Rome: a full discussion
and explanation of the ancient attitudes and their modern legacy is provided in Chapter 3.
Chapter 4 fl eshes out the population of Etruria with some thoughts on what their life was
actually like, based on skeletal studies and the other tools of the demographer.