- Ingela M. B. Wiman –
the face of the Etruscan earth will be discussed in this chapter. Huge volcanic eruptions
beginning in the Pleistocene shaped the band of lakes running in a north-south direction
in the anti-Apennines, the heartland of Etruria: Lakes Bolsena, Monterosi, Bracciano and
Vico. Each of their eruptions shed large amounts of pumice, large stones and hot lava into
the surrounding environment. The youngest formations are the caldera-containing Lake
Nemi and Lake Albano from a fi nal eruption around 5000 years ago.^3 The Pleistocene is
the geological period in which the four latest glaciations occurred. It is now considered to
have lasted from 2.5 million years ago to the end of the last great ice age, the Würm, around
12,000 years ago. The period following it has been called the Holocene and persists today.^4
Since the welding process of lava occurs when the deposit is still hot, the various eruptions
have formed lava of slightly varying compositions.^5 When solidifi ed it became the porous
reddish brown rock called tuff. The composition of the tuff and the various particles hidden
in it can inform us of its origin when used in tombs or walls or other Etruscan edifi ces.^6
Predominating in the south around lake Vico is red or black tuff with black incrustations/
tufo rosso (nere) di scorie nere, TR(N)SNV. Earlier eruptions from the Paleobolsena crater in
the area of Vulci shaped grey tuff of higher density (Nenfro Paleobolsena NPB) favored
by the early Vulsinian sculptors for tomb art.^7 The magnitude of these volcanic explosions
is unimaginable. One link in this volcanic chain is the bay of Naples with Vesuvius. The
disaster of its eruption in the summer of 79 ad was witnessed by its contemporaries and has
also been assessed through fi nds made during excavations. Pliny the Elder died there from
asphyxiation of volcanic gases. A certain type of eruption is named after him, Plinian. It is
characterized by a cloud rising from the volcano up to the stratosphere, toxic gases and an
explosion forming a caldera. An ultra-Plinian occurs when the ash plume reaches 25 km
and the volume of the eruptive material covers 10 square kilometers.^8 The row of lakes in
the anti-Apennines today represents pleasant memories of a series of such devastating ultra-
Plinians of the past.
The northern parts of Etruria have a lithosphere of conglomerates, sandstones and
limestone, representing heritage from the Tethys Ocean that covered southern Europe
in the Mesozoic era during the Triassic period 200 million years ago and separated the
two large continents, Gondwana and Laurasia, from each other. Tectonic activity has also
shaped these northern landscapes of Etruria forming hills with peaks up to 1000 meters
above sea level. Looking at the map of the area comprising Elba and the inland bay we
can see what appears to be a huge crater. Elba was connected to the Populonian peninsula
during the Pleistocene, forming the largest of the islands of the archipelago where cities
like Chiusi and Siena were once mere islets. The resulting layers of fi ne limestone can still
be admired as the material of the famous Chiusine cippi. The hills around this are called
the Colline Metallifere in Italy, the metal-bearing hills (see Chapter 37 for further research
on mining). Elba is famous for the rich iron mines worked there in Etruscan times. The
iron ores are of two general types, hematite, iron bound to oxygen, Fe 2 O 3 and pyrite, iron
bound to sulphur, FeS 2 (iron disulphide). The former, rich in iron and easily reducible,
was the mineral the Etruscans worked. The beautiful, black, shining mineral has been
favored for inlays in jewelry, especially during the nineteenth century ad. Sulphuric iron
is more diffi cult to extract and was not mastered by the ancients. Copper also was present
in ores on Elba but was mainly extracted in the inland hills. Copper in the area was
bound to sulphur and had to be roasted in open-air blast furnaces in order to replace the
sulphur with oxygen. The beautiful bronze objects for which the Etruscans are famous
required copper and tin to form the gold-like bronze alloy. Tin was rare in Antiquity,