When you think of Italy, you probably think of Rome, the ancient heart of the Classical world and the center of one of history’s most esteemed empires. With 7.3 million international visitors in 2017, the city remains a top tourist destination and cultural landmark. But before the Colosseum and the Forum, before the Pantheon and the Arch of Constantine, when Rome was just a small collection of pastoral settlements whose names have been long lost to history, Italy belonged to the Etruscans.
The Etruscans were a group of indigenous peoples that inhabited the area of central Italy between the Arno river, which passes through Florence and Pisa, and the Tiber river, which flows through Rome, from at least the eleventh to the first century B.C.E. . Their political and cultural influence, however, reached far beyond the borders of Etruria – today, accounting for parts of Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria – across both space and time. Due to their significant impact on the development of modern Italian culture, including the adoption and adaptation of the Greek alphabet, mythology and art, the Etruscans are considered to be “… the most important of the indigenous peoples of pre-Roman Italy…”
The Etruscans are particularly famous for their artistic achievements. Beginning in the late eighth century B.C.E., Etruscan art was heavily influenced by their Aegean and Levantine trading partners, which introduced new materials, techniques, and iconography such as “…the human figure, real and fantastic beasts (especially the lion), and vegetal and geometric motifs…” It is during this era, referred to as the Orientalizing period (late 8th – early 6th centuries B.C.E.), that the art forms for which the Etruscans are most celebrated – bronze work, pottery, sculpture, and wall paintings – emerged.
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