- Ingela M. B. Wiman –
to facilitate the movements of fl ocks and people or to gain access to the necropoleis and
they can be traced near the ancient Etruscan cities, where they are often harmoniously
adapted to the landscape. Old surviving Etruscan roads and callis are often mixed together
following natural features of the landscape.^44
In the above investigations of vegetation and animals of ancient Etruria it can be
concluded that the land was organized as a cultura promiscua. In the hilltops sweet
chestnuts, hazel and oaks grew, sometimes as coppice woods used for fodder and fuel.
Further down the hills the soil had to be kept in place by dry-stone walls making a net
of terraces on which olive groves and vineyards were planted. These had to be irrigated
and the Etruscans are famous for their rock cut cuniculi leading water to fi elds as well
as diverting water from roads.^45 In the lower lands were the fi elds with arable crops
and vegetables, peas and beans, and in the barns were pigs. Sheep and goats grazed on
meadows and plains of poorer or waterlogged soils. The impression is a land of small-
scale agriculture well adapted to the environment. As stressed before, no large-scale
deforestation or erosion processes is evident until Roman times.
THE SKY – LIGHT AND NOISEThe heavens were much studied by the Etruscans in order to decode the will of gods. It
was important to scrutinize the fl ight of birds through the different heavenly sectors,
likewise the course of lightning and the occurrence of thunder.^46 At night the Etruscans
used oil lamps and torches during the night to guide them, to light up tombs or to gather
around during evening conversations. Of course there was no pollution from electric
lights. The heaven’s stars shone like brilliant jewels in the night sky and the Milky
Way could be seen as a shimmering band across the sky. The full moon lit roads and
farms and its shifting trajectories and phases were familiar to the Etruscans and used to
estimate the time. The morning star announced Thesan/Aurora, her rosy fi ngers painting
the Earth. Likewise, the air surely would have been pierced by noises from the ports and
towns. Hammering from the smith’s anvil, smoke from his fi res, shouted commands,
roaring laughter, the crack and clatter of wagons’ wooden wheels over pavements, horses
whinnying and so on, but without the ceaseless, growling, murmur of traffi c, motors and
machines, the air would have been fresh and sound. Recently, at sunset at San Giovenale,
the only perceptible sound was the tinkle of a distant bell tied to the neck of a female
Bos taurus. For their view of the stars and extraordinary silence only, you could envy the
Etruscans.
THE SEAAnother great asset was the wide Tyrrhenian Sea. When compared to the poisoned and
over-fi shed sea we know today it provided animal protein to an extent impossible to
perceive. Salt was valuable in Antiquity to make food spicier but it was also used as a
preservative. Salaria were constructed with the aid of shallow pools where the water
evaporated and left the salt as a crust on the bottom. Salt was also a valuable trading
product to the sea-less interior and control of these trading roads was a great source of
ancient confl ict.^47
Like all seafarers of the Mediterranean, the Etruscans, the Phoenicians and Greeks
accused each other of piracy. There was a fi ne line between acquiring goods by trade