Editing Etruscan civilization

{{Short description|Pre-Roman civilization of ancient Italy}}
{{Use shortened footnotes|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox former country
| native_name            = {{ubl|{{lang|ett|𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌄𐌍𐌍𐌀}}|{{tlit|ett|Rasenna}}}}
| conventional_long_name = Etruscans
| common_name            = Etruscan civilization
| era                    = [[Iron Age]], [[Ancient history]]
| status                 = [[City-state]]s
| year_start             = 900&nbsp;BC<ref name=Bartoloni2012h/>
| year_end               = 27&nbsp;BC<ref name=Bartoloni2012h/>
| event_start            = [[Villanovan culture]]
| event_end              = Last Etruscan cities formally absorbed by Rome
| p1                     = Proto-Villanovan culture
| s1                     = Roman Empire
| currency               = [[Etruscan coins|Etruscan coinage]] (5th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC onward)
| image_map              = Etruscan civilization map.png
| image_map_caption      = Extent of Etruscan civilization and the twelve Etruscan League cities
| common_languages       = [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]]
| religion               = [[Etruscan religion|Etruscan]]
| year_leader1           = Unknown
| year_leader2           = Unknown
| legislature            = Etruscan League
| today                  = {{plainlist|
* [[Italy]]
* [[Vatican City]]
* [[San Marino]]
* [[Corsica]]
}}
| government_type = Chiefdom
|HDI_year=|demonym=|area_km2=|area_rank=|GDP_PPP=|GDP_PPP_year=|HDI=}}

The '''Etruscan civilization''' ({{IPAc-en|ɪ|ˈ|t|r|ʌ|s|k|ən}} {{respell|ih|TRUS|kən}}) was an ancient civilization created by the Etruscans, a people who inhabited [[Etruria]] in [[List of ancient peoples of Italy|ancient Italy]], with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of [[city-states]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Potts |first1=Charlotte R. |last2=Smith |first2=Christopher J. |title=The Etruscans: Setting New Agendas |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |year=2022 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=597–644 |doi=10.1007/s10814-021-09169-x |doi-access=free|hdl=10023/24245 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> After adjacent lands had been conquered its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now [[Tuscany]], western [[Umbria]] and northern [[Lazio]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goring |first1=Elizabeth |year=2004 |title=Treasures from Tuscany: the Etruscan legacy |location=Edinburgh |publisher=National Museums Scotland Enterprises |page=13 |isbn=978-1901663907}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1= Leighton |first1=Robert |year=2004 |title=Tarquinia. An Etruscan City |series=Duckworth Archaeological Histories |location=London |publisher=Duckworth |page=32 |isbn=0-7156-3162-4}}</ref> as well as what are now the [[Po Valley]], [[Emilia-Romagna]], south-eastern [[Lombardy]], southern [[Veneto]] and western [[Campania]].<ref name=Camporeale2004>{{cite book |translator-last1=Hartmann |translator-first1=Thomas Michael |orig-date=2001 |editor1-last=Camporeale |editor1-first=Giovannangelo |editor1-link=Giovannangelo Camporeale |title=The Etruscans Outside Etruria |location=Los Angeles |publisher=Getty Trust |year=2004}}</ref><ref name=dellafina2005>{{cite book |last1=Della Fina |first1=Giuseppe |year=2005 |title=Etruschi, la vita quotidiana |language=it |location=Rome |publisher= L'Erma di Bretschneider |page=15 |isbn=9788882653330}}</ref>

A large body of literature has flourished on the origins of the Etruscans, but the consensus among modern scholars is that the Etruscans were an indigenous population.<ref name=Barker>{{cite book |last1=Barker |first1=Graeme |author-link1=Graeme Barker |last2=Rasmussen |first2=Tom |author-link2=Tom Rasmussen |year=2000 |title=The Etruscans |series=The Peoples of Europe |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell |page=44 |isbn= 978-0-631-22038-1}}</ref><ref name=DeGrummond2014>{{cite book |last1= De Grummond |first1=Nancy T.|author-link1= Nancy Thomson de Grummond|year=2014 |chapter=Ethnicity and the Etruscans|editor1-last=McInerney |editor1-first=Jeremy |title=A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean |location=Chichester |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |pages=405–422 |doi=10.1002/9781118834312 |isbn=9781444337341}}</ref><ref name=Turfa2017>{{cite book |last1=Turfa|first1= Jean MacIntosh |author-link1=Jean MacIntosh Turfa |year=2017 |chapter=The Etruscans |editor1-last=Farney |editor1-first=Gary D. |editor2-last=Bradley |editor2-first=Gary |title=The Peoples of Ancient Italy |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter|pages=637–672 |doi=10.1515/9781614513001 |isbn=978-1-61451-520-3}}</ref><ref name=Shipley2017>{{cite book |last1=Shipley |first1=Lucy |year=2017 |chapter=Where is home? |title=The Etruscans: Lost Civilizations |location=London |publisher=Reaktion |pages=28–46 |isbn=9781780238623}}</ref><ref name=Benelli2021>{{cite book |last1=Benelli |first1=Enrico |year=2021 |chapter=Le origini. Dai racconti del mito all'evidenza dell'archeologia |title=Gli Etruschi |language=it |location=Milan |publisher=Idea Libri-Rusconi Editore |pages=9–24 |isbn=978-8862623049}}</ref> The earliest evidence of a [[culture]] that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900&nbsp;BC.<ref name=Bartoloni2012h>{{cite book |year=2012|editor1-last=Bartoloni |editor1-first=Gilda |title=Introduzione all'Etruscologia |language=it |location=Milan |publisher=Hoepli |isbn=978-8820348700}}</ref> This is the period of the [[Iron Age]] [[Villanovan culture]], considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization,<ref name=Neri>{{cite book |title=Gli etruschi tra VIII e VII secolo a.C. nel territorio di Castelfranco Emilia (MO) |first =Diana |last=Neri |publisher=All'Insegna del Giglio |location=Florence |year=2012 |language=it |chapter=Il periodo villanoviano nell'Emilia occidentale |page=9 |isbn=978-8878145337 |quote=Il termine "Villanoviano" è entrato nella letteratura archeologica quando, a metà dell '800, il conte Gozzadini mise in luce le prime tombe ad incinerazione nella sua proprietà di Villanova di Castenaso, in località Caselle (BO). La cultura villanoviana coincide con il periodo più antico della civiltà etrusca, in particolare durante i secoli IX e VIII a.C. e i termini di Villanoviano I, II e III, utilizzati dagli archeologi per scandire le fasi evolutive, costituiscono partizioni convenzionali della prima età del Ferro}}</ref><ref name=Bartolonivillanoviana>{{cite book |title=La cultura villanoviana. All'inizio della storia etrusca |first=Gilda|last = Bartoloni|publisher=Carocci editore |location=Rome |year=2012 |orig-year=2002 |language=it |edition=III |isbn=9788843022618}}</ref><ref name=Torellicolonna2000>{{cite book |title=Gi Etruschi|first=Giovanni |last=Colonna |author-link=Giovanni Colonna (archaeologist) |editor-first=Mario |editor-last = Torelli|publisher=Bompiani |location=Milan |year=2000 |language=it |chapter=I caratteri originali della civiltà Etrusca |pages=25–41}}</ref><ref name=Torellibriquel2000>{{cite book |title=Gi Etruschi |first=Dominique |last=Briquel |author-link=Dominique Briquel |editor-first=Mario |editor-last=Torelli |publisher=Bompiani |location=Milan |year=2000 |language=it |chapter=Le origini degli Etruschi: una questione dibattuta fin dall'antichità |pages=43–51}}</ref><ref name=Torellibartoloni2000>{{cite book|title=Gi Etruschi |first=Gilda |last=Bartoloni |editor-first=Mario |editor-last=Torelli |publisher=Bompiani |location=Milan |year=2000 |language=it |chapter=Le origini e la diffusione della cultura villanoviana |pages=53–71}}</ref> which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age [[Proto-Villanovan culture]] in the same region,<ref name=Moser1996>{{cite book |last1=Moser |first1=Mary E. |year=1996 |chapter=The origins of the Etruscans: new evidence for an old question |editor1-last=Hall |editor1-first=John Franklin |editor1-link=John F. Hall |title=Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/etruscanitaly00john/page/29 |chapter-url-access=registration |location=Provo, UT |publisher=Museum of Art, Brigham Young University |pages=[https://archive.org/details/etruscanitaly00john/page/29 29]–43 |isbn=0842523340}}</ref> part of the central European [[Urnfield culture]] system. Etruscan civilization dominated Italy until it fell to [[Roman expansion in Italy|the expanding Rome]] beginning in the late 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC as a result of the [[Roman–Etruscan Wars]];<ref name="Rix-2008" /> Etruscans were granted [[Roman citizenship]] in 90&nbsp;BC and in 27&nbsp;BC the whole Etruscan territory was incorporated into the newly established [[Roman Empire]].<ref name=Bartoloni2012h/>

The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 500&nbsp;BC, shortly after the [[Roman Kingdom]] became the [[Roman Republic]]. Its culture flourished in three confederacies of cities: that of [[Etruria]] (Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), that of the [[Po Valley]] with the eastern [[Alps]], and that of [[Campania]].<ref>{{cite web |title=A good map of the Italian range and cities of the culture at the beginning of its history |url=http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/cities.html |publisher=mysteriousetruscans.com}}</ref><ref>The topic of the "League of Etruria" is covered in Freeman, pp. 562–65.</ref> The league in northern Italy is mentioned in [[Livy]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Titus |last=Livius |author-link=Livy |title=Ab Urbe Condita Libri |language=la |trans-title=The History of Rome |volume=V.33 |quote=The passage identifies the [[Raetia|Raetii]] as a remnant of the 12&nbsp;cities "beyond the [[Apennine Mountains|Apennines]]".|title-link=Ab Urbe Condita Libri}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Polybius |author-link=Polybius |title=Campanian Etruscans mentioned |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/2*.html#17 |volume=II.17}}</ref><ref>The entire subject with complete ancient sources in footnotes was worked up by George Dennis in his ''Introduction''. In the [[LacusCurtius]] transcription, the references in Dennis's footnotes link to the texts in English or Latin; the reader may also find the English of some of them on [[WikiSource]] or other Internet sites. As the work has already been done by Dennis and Thayer, the complete work-up is not repeated here.</ref> The reduction in Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500&nbsp;BC the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from the Etruscans in favor of the rising [[Roman Republic]].<ref name="Cary">{{cite book |first1=M. |last1=Cary |first2=H. H. |last2=Scullard |title=A History of Rome |edition=3rd |year=1979 |page=28 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn=0-312-38395-9}}</ref>

The earliest-known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern [[Etruria]] that date to around 700&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Rix-2008">{{cite book |first=Helmut |last=Rix |contribution=Etruscan |title=The Ancient Languages of Europe |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00roge |url-access=registration |editor-first=Roger D. |editor-last=Woodard |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2008 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientlanguages00roge/page/141 141–64] |isbn=9780521684958}}</ref><ref name=Bonfante2000>{{cite book |last1=Bonfante |first1=Giuliano |author-link1=Giuliano Bonfante|last2=Bonfante |first2=Larissa |author-link2=Larissa Bonfante |year=2002 |orig-year=1983 |title=The Etruscan language. An introduction |edition=Rev. |publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0719055407}}</ref> The Etruscans developed a system of writing derived from the [[Euboean alphabet]], which was used in the [[Magna Graecia]] coastal areas in [[Southern Italy]]. The [[Etruscan language]] remains only partly understood, making modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. In the Etruscan political system authority resided in its individual small cities and probably in its prominent individual families. At the height of Etruscan power, elite Etruscan families grew very rich through trade with the [[Celts]] to the north and the Greeks to the south, and they filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Celti ed Etruschi nell'Etruria Padana e nell'Italia settentrionale |url=https://www.academia.edu/4847350 |language=it |format=PDF |last1=Sassatelli |first1=Giuseppe}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Carlo |last=Amendola |date=2019-08-28 |title=Etruschi e Celti della Gallia meridionale – parte 1 |url=https://celticworld.it/2019/08/28/etruschi-e-celti-della-gallia-meridionale-parte-1/ |access-date=2022-02-15|website=CelticWorld|language=it}}</ref>

==Legend and history==
{{Main|Etruscan history}}

===Ethnonym and etymology===
[[File:Tular Rasnal 1.jpg|thumb|Boundary stone from Cortona
<br>Etruscan: Tular Rasnal<br>English: Boundary of the People]]

According to [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus|Dionysius]] the Etruscans called themselves '''Rasenna''' (Greek Ῥασέννα), a stem from the Etruscan Rasna (𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀), the people. Evidence of inscriptions as Tular Rasnal (𐌕𐌖𐌋𐌀𐌛 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋), "boundary of the people", or Mechlum Rasnal (𐌌𐌄𐌙𐌋 𐌛𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀𐌋). "community of the people", attest to its autonym usage. The [[Tyrsenian languages|Tyrsenian]] etymology, however, remains unknown.<ref>Rasenna comes from {{cite book |author=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Roman Antiquities |at=I.30.3}} The syncopated form, Rasna, is inscriptional and is inflected.</ref><ref>The topic is covered in Pallottino, p.&nbsp;133.</ref><ref>Some inscriptions, such as the cippus of Cortona, feature the Raśna (pronounced Rashna) alternative, as is described at {{cite web |first=Gabor Z. |last=Bodroghy |url=http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/etrusk/po/origins.html |series=Etruscan |title=Origins |website=The Palaeolinguistic Connection |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080416143745/http://users.tpg.com.au/etr/etrusk/po/origins.html |archive-date=2008-04-16 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In [[Attic Greek]] the Etruscans were known as [[Tyrrhenians]] ({{lang|grc|Τυρρηνοί}}, ''Tyrrhēnoi'', earlier {{lang|grc|Τυρσηνοί}} ''Tyrsēnoi''),<ref>{{LSJ|*turrhno/s|Τυρρηνός}}, {{LSJ|*turshno/s|Τυρσηνός|ref}}.</ref> from which the Romans derived the names ''Tyrrhēnī'', ''Tyrrhēnia'' (Etruria),<ref>{{L&S|Tyrrheni|ref}}</ref> and ''Mare Tyrrhēnum'' ([[Tyrrhenian Sea]]).<ref name=Grummond>{{cite book |last1=Thomson de Grummond |first1=Nancy |date=2006 |title=Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend |pages=201–208 |language=English |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Penn Museum of Archaeology |isbn=9781931707862}}</ref>

The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the ''Tuscī'' or ''Etruscī'' (singular ''Tuscus'').<ref>According to Félix Gaffiot's ''Dictionnaire Illustré Latin Français'', the major authors of the [[Roman Republic]] ([[Livy]], [[Cicero]], [[Horace]], and others) used the term ''Tusci''. Cognate words developed, including ''Tuscia'' and ''Tusculanensis''. ''Tuscī'' was clearly the principal term used to designate things Etruscan; ''Etruscī'' and ''Etrusia''/''Etrūria'' were used less often, mainly by Cicero and Horace, and they lack cognates.</ref><ref>According to the {{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=etruscan&searchmode=none |title=Online Etymological Dictionary}} the English use of ''Etruscan'' dates from 1706.</ref><ref>{{L&S|Tusci|ref}}</ref> Their Roman name is the origin of the terms [[Tuscany|Toscana]], which refers to their heartland, and [[Etruria]], which can refer to their wider region. The term ''Tusci'' is thought by linguists to have been the Umbrian word for Etruscan, based on an inscription on an [[Iguvine Tables|ancient bronze tablet]] from a nearby region.<ref>{{cite web |title='Cui bono?' The beneficiary phrases of the third Iguvine table |first=Michael |last=Weiss |location=Ithaca, New York |publisher=Cornell University |url=http://ling.cornell.edu/people/Weiss/Cuibono.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://ling.cornell.edu/people/Weiss/Cuibono.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> The inscription contains the phrase ''turskum ... nomen'', literally ‘the Tuscan name’. Based on a knowledge of Umbrian grammar, linguists can infer that the base form of the word turskum is *Tursci,<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Carl Darling Buck |author=Carl Darling Buck |year=1904 |title=Introduction: A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian |location=Boston |publisher=Gibb & Company }}</ref> which would, through [[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]] and a word-initial [[epenthesis]], be likely to lead to the form, ''E-trus-ci''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Eric |last=Partridge |year=1983 |title=Origins |url=https://archive.org/details/originsshortetym0000part |url-access=registration |publisher=Greenwich House |location=New York |isbn=9780517414255 |entry=tower |page=730}}</ref>

As for the original meaning of the root, *Turs-, a widely cited hypothesis is that it, like the Latin ''turris'', means ‘tower’ and comes from the ancient Greek word for tower: {{lang|grc|τύρσις}},<ref name=B51>The Bonfantes (2003), p. 51.</ref><ref>{{LSJ|tu/rsis|τύρσις|shortref}}.</ref> likely a loan into Greek. On this hypothesis, the Tusci were called the ‘people who build towers"<ref name=B51 /> or "the tower builders".<ref>Partridge (1983)</ref> This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. Alternatively, [[Giuliano Bonfante|Giuliano]] and [[Larissa Bonfante]] have speculated that Etruscan houses may have seemed like towers to the simple Latins.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Etruscan Language: An Introduction, Revised Edition|last1=Bonfante|first1=Giuliano|last2=Bonfante|first2=Larissa|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0719055409|page=51}}</ref> The proposed etymology has a long history, [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]] having observed in the first century BC, "[T]here is no reason that the Greeks should not have called [the Etruscans] by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers."<ref name=DHI30>Book I, Section 30.</ref> In his recent ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Robert Beekes claims the Greek word is a "loanword from a Mediterranean language", a hypothesis that goes back to an article by [[Paul Kretschmer]] in ''Glotta'' from 1934.<ref>Beekes, R. ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'' Brill (2010) pp.1520-1521</ref><ref>Kretschmer, Paul. "Nordische Lehnwörter im Altgriechischen" in ''Glotta'' 22 (1934) pp. 110 ff.</ref>

===Origins===
{{Main|Etruscan origins}}

====Ancient sources====
[[File:Exekias Dionysos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2044.jpg|thumb|The [[Dionysus Cup]], a {{Lang|grc|[[kylix]]}} painted by the Athenian [[Exekias]] ca. 530&nbsp;BCE, showing the narrative of Dionysus's capture by Tyrrhenian pirates and transfiguration of them into dolphins in the seventh ''Homeric Hymn''{{Sfn|Strauss Clay|2016|pp=32–34}}]]
[[File:Urna cineraria biconica con coperchio a elmo crestato, da pozzo cinerario a monterozzi, loc. forse fontanaccia.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Biconical cinerary urn with crest-shaped helmet lid, 9th–8th century BC, from Monterozzi (Fontanaccia), [[Tarquinia]], [[Tarquinia National Museum|Museo archeologico nazionale]]]]
[[File:Urne cinéraire imitant une habitation traditionnelle. Attribuée à l'atelier de Vulci (Etrurie). Impasto et plaque de bronze découpée. 8e siècle av. J.-C..jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Urn in the shape of a hut, which represents the typical Etruscan house of the Villanovan phase, 8th century BC, from [[Vulci]], [[Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva)|Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève]]]]
[[File:Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols Bolsena Italy 700 BCE to 650 BCE.jpg|thumb|right|[[Etruscan art|Etruscan]] pendant with a large equilateral cross of concentric circles flanked by four small right-facing [[swastika]]s among its symbols from [[Bolsena]], [[Italy]], 700–650&nbsp;BC. [[Louvre]]]]

Literary and historical texts in the Etruscan language have not survived, and the language itself is only partially understood by modern scholars. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. These ancient writers differed in their theories about the origin of the Etruscan people. Some suggested they were [[Pelasgians]] who had migrated there from Greece. Others maintained that they were indigenous to central Italy.

The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called [[Tyrrhenians]], was the 8th-century BC poet [[Hesiod]] in his work the [[Theogony]]. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins.<ref>Hesiod, ''Theogony'' 1015.</ref> The 7th-century BC ''Homeric Hymn'' to Dionysus<ref>Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, 7.7–8</ref> referred to them as pirates.<ref name=Brown545560>John Pairman Brown, ''Israel and Hellas'', Vol. 2 (2000) p. 211</ref> Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east and did not associate them with the Pelasgians.

It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks" respectively.<ref>[[Strabo]]. ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+6.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Geography]''. Book VI, Chapter II. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220902170714/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+6.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Archived] from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.</ref> The 5th-century BC historians [[Herodotus]],<ref>6.137</ref> and [[Thucydides]]<ref>4.109</ref> and the 1st-century BC historian [[Strabo]],<ref name="5.2, citing Anticlides">[[Strabo]]. ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+5.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Geography]''. Book V, Chapter II. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.[https://web.archive.org/web/20220902165216/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+5.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Archived] from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.</ref> did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from [[Lydia]] by way of the Greek island of [[Lemnos]]. They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" ({{lang|grc|τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον Πελασγικόν, τῶν καὶ Λῆμνόν ποτε καὶ Ἀθήνας Τυρσηνῶν}}). As Strabo and Herodotus told it,<ref name="1.94">1.94</ref> the migration to Lemnos was led by [[Tyrrhenus]] / Tyrsenos, the son of [[Atys of Lydia|Atys]] (who was king of Lydia). Strabo<ref name="5.2, citing Anticlides" /> added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and [[Imbros]] then followed Tyrrhenus to the [[Italian Peninsula]]. According to the logographer [[Hellanicus of Lesbos]], there was a Pelasgian migration from [[Thessaly]] in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Roman Antiquities |at=1.28–3}}</ref>

There is some evidence suggesting a link between Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The [[Lemnos stele]] bears inscriptions in a language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans.<ref name=Morritt545560>{{cite book |first=Robert D. |last=Morritt |title=Stones that Speak |year=2010 |page=272}}</ref> The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a "[[Tyrsenian languages|Tyrrhenian language group]]" consisting of Etruscan, Lemnian, and the [[Raetic language|Raetic]] spoken in the [[Alps]].

But the 1st-century BC historian [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that the Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians.<ref name=Dionysius>{{cite book |author=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Roman Antiquities |at=Book I, Chapters 30 1}}</ref> Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian [[Xanthus of Lydia]], who was originally from [[Sardis]] and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of the Lydians.<ref name=Dionysius/>

{{blockquote|For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living.}}

The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the [[endonym]] of the Etruscans: Rasenna.

{{blockquote|The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci, but formerly, with the same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyrscoï [an earlier form of Tusci]. Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their leaders, Rasenna.}}

Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian [[Livy]], in his ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri]]'', said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin.<ref>{{cite book |first=Titus |last=Livius |author-link=Livy |title=Ab Urbe Condita Libri |trans-title=The History of Rome |at=Book 5|title-link=Ab Urbe Condita Libri }}</ref>

{{blockquote|The Alpine tribes have also, no doubt, the same origin (of the Etruscans), especially the Raetians; who have been rendered so savage by the very nature of the country as to retain nothing of their ancient character save the sound of their speech, and even that is corrupted.}}

The first-century historian [[Pliny the Elder]] also put the Etruscans in the context of the [[Rhaetian people]] to the north, and wrote in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' (AD&nbsp;79):<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plinius Secundus |first1= Gaius |title=Naturalis Historia, Liber III, 133 |language=Latin}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Adjoining these the (Alpine) [[Noricum|Noricans]] are the Raeti and [[Vindelici]]. All are divided into a number of states. The Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the [[Gaul]]s, their leader was named Raetus.|source=}}

====Archeological evidence and modern etruscology====
{{Main|Proto-Villanovan culture|Villanovan culture}}
[[File:Bronze chariot inlaid with ivory MET DP137936.jpg|thumb|[[Monteleone chariot]], one of the world's great archaeological finds, 2nd quarter of the 6th century BC]]
[[File:Putto graziani, con dedica al dio tec sans, da sanguineto al trasimeno, 200-150 ac ca..JPG|thumb|upright=.7|Putto Graziani, hollow-cast bronze on which is engraved the Etruscan inscription "To the god Tec Sans as a gift" (Tec Sans was the protectress of childhood), 3-2nd century BC, [[Rome]], [[Vatican Museums|Museo Gregoriano Etrusco]]]]
[[File:Museo guarnacci, urna degli sposi, I sec. ac. 01.JPG|thumb|right|Sarcophagus of the Spouses, about 1st century BC, [[Volterra]], Museo etrusco Guarnacci]]

The question of the Etruscans' origins has long been a subject of interest and debate among historians. In modern times, all the evidence gathered by prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, and etruscologists points to an autochthonous origin of the Etruscans.<ref name=Barker/><ref name=DeGrummond2014/><ref name=Turfa2017/><ref name=Shipley2017/><ref name=Benelli2021/> There is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a migration of the Lydians or Pelasgians into Etruria.<ref name=Wallace2010>{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1= Rex E.|author-link1=Rex E. Wallace |year=2010 |chapter=Italy, Languages of |editor1-last=Gagarin |editor1-first=Michael |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome |language=English |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=97–102 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001 |isbn=9780195170726|quote=Etruscan origins lie in the distant past. Despite the claim by Herodotus, who wrote that Etruscans migrated to Italy from Lydia in the eastern Mediterranean, there is no material or linguistic evidence to support this. Etruscan material culture developed in an unbroken chain from Bronze Age antecedents. As for linguistic relationships, Lydian is an Indo-European language. Lemnian, which is attested by a few inscriptions discovered near Kamania on the island of Lemnos, was a dialect of Etruscan introduced to the island by commercial adventurers. Linguistic similarities connecting Etruscan with Raetic, a language spoken in the sub-Alpine regions of northeastern Italy, further militate against the idea of eastern origins. |mode= }}</ref><ref name=Turfa2017/><ref name=DeGrummond2014/><ref name=Shipley2017/><ref name=Benelli2021/> Modern [[etruscology|etruscologists]] and archeologists, such as [[Massimo Pallottino]] (1947), have shown that early historians' assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless.<ref name=Pallottino1947>{{cite book |last1=Pallottino |first1=Massimo |author-link1=Massimo Pallottino |title=L'origine degli Etruschi |language=it |location= Rome|publisher= Tumminelli |date=1947 }}</ref> In 2000, the etruscologist [[Dominique Briquel]] explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek narratives on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents.<ref name=Briquel2000>{{cite book |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |author-link1=Dominique Briquel |year=2000 |chapter=Le origini degli Etruschi: una questione dibattuta sin dall’antichità |editor1-last=Torelli |editor1-first=Mario |editor1-link=Mario Torelli|title= Gli Etruschi|language= it|location=Milan |publisher= Bompiani|pages=43–51 }}</ref> He argues that the ancient story of the Etruscans' 'Lydian origins' was a deliberate, politically motivated fabrication, and that ancient Greeks inferred a connection between the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians solely on the basis of certain Greek and local traditions and because there had been trade between the Etruscans and Greeks.<ref name=Hornblower2014>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |editor3-last= Eidinow |editor3-first=Esther |title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0awiBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|series=Oxford Companions |language=en |edition=2 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2014 |pages=291–292 |isbn=9780191016752 |quote=Briquel's convincing demonstration that the famous story of an exodus, led by Tyrrhenus from Lydia to Italy, was a deliberate political fabrication created in the Hellenized milieu of the court at Sardis in the early 6th cent. BCE. }}</ref><ref name=Briquel2013>{{cite book |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |year=2013 |chapter=Etruscan Origins and the Ancient Authors |editor1-last=Turfa |editor1-first= Jean|title= The Etruscan World |language=en |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge Taylor & Francis Group |pages= 36–56|isbn=978-0-415-67308-2 }}</ref> He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration.<ref name=Briquel1990>{{cite journal |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |author-link1=Dominique Briquel |year=1990 |title=Le problème des origines étrusques |journal= Lalies |series=Sessions de linguistique et de littérature |language=fr |location=Paris|publisher= Presses de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure|publication-date=1992 |pages=7–35 }}</ref>

Several archaeologists specializing in [[Prehistory]] and [[Protohistory]] who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to [[material culture]] or to [[social practices]], to support a migration theory.<ref name=Bartoloni2014>{{cite book |last1=Bartoloni |first1=Gilda |year=2014 |chapter=Gli artigiani metallurghi e il processo formativo nelle "Origini" degli Etruschi |title=" Origines " : percorsi di ricerca sulle identità etniche nell'Italia antica |series=Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité|language=it|volume=126-2 |location=Rome |publisher= École française de Rome|publication-date=2014 |isbn=978-2-7283-1138-5}}</ref> The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in the area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, a Continental European practice derived from the [[Urnfield culture]]; nothing about it suggests an ethnic contribution from [[Asia Minor]] or the [[Near East]].<ref name=Bartoloni2014/>

A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities showed a continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years.<ref name=Bagnasco2012>{{cite book |last1=Bagnasco Gianni |first1=Giovanna |chapter=Origine degli Etruschi |editor1-last=Bartoloni |editor1-first=Gilda |title=Introduzione all'Etruscologia |language=it |location=Milan |publisher=Ulrico Hoepli Editore |pages=47–81 }}</ref> Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during the last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous [[Proto-Villanovan culture]] and that the subsequent Iron Age [[Villanovan culture]] is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization.<ref name=Moser1996/> It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the [[Mycenaeans|Mycenaean world]] at the end of the Bronze Age, but contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of [[Greece]], [[Aegean Sea]] Islands, Asia Minor, and the Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan [[ethnogenesis]] was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the [[Magna Grecia|Greek colonies in Southern Italy]] and [[Phoenician–Punic Sardinia|Phoenician-Punic]] colonies in [[Sardinia]], and the consequent [[orientalizing period]].<ref name=Stoddart>{{cite book |last1=Stoddart |first1=Simon |author-link1=Simon Stoddart |year=1989 |chapter=Divergent trajectories in central Italy 1200–500 BC |editor1-last=Champion |editor1-first=Timothy C. |title=Centre and Periphery – Comparative Studies in Archaeology |language=en |location= London and New York|publisher=Taylor & Francis |publication-date= 2005|pages=89–102 }}</ref>

One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of the past, has been to associate the later [[Orientalizing period]] of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria.<ref name=Burkert1992>{{cite book |last1=Burkert|first1= Walter |year=1992 |title=The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age |series=Enciclopedia del Mediterraneo |language=English |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson}}</ref> The Etruscan orientalizing period was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with the Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations.<ref name=d'agostino2003>{{cite book |last1=d'Agostino|first1= Bruno |year=2003 |chapter=Teorie sull'origine degli Etruschi |title= Gli Etruschi |series=Enciclopedia del Mediterraneo |language=Italian |volume=26 |location=Milan |publisher=Jaca Book |pages=10–19}}</ref> The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to several other civilizations in the central and western Mediterranean up to the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the [[Tomb of the Augurs]], the [[Tomb of the Triclinium]] and the [[Tomb of the Leopards]], as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the [[Monterozzi necropolis]] in [[Tarquinia]], were painted by Greek painters or at least foreign artists. These images have, therefore, a very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population.<ref name=deGrummond2014>{{cite book |last1=de Grummond |first1=Nancy Thomson |year=2014 |chapter=Ethnicity and the Etruscans |title=Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean |language=en |location=Chichester, Uk |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |pages= 413–414 |quote= The facial features, however, are not likely to constitute a true portrait, but rather partake of a formula for representing the male in Etruria in Archaic art. It has been observed that the formula used—with the face in profile, showing almond-shaped eyes, a large nose, and a domed up profile of the top of the head—has its parallels in images from the eastern Mediterranean. But these features may show only artistic conventions and are therefore of limited value for determining ethnicity. }}</ref> It was only from the end of the 4th century BC that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic.<ref name=Bandinelli1984>{{cite book |last1=Bianchi Bandinelli |first1=Ranuccio |author-link1=Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli |year=1984 |chapter=Il problema del ritratto |title=L'arte classica |language=it |location=Roma |publisher= [[Editori Riuniti]]}}</ref>

====Genetic research====
There have been numerous biological studies on the Etruscan origins, the oldest of which dates to the 1950s, when research was still based on blood tests of modern samples and DNA analysis (including the analysis of ancient samples) was not yet possible.<ref name=Ciba1959>{{cite book |last1=A Ciba Foundation Symposium |year=1959 |orig-year=1958 |editor1-last= Wolstenholme|editor1-first= Gordon|editor1-link= Gordon Wolstenholme |editor2-last=O'Connor |editor2-first=Cecilia M.|title=Medical Biology and Etruscan Origins |language= English |location=London |publisher=J & A Churchill Ltd |isbn= 978-0-470-71493-5}}</ref><ref name=Perkins2017>{{cite book |last=Perkins |first=Phil |editor-last=Naso |editor-first=Alessandro |title=Etruscology |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2017 |pages=109–118 |chapter=Chapter 8: DNA and Etruscan identity |isbn=978-1934078495 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uk8_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 }}</ref><ref name=Perkins2009>{{cite book |last= Perkins |first=Phil |editor-last1=Perkins |editor-first1=Phil|editor-last2=Swaddling |editor-first2=Judith |title=Etruscan by Definition: Papers in Honour of Sybille Haynes|publisher=The British Museum Research Publications |id=173 |location=London |date=2009 |pages=95–111 |chapter=DNA and Etruscan identity |isbn=978-0861591732}}</ref> Only very recently, with the development of [[archaeogenetics]], have comprehensive studies containing the [[whole genome sequencing]] of Etruscan samples been published, including [[autosomal DNA]] and [[Y-DNA]], autosomal DNA being the "most valuable to understand what really happened in an individual's history", as stated by geneticist [[David Reich (geneticist)|David Reich]], whereas previously studies were based only on [[mitochondrial DNA]] analysis, which contains less and limited information.<ref name=Reich2018>{{cite book |last1=Reich |first1=David |author-link1=David Reich (geneticist) |year=2018 |chapter=Ancient DNA Opens the Floodgates |title= Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past |language=English |location= Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=53–59 |isbn=9780198821250 |quote="But mitochondrial DNA only records information on the entirely female line, a tiny fraction of the many tens of thousands of lineages that have contributed to any person’s genome. To understand what really happened in an individual’s history, it is incomparably more valuable to examine all ancestral lineages together."}}</ref>

An archeogenetic study focusing on Etruscan origins was published in September 2021 in the journal ''[[Science Advances]]'' and analyzed the [[autosomal DNA]] and the uniparental markers (Y-DNA and mtDNA) of 48 Iron Age individuals from [[Tuscany]] and [[Lazio]], spanning from 800 to 1 BC and concluded that the Etruscans were autochthonous (locally indigenous) and had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. In the Etruscan individuals the ancestral component [[Steppe-related ancestry|Steppe]] was present in the same percentages as those found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and the Etruscan DNA bore no trace of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Both Etruscans and Latins were firmly part of the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscans were a mixture of WHG, EEF and Steppe ancestry; 75% of the Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to [[Haplogroup R-M269|haplogroup R1b (R1b M269)]], especially its clade [[Haplogroup R-M269#R-P312|R1b-P312]] and its derivative [[Haplogroup R1b-L2|R1b-L2]], whose direct ancestor is [[Haplogroup R-M269#R-U152|R1b-U152]], whilst the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]].<ref name=Posth2021>{{cite journal |last1=Posth |first1= Cosimo |last2=Zaro |first2=Valentina |last3=Spyrou |first3=Maria A. |date=September 24, 2021 |title=The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect |journal= [[Science Advances]] |language=English |location=Washington DC |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |volume=7 |issue= 39 |pages= eabi7673 |pmid=34559560| doi=10.1126/sciadv.abi7673| pmc=8462907 |bibcode= 2021SciA....7.7673P }}</ref>

The conclusions of the 2021 study are in line with a 2019 study published in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' that analyzed the remains of eleven [[Iron Age]] individuals from the areas around Rome, of whom four were Etruscan, one buried in [[Veio|Veio Grotta Gramiccia]] from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near [[Civitavecchia]] from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] (900–500 BC) from [[Latium vetus]] were genetically similar,<ref name=Antonio2019>{{cite journal |last1= Antonio |first1=Margaret L.|last2=Gao |first2=Ziyue |last3=M. Moots |first3= Hannah |year=2019 |title=Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean |journal=Science |language=en |location= Washington D.C.|publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |publication-date= November 8, 2019|volume= 366 |issue= 6466|pages=708–714 |doi=10.1126/science.aay6826 |pmid=31699931|pmc=7093155|bibcode=2019Sci...366..708A|quote=Interestingly, although Iron Age individuals were sampled from both Etruscan (n=3) and Latin (n=6) contexts, we did not detect any significant differences between the two groups with f4 statistics in the form of f4(RMPR_Etruscan, RMPR_Latin; test population, Onge), suggesting shared origins or extensive genetic exchange between them. |hdl=2318/1715466 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> with genetic differences between the examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant.{{sfn|Antonio et al.|2019|p=3}} The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of {{c.|30%}} [[steppe ancestry]].{{sfn|Antonio et al.|2019|p=2}} Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds [[Copper Age]] ancestry ([[Early European Farmers|EEF]] + [[Western Hunter-Gatherer|WHG]]; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%) and one-third [[Steppe-related ancestry]] (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%).<ref name=Antonio2019/> The only sample of [[Y-DNA]] belonged to [[Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)|haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283)]], found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried the M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from [[Croatia]] (1631{{ndash}}1531 BC).  The four samples of [[mtDNA]] extracted belonged to haplogroups [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5a1]], [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]], [[Haplogroup T (mtDNA)|T2b32]], [[Haplogroup K (mtDNA)|K1a4]].{{sfn|Antonio et al.|2019|loc=Table 2 Sample Information, Rows 33-35}}

Among the older studies, based only on mitochondrial DNA, a mtDNA study, published in 2018 in the [[American Journal of Physical Anthropology]] compared both ancient and modern samples from Tuscany, from [[Prehistory]], the Etruscan age, [[Ancient Rome|Roman age]], [[Renaissance]] and the present day and concluded that the Etruscans appear to be a local population, intermediate between the prehistoric and the other samples, placing them in the temporal network between the [[Eneolithic|Eneolithic Age]] and the Roman Age.<ref name=Leonardi2018>{{cite journal |last1= Leonardi|first1=Michela |last2=Sandionigi |first2=Anna |last3=Conzato |first3=Annalisa |last4=Vai |first4=Stefania |last5=Lari |first5= Martina |year=2018 |title=The female ancestor's tale: Long-term matrilineal continuity in a nonisolated region of Tuscany |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.23679 |journal= American Journal of Physical Anthropology |language=en |location= New York City|publisher= John Wiley & Sons |publication-date= September 6, 2018|volume=167 |issue=3 |pages=497–506 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.23679 |pmid= 30187463 |s2cid=52161000|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A couple of [[mitochondrial DNA]] studies published in 2013 in the journals [[PLOS One]] and [[American Journal of Physical Anthropology]], based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that the Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to be very close to a Neolithic population from [[Central Europe]] ([[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Hungary]]) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the [[Villanovan culture]], as supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research,<ref name=Moser1996/><ref name=Claassen2004>{{cite journal |last1=Claassen |first1=Horst |last2= Wree |first2= Andreas|year= 2004 |title=The Etruscan skulls of the Rostock anatomical collection – How do they compare with the skeletal findings of the first thousand years B.C.? |url= https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0940960204800323|journal=Annals of Anatomy |language=en |location=Amsterdam |publisher= Elsevier |volume=186 |issue=2 |pages=157–163 |doi=10.1016/S0940-9602(04)80032-3 |pmid=15125046 |quote= Seven Etruscan skulls were found in Corneto Tarquinia in the years 1881 and 1882 and were given as [a] present to Rostock's anatomical collection in 1882. The origin of the Etruscans who were contemporary with the Celts is not yet clear; according to Herodotus they had emigrated from Lydia in Asia Minor to Italy. To fit the Etruscan skulls into an ethnological grid they were compared with skeletal remains of the first thousand years B.C.E. All skulls were found to be male; their age ranged from 20 to 60 years, with an average age of about thirty. A comparison of the median sagittal outlines of the Etruscan skulls and the contemporary Hallstatt-Celtic skulls from North Bavaria showed that the former were shorter and lower. Maximum skull length, minimum frontal breadth, ear bregma height, bizygomatical breadth and orbital breadth of the Etruscan skulls were statistically significantly less developed compared to Hallstatt-Celtics from North Bavaria. In comparison to other contemporary skeletal remains the Etruscan skulls had no similarities in common with Hallstatt-Celtic skulls from North Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg but rather with Hallstatt-Celtic skulls from Hallstatt in Austria. Compared to chronologically adjacent skeletal remains the Etruscan skulls did not show similarities with Early Bronze Age skulls from Moravia but with Latène-Celtic skulls from Manching in South Bavaria. Due to the similarities of the Etruscan skulls with some Celtic skulls from South Bavaria and Austria, it seems more likely that the Etruscans were original inhabitants of Etruria than immigrants.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and that genetic links between Tuscany and western [[Anatolia]] date to at least 5,000 years ago during the [[Neolithic]] and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of [[Early European Farmers]] (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) [[Haplogroup JT (mtDNA)|JT]] (subclades of [[Haplogroup J (mtDNA)|J]] and [[Haplogroup T (mtDNA)|T]]) and [[U5b|U5]], with a minority of [[Haplogroup H1 (mtDNA)|mtDNA H1b]].<ref name=Ghirotto2013>{{cite journal|first1=Silvia|last1=Ghirotto|first2=Francesca|last2=Tassi|first3=Erica|last3=Fumagalli|first4=Vincenza|last4=Colonna|first5=Anna|last5=Sandionigi|first6=Martina|last6=Lari|first7=Stefania|last7=Vai|first8=Emmanuele|last8=Petiti|first9=Giorgio|last9=Corti|date=6 February 2013|title=Origins and evolution of the Etruscans' mtDNA|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=2|pages=e55519|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0055519|pmid=23405165|pmc=3566088|first10=Ermanno|last10=Rizzi|first11=Gianluca|last11=De Bellis|first12=David|last12=Caramelli|first13=Guido|last13=Barbujani|df=dmy-all|bibcode=2013PLoSO...855519G|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=Tassi2013>{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/ajpa.22319| journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |title=Genetic evidence does not support an Etruscan origin in Anatolia.|first1=Francesca|last1=Tassi|first2=Silvia|last2=Ghirotto|first3=David|last3=Caramelli| first4=Guido| last4=Barbujani|date=2013|pmid=23900768 | volume=152 | issue= 1| pages= 11–18|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

An mtDNA study published in 2004, based on about 28 samples of individuals who lived from 600 to 100 BC in [[Veneto]], Etruria and Campania, found that the Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European or [[West Asia]]n but only a few [[haplotype]]s were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among [[German (people)|Germans]] (seven haplotypes in common), the [[Cornwall|Cornish]] from the South West of Britain (five haplotypes in common), the [[Turkish peoples|Turks]] (four haplotypes in common) and the [[Tuscany|Tuscans]] (two haplotypes in common).<ref name=Vernesi2004>{{cite journal |author=C. Vernesi e Altri |title=The Etruscans: A population-genetic study |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=March 2004|volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=694–704 |doi=10.1086/383284 |pmid=15015132 |pmc=1181945 }}</ref> The modern populations with the shortest genetic distance from the ancient Etruscans, based solely on mtDNA and FST, were [[Tuscans]] followed by the Turks, other populations from the Mediterranean and the Cornish after.<ref name=Vernesi2004/> This study was much criticized by other geneticists, because "data represent severely damaged or partly contaminated mtDNA sequences" and "any comparison with modern population data must be considered quite hazardous",<ref name=Bandelt2004>{{cite journal |last1= Bandelt |first1= Hans-Jürgen|date= 2004|title= Etruscan artifacts |language=English |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=75 |issue= 5|pages= 919–920 |doi=10.1086/425180 |pmid= 15457405|pmc= 1182123}}</ref><ref name=Bandelt2005>{{cite journal |last1= Bandelt |first1= Hans-Jürgen|date=2005 |title= Mosaics of ancient mitochondrial DNA: positive indicators of nonauthenticity |language=English |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=13|issue= 10|pages= 1106–1112 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201476 |pmid= 16077732|s2cid= 19958417 |doi-access= free}}</ref><ref name=Thomas2005>{{cite journal |last1=Gilbert |first1= Marcus Thomas Pius |date=2005 |title= Assessing ancient DNA studies |url=https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(05)00226-0 |language=English |journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution |volume=20|issue=10 |pages= 541–544 |doi=10.1016/j.tree.2005.07.005 |pmid= 16701432|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and by archaeologists, who argued that the study was not clear-cut and had not provided evidence that the Etruscans were an intrusive population to the European context.<ref name=Perkins2009/><ref name=Perkins2017/>

In the collective volume ''Etruscology'' published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins, echoing an article of his from 2009, provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes, "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that [the] Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".<ref name=Perkins2017/><ref name=Perkins2009/>

In his 2021 book ''A Short History of Humanity'', German geneticist [[Johannes Krause]], codirector of the [[Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History|Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] in [[Jena]], concludes that it is likely that the [[Etruscan language]] (as well as [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Paleo-Sardinian]] and [[Minoan language|Minoan]]) "developed on the continent in the course of the [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic Revolution]]".<ref name=Krause2020>{{cite book |last1=Krause |first1=Johannes |author-link1=Johannes Krause |last2=Trappe |first2= Thomas |translator-last1= Waight |translator-first1=Caroline |year= 2021 |orig-year= 2019 |title=A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe |trans-title=Die Reise unserer Gene: Eine Geschichte über uns und unsere Vorfahren |language=English |edition=I |location=New York |publisher=Random House |page=217 |isbn=9780593229422 |quote=It's likely that Basque, Paleo-Sardinian, Minoan, and Etruscan developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution. Sadly, the true diversity of the languages that once existed in Europe will never be known.}}</ref>

===Periodization of Etruscan civilization===
{{main|Villanovan culture}}
The Etruscan civilization begins with the early Iron Age [[Villanovan culture]], regarded as the oldest phase, that occupied a large area of northern and central Italy during the Iron Age.<ref name=Neri/><ref name=Bartolonivillanoviana/><ref name=Torellicolonna2000/><ref name=Torellibriquel2000/><ref name=Torellibartoloni2000/> The Etruscans themselves dated their nation's origin to a date corresponding to the 11th or 10th century BC.<ref name=Bartolonivillanoviana/><ref name="BartoloniTreccani">[[Gilda Bartoloni]], "La cultura villanoviana", in ''Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica'', Treccani, Rome 1997, vol. VII, p. 1173 e s 1970, p. 922. (Italian)</ref> The Villanovan culture emerges with the phenomenon of regionalization from the late Bronze Age culture called "[[Proto-Villanovan culture|Proto-Villanovan]]", part of the central European [[Urnfield culture|Urnfield culture system]]. In the last Villanovan phase, called the recent phase (about 770–730 BC), the Etruscans established relations of a certain consistency with the first [[Magna Grecia|Greek immigrants in southern Italy]] (in [[Ischia|Pithecusa]] and then in [[Cuma (Italy)|Cuma]]), so much so as to initially absorb techniques and figurative models and soon more properly cultural models, with the introduction, for example, of writing, of a new way of banqueting, of a heroic funerary ideology, that is, a new aristocratic way of life, such as to profoundly change the physiognomy of Etruscan society.<ref name=BartoloniTreccani/> Thus, thanks to the growing number of contacts with the Greeks, the Etruscans entered what is called the [[orientalizing period]]. In this phase, there was a heavy influence in Greece, most of Italy and some areas of Spain, from the most advanced areas of the [[Aegean Sea|eastern Mediterranean]] and the [[ancient Near East]].<ref>[[Walter Burkert]], ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'', 1992.</ref> Also directly Phoenician, or otherwise Near Eastern, craftsmen, merchants and artists contributed to the spread in southern Europe of Near Eastern cultural and artistic motifs. The last three phases of Etruscan civilization are called, respectively, Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic, which roughly correspond to the homonymous phases of the ancient Greek civilization.

====Chronology====
{| class="wikitable" width=700px
|rowspan=10|'''Etruscan civilization'''<br>(900–27 BC)<ref name=Bartoloni2012h/>
|rowspan=4|Villanovan period<br>(900–720 BC)
| Villanovan I
| 900–800 BC
|-
| Villanovan II
| 800–720 BC
|-
| <small>Villanovan III (Bologna area)</small>
| <small>720–680 BC<ref name=Montanari2004 >{{cite web |url= http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/l-italia-preromana-i-siti-etruschi-bologna_%28Il-Mondo-dell%27Archeologia%29/|title=L'Italia preromana. I siti etruschi: Bologna |author=Giovanna Bermond Montanari|date=2004 |publisher=[[Treccani]]|language=it|access-date=October 12, 2019 }}</ref></small>
|-
| <small>Villanovan IV (Bologna area)</small>
| <small>680–540 BC<ref name=Montanari2004 /></small>
|-
|rowspan=3| Orientalizing period<br>(720–580 BC)
| Early Orientalizing
| 720–680 BC
|-
| Middle Orientalizing
| 680–625 BC
|-
| Late Orientalizing
| 625–580 BC
|-
|rowspan=1| Archaic period<br>(580–480 BC)
| Archaic
| 580–480 BC
|-
|rowspan=1| Classical period<br>(480–320 BC)
| Classical
| 480–320 BC
|-
|rowspan=1|Hellenistic period<br>(320–27 BC)
| Hellenistic
| 320–27 BC
|-
|}

===Expansion===
{{main|Etruria Padana|Etruria Campana}}
[[File:Map of Europe with indication of the directions of the traffic of Etruscan and Greek products - (English language version).svg|thumb|right|Etruscan territories and major spread pathways of Etruscan products]]
Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the [[Apennine Mountains]] and into Campania. Some small towns in the sixth century&nbsp;BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly subsumed by greater, more powerful neighbors. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, [[Magna Graecia]] in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially [[copper]] and [[Iron (material)|iron]], led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western [[Mediterranean Sea]]. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century&nbsp;BC, when [[Phocaea]]ns of Italy founded colonies along the coast of [[Sardinia]], [[Spain]] and [[Corsica]]. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with [[Ancient Carthage|Carthage]], whose interests also collided with the Greeks.<ref name="historyone">{{cite book|first=Larissa |last=Bonfante |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4QaXZky58FIC&q=Etruscan+League&pg=PA58 |title=Etruscan life and afterlife|via=Google Books | access-date=2009-04-22 | isbn=978-0-8143-1813-3|year = 1986|publisher=Wayne State University Press }}</ref><ref name="historytwo">{{cite book |author=John Franklin Hall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bUhT7i7XhOAC&q=Etruscan+League&pg=PA198 |title=Etruscan Italy |via=Google Books |access-date=2009-04-22 |isbn=978-0-8425-2334-9 |df=dmy-all|year = 1996| publisher=Indiana University Press }}</ref>

Around 540&nbsp;BC, the [[Battle of Alalia]] led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, [[Carthage]] managed to expand its sphere of influence at the Greeks' expense, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern [[Tyrrhenian Sea]] with full ownership of [[Corsica]]. From the first half of the 5th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480&nbsp;BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by [[Syracuse, Sicily]]. A few years later, in 474&nbsp;BC, Syracuse's tyrant [[Hiero I of Syracuse|Hiero]] defeated the Etruscans at the [[Battle of Cumae]]. Etruria's influence over the cities of [[Latium]] and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and [[Samnites]].

In the 4th century&nbsp;BC, Etruria saw a [[Gaul|Gallic]] invasion end its influence over the [[Po Valley]] and the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic coast]]. Meanwhile, [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. During the [[Roman–Etruscan Wars]], Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century&nbsp;BC.<ref name="historyone"/><ref name="historytwo"/>

===Etruscan League===
{{main|Etruscan cities}}
[[File:0 Mars de Todi - Museo Gregoriano Etruscano (1).JPG|thumb|The [[Mars of Todi]], an Etruscan [[bronze sculpture]], c.&nbsp;400&nbsp;BC]]
According to legend,<ref>Livy VII.21</ref> there was a period between 600&nbsp;BC and 500&nbsp;BC in which an alliance formed among 12 Etruscan settlements, known today as the ''Etruscan League'', ''Etruscan Federation'', or ''Dodecapolis'' ({{langx|grc|Δωδεκάπολις}}). According to a legend, the Etruscan League of 12 cities was founded by [[Tarchon]] and his brother [[Tyrrhenus]]. Tarchon lent his name to the city of [[Tarquinia|Tarchna]], or Tarquinnii, as it was known by the Romans. Tyrrhenus gave his name to the [[Tyrrhenians]], the alternative name for the Etruscans. Although there is no consensus on which cities were in the league, the following list may be close to the mark: [[Arezzo|Arretium]], [[Cerveteri|Caisra]], [[Chiusi|Clevsin]], [[Cortona|Curtun]], [[Perugia|Perusna]], [[Populonia|Pupluna]], [[Veii]], [[Tarquinia|Tarchna]], [[Vetulonia|Vetluna]], [[Volterra]], [[Bolsena|Velzna]], and [[Vulci|Velch]]. Some modern authors include [[Rusellae]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/etruschi_(Dizionario-di-Storia)/ |title=Etruschi |access-date=29 March 2016 |language=it |trans-title=Etruscans |publisher=[[Treccani]] |website=Dizionario di storia}}</ref> The league was mostly an economic and religious league, or a loose confederation, similar to the Greek states. During the later [[Roman Empire|imperial]] times, when Etruria was just one of many regions controlled by Rome, the number of cities in the league increased by three. This is noted on many gravestones from the 2nd century&nbsp;BC onwards. According to [[Livy]], the 12 [[city-state]]s met once a year at the [[Fanum Voltumnae]] at [[Volsinii]], where a leader was chosen to represent the league.<ref name=":1">{{cite web |url=http://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/cities.html |title=The Etruscan League of 12 |website=mysteriousetruscans.com |date=2 April 2009 |access-date=2015-04-25 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

There were two other Etruscan leagues ("[[Lega dei popoli]]"): that of [[Campania]], the main city of which was [[Capua]], and the [[Po Valley]] city-states in northern Italy, which included [[Bologna]], [[Spina]] and [[Adria]].<ref name=":1" />

===Possible founding of Rome===
{{Main|Founding of Rome}}
[[File:20090414-Cività-di-Bagnoregio.jpg|thumb|right|A former Etruscan walled town, [[Civita di Bagnoregio]]]]
[[File:Lupa Capitolina, Rome.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Capitoline Wolf]]'', long considered an Etruscan bronze, feeding the twins [[Romulus and Remus]]]]
Those who subscribe to a [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latin]] foundation of Rome followed by an Etruscan invasion typically speak of an Etruscan "influence" on Roman culture – that is, cultural objects which were adopted by Rome from neighboring Etruria. The prevailing view is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. In this interpretation, Etruscan cultural objects are considered influences rather than part of a heritage.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GrnsU27t2X8C&q=Rome+was+founded+by+Italics&pg=PA810 |title=The Shakespeare Name Dictionary |year=2004 |access-date=2011-09-14 |first1=Madison |last1=Davis |first2=Daniel |last2=Frankforter|publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780203642276 }}</ref> Rome was probably a small settlement until the arrival of the Etruscans, who constructed the first elements of its urban infrastructure such as the drainage system.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cunningham, Reich |title=Cultures and Values: A survey of the humanities |publisher=Thomson/Wadsworth |year=2006 |url=https://archive.org/details/culturevaluessur02cunn |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/culturevaluessur02cunn/page/92 92] |quote=The later Romans' own grandiose picture of the early days of their city was intended to glamorize its origins, but only with the arrival of the Etruscans did anything like an urban center begin to develop.|isbn=978-0534582272 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hughes |title=Rome: A cultural, visual, and personal history |year=2012 |page=24 |quote=Some Roman technical achievements began in Etruscan expertise. Though the Etruscans never came up with an aqueduct, they were good at drainage, and hence they were the ancestors of Rome's monumental sewer systems.}}</ref>

The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to the Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date. Many, if not most, of the Etruscan cities were older than Rome. If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. These would indicate that certain institutions and customs came directly from the Etruscans. Rome is located on the edge of what was Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome.

Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills—the steeper the better—and surrounded by thick walls. According to [[Roman mythology]], when [[Romulus and Remus]] founded Rome, they did so on the [[Palatine Hill]] according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a ''[[pomerium]]'' or sacred ditch. Then they proceeded to the walls. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under [[Pons Sublicius]]). The name of Rome is attested in Etruscan in the form ''Ruma-χ'' meaning 'Roman', a form that mirrors other attested ethnonyms in that language with the same suffix ''-χ'': ''Velzna-χ'' '(someone) from Volsinii' and ''Sveama-χ'' '(someone) from [[Sovana]]'. But this in itself does not prove Etruscan origin conclusively. If Tiberius is from ''θefarie'', then Ruma would have been placed on the ''Thefar'' ([[Tiber]]) river. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. In 390&nbsp;BC, the [[Battle of Allia|city of Rome was attacked]] by the [[Gauls]], and as a result may have lost many, though not all, of its earlier records.

Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the ''[[Vicus Tuscus]]'',<ref>Tacitus, Cornelius. ''The Annals & The Histories''. Trans. Alfred Church and William Brodribb. New York, 2003.</ref> the "Etruscan quarter", and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek, [[Demaratus of Corinth]]) that succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, proves that Rome was founded by Etruscans.

Under Romulus and [[Numa Pompilius]], the people were said to have been divided into 30 [[curia]]e and three [[Roman tribe|tribes]]. Few Etruscan words entered [[Latin]], but the names of at least two of the tribes—''Ramnes'' and ''Luceres''—seem to be Etruscan. The last kings may have borne the Etruscan title ''lucumo'', while the [[regalia]] were traditionally considered of Etruscan origin—the golden crown, the sceptre, the ''toga palmata'' (a special robe), the ''sella curulis'' ([[Curule seat|curule chair]]), and above all the primary symbol of state power: the ''[[fasces]]''. The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe, carried by the king's [[lictor]]s. An example of the fasces are the remains of bronze rods and the axe from a tomb in Etruscan [[Vetulonia]]. This allowed archaeologists to identify the depiction of a fasces on the grave [[stele]] of Avele Feluske, who is shown as a warrior wielding the fasces. The most telling Etruscan feature is the word ''populus'', which appears as an Etruscan deity, [[Fufluns]].

=== Roman families of Etruscan origin ===
{{columns-list|colwidth=15em |
* [[Ancharia gens]]
* [[Arruntia gens]]
* [[Caecinia gens]]
* [[Caelia gens]]
* [[Caesennia gens]]
* [[Ceionia gens]]
* [[Cilnia gens]]
* [[Herminia gens]] – [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|Patrician]]
* [[Erucia gens]]
* [[Lartia gens]] – Patrician
* [[Perpernia gens]]
* [[Persia gens]]
* [[Rasinia gens]]
* [[Sanquinia gens]]
* [[Spurinnia gens]]
* [[Tapsennia gens]]
* [[Tarquinia gens]] – Patrician (?)
* [[Tarquitia gens]] – Patrician
* [[Urgulania gens]]
* [[Verginia gens]] – Patrician
* [[Volumnia gens]] – Patrician
}}

==Society==
{{Main|Etruscan society|Daily life of the Etruscans}}

===Government===
{{Main|Etruscan society#Government|l1=Etruscan governance}}
[[File:Etruscan mother and child 500 to 450 BCE.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Etruscan mother and child, 500–450&nbsp;BC]]
The historical Etruscans had achieved a [[Sovereign state|state]] system of society, with remnants of the [[chiefdom]] and tribal forms. Rome was in a sense the first Italic state, but it began as an Etruscan one. It is believed that the Etruscan government style changed from total [[monarchy]] to [[oligarchic]] [[republic]] (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jean-Paul Thuillier |title=Les Étrusques|publisher=Éditions du Chêne|year=2006|isbn=2842776585|language=fr|page=142}}</ref>

The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. It retained the power of life and death; in fact, the [[gorgon]], an ancient symbol of that power, appears as a motif in Etruscan decoration. The adherents to this state power were united by a common religion. Political unity in Etruscan society was the city-state, which was probably the referent of {{Transliteration|ett|methlum}}, "district". Etruscan texts name quite a number of [[magistrate]]s, without much of a hint as to their function: The {{Transliteration|ett|camthi}}, the {{Transliteration|ett|parnich}}, the {{Transliteration|ett|purth}}, the {{Transliteration|ett|tamera}}, the {{Transliteration|ett|macstrev}}, and so on. The people were the ''mech''.

==== Importance of Religion in the Government ====
Governments in ancient Mediterranean societies were explicitly interweaved with the religious practices of the contemporary. The Etruscan King ''lucomo (plural: lucumones),'' was considered the supreme authority and under the Etruscans’ theocratic governmental approach acted as the connection between god and people. The royal title was not just limited to hereditary succession but was also given due to elite lineage, divine sanction and also wealth. This prominence of divine sanction is reflective of the importance of religion in Etruscan governments and as such, all Etruscan kingship was also believed to be under divine approval and held the final word. Roman historian Titus Livius records the story of Lucomo which reflects how the divinity was revered and understood in the Etruscan era as captured by Roman historians. Lucomo was propelled by his wife Tanaquil to acquire power in Rome due to the inability to do so in Etruscan government,(Rome is considered the first Italic state) and on their journey an eagle replaced Lucomo’s cap, which was interpreted as an omen from the divine of future kingship.<blockquote>      “That such bird had come from such a quarter of the heavens… it had lifted the ornament placed on the head of man, to restore it to the same, by direction of the gods.” <ref>{{Citation |last=Livy |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Briscoe |title=Ab Urbe Condita |date=2018-08-14 |work=Liviana: Studies on Livy |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00265868 |access-date=2025-03-27 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oseo/instance.00265868 |isbn=978-0-19-882468-8}}</ref></blockquote>
[[File:Etruscan tombs at Villafranca (Castiglione del Lago) (5).jpg|thumb|Etruscan tomb]]
This notion of combined political power and religious authorities held by the kingship is reinforced by [[Sybille Haynes]], an expert on Etruscology, described the ''lucomo'' to also be "chief priest."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ridgway |first=David |date=2001 |title=Etruscan Civilization: a Cultural History. By Sybille Haynes. 260mm. Pp xx + 432, 84 col pls, 246 ill, 4 maps. London: British Museum Press, 2000. ISBN 0–7141–2228–9. £35.00. |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003581500072486 |journal=The Antiquaries Journal |volume=81 |pages=425 |doi=10.1017/s0003581500072486 |issn=0003-5815|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Tombs of the royals found also are engraved with divine symbols, which can be interpreted to understand that kings in this society acted as a connection between humans and the spiritual.

While there was a transition from monarchy to oligarchic democracy, religion was deeply intertwined with Etruscan political and governmental identity, as Kings and magistrates worked to ensure peace with the gods by rituals and interpretation of the divine and their will through haruspicy and augury.  The [[Haruspex|haruspices]] were a group of pristries who by analysis of the celestial signs and animal entrails could deduce the will of the gods. The creation of city-states as Tenney Frank argued took place due to economic and natural advantages, and also due to a need for common tribal meetings in ancient polities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frank |first=Tenney |date=January 1914 |title=Representative Government in the Macedonian Republics |url=https://doi.org/10.1086/359849 |journal=Classical Philology |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=49–59 |doi=10.1086/359849 |issn=0009-837X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It allowed for a dialogue of ideas to increase communication, and desires and was headed by the ''zilath mechl rasnal'', (“magistrate of the Etruscan people”)  who as modern scholars have argued functioned largely as a ceremonial leader, rather than a federal executive.  Modelling a decentralised theocracy, this role further ties together the idea that Entruscan government was held through shared religious rituals and beliefs.

It is important to note that while Etruscan city states such as Tarquinia and Veii were established as politically autonomous, being centered around aristocratic rule and magistrates, international composition in these states were also considered progressive by scholars and historians. It is believed often due to the abundance of Greek and Roman sources over Etruscan ones that women were not allowed participation and enjoyment in public life, however  their society was depicted to revere female gods, and women were allowed to participate in public life.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ra'Ad |first=Basem L. |date=2001 |title=Primal Scenes of Globalization: Legacies of Canaan and Etruria |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/463644 |journal=PMLA |volume=116 |issue=1 |pages=89–110 |doi=10.1632/pmla.2001.116.1.89 |jstor=463644 |issn=0030-8129}}</ref> This reverence for female duties can be deduced to understand how gender-diverse spirituality was also an important aspect of Etruscan society.

Political religion also extended to the establishment of the twelve city-states, whose league was called “''duodecim populi Etruriae.''” This league held assemblies annually and selected their ''zilath mechl rasna'' at the ''Fanun Voltumnae,'' the shrine of [[Voltumna|Voltuma]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book V Chapter 1 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/5A*.html |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref> Taking place at a sanctuary dedicated to the god Voltuma. These assemblies acted as both political conferences where military and peace talks could be held as well as religious festivals. Foreign policy, related to war, and alliances, were believed to be an outcome of the will of the gods, and discussions regarding this also took place at the yearly assemblies. [[Mario Torelli]] articulates that these asemblies served the purpose of ensuing a divine sanction for the actions decided by the collective.<ref name=mt>{{Cite journal |last=Torelli |first=Mario |date=2015-03-04 |title=Etruscans, Army of the |url=https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118318140.wbra0580 |journal=The Encyclopedia of the Roman Army |pages=351–388 |doi=10.1002/9781118318140.wbra0580|isbn=978-1-4051-7619-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>  Lastly, the importance of religion in these meetings is further emblematic by the appointment of a dictator,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Le Glay |first1=Marcel |title=A history of Rome |last2=Voisin |first2=Jean-Louis |last3=Le Bohec |first3=Yann |last4=Le Glay |first4=Marcel |date=2009 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-8327-7 |edition=4th |location=Oxford}}</ref> who was chosen based on religious rituals to then hold the same supreme authority that the King had enjoyed in early Etruscan civilisation. As such, it can be envisioned that Etruscan policy and assemblies prioritised and revered divine legitimacy, the messages from gods were treated as the ultimate authority and the government’s desire to maintain a strong positive relationship is prevalent.

Religion was further embedded into the urban and geographical organisations of city states, and temples became an important political feature where decisions would be made as gods would act as a tool of legitimation. Mario Torelli, an Italian scholar of the culture of Etruscans, notes the intersection of temples as a place of worship and political power, creating the ultimate intersection cultivating an environment of sacred order.<ref name=mt/>

Etruscan’s political and governmental strategies, with their influence of religion, also left a legacy in Roman religion and statecraft. Roman annexation of Etruscan city states occurred in the 4th and 3rd century BCE, and saw the adoption of many religious-political practices. Practices such as augury and haruspicy remained especially prevalent, as Etruscan haruspices were called upon by the Roman senate reflecting the importance of religion in nation building. As much of what is known about Etruscans comes from Greek and Roman authors, due to the few written records remaining from Etruscan’s, it is studied through perspectives other than their own leading to a diminished understanding of religious importance in Etruscan governance.

===Family===
{{Main|Etruscan society#Rise of the family|Women in Etruscan society|l1 = Etruscan society: Rise of the family}}

The princely tombs were not of individuals. The inscription evidence shows that families were interred there over long periods, marking the growth of the aristocratic family as a fixed institution, parallel to the ''[[gens]]'' at Rome and perhaps even its model. The Etruscans could have used any model of the eastern Mediterranean. That the growth of this class is related to the new acquisition of wealth through trade is unquestioned. The wealthiest cities were located near the coast. At the center of the society was the married couple, ''tusurthir''. The Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing.

Similarly, the behavior of some wealthy women is not uniquely Etruscan. The apparent promiscuous revelry has a spiritual explanation. Swaddling and Bonfante (among others) explain that depictions of the nude embrace, or symplegma, "had the power to ward off evil", as did baring the breast, which was adopted by [[western culture]] as an [[apotropaic magic|apotropaic device]], appearing finally on the figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society. In both Greece and the earliest Republican Rome, respectable women were confined to the house and mixed-sex socialising did not occur. Thus, the freedom of [[Women in the Etruscan society|women within Etruscan society]] could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability.<ref name="Briquel, Dominique 2007">Briquel, Dominique; Svensson Pär (2007). Etruskerna. Alhambras pocket encyklopedi, 99-1532610-6; 88 (1. uppl.). Furulund: Alhambra. {{ISBN|9789188992970}}</ref> A number of Etruscan tombs carry funerary inscriptions in the form "X son of (father) and (mother)", indicating the importance of the mother's side of the family.<ref name="Briquel, Dominique 2007"/>

===Military===
{{Main|Etruscan military history}}
{{See also|Padanian Etruria}}

[[File:Etruscan warrior near Viterbe Italy circa 500 BCE.jpg|thumb|200px|Etruscan warrior, found near [[Viterbo]], [[Italy]], dated {{circa}} 500&nbsp;BC]]

The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of [[Ancient Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome]], had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals, warfare was a considerable economic advantage to Etruscan civilization. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months, raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating [[piracy]] as a means of acquiring valuable resources, such as land, prestige, goods, and slaves. It is likely that individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs to honor fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by [[Achilles]] for [[Patroclus|Patrocles]].<ref name="bookone">{{cite book|first=Mario |last=Torelli |title=The Etruscans |publisher=Rizzoli International Publications |year=2000|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="booktwo">{{cite book |first=Trevor |last=Dupey |title=The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History |publisher=Rizzoli Harper Collins Publisher |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="bookthree">{{cite book|author=Dora Jane Hamblin |title=The Etruscans |year=1975 |url=https://archive.org/details/etruscans00hamb |url-access=registration |publisher=Time Life Books }}</ref>

* 550 BC: Etruscan-[[Carthage|Punic]] coalition against Greece off the coast of Corsica 
* 540 BC: [[Battle of Alalia|naval victory at Alalia]]
* 524 BC: Defeat at [[Cumae|Cyme]] against the Greeks
* 510 BC: Fall of the Etruscan kingship of [[Lucius Tarquinius Superbus]] in Rome
* 508 BC: [[Lars Porsena]] besieges Rome
* 508 BC: War between [[War between Clusium and Aricia|Clusium and Aricia]] 
* 482 BC: Beginning of the conflict between [[Veii]] and Rome
* 474 BC: Defeat of the Etruscans against [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] in the [[Battle of Cyme]] (also Cumae)
* 430 BC 406 BC: Defeat against the [[Samnites]] in [[Campania]]
* 406 BC: Siege of Veii by Rome
* 396 BC: Destruction of Veii by Rome
* from 396 BC: Invasion of the Celts into the [[Po Valley]]
* 384 BC: Plunder of [[Pyrgi]] ([[Santa Severa]]) by [[Dionysius I of Syracuse]]
* 358 BC: Alliance of [[Tarquinia]] and [[Cerveteri]] against Rome
* 310 BC: Defeat against the Romans at [[Battle of Lake Vadimo (310 BC)|Lake Vadimone]]
* 300 BC: Pyrgi becomes a Roman colony
* 280 BC: Defeat of [[Vulci]] against Rome
* 264 BC 100 BC: Defeat of [[Volsinii]] against Rome
* 260 BC: Subjugation by the Gauls in the Po Valley
* 205 BC: Support of [[Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus|Scipio]] in the campaign against [[Hannibal]]
* 183 BC: Foundation of the Roman colony in [[Saturnia]]
* 90 BC: Granting of [[Roman citizenship]]
* 82 BC: Repression of [[Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix|Sulla]] in Etruria
* 79 BC: Capitulation of [[Volterra]]
* from 40 BC: Final Romanization of Etruria

=== Cities ===
{{Main|Etruscan cities}}
The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by [[Etruscan cities|its cities]]. They were entirely assimilated by Italic, [[Celt]]ic, or Roman ethnic groups, but the names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central Italy. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the [[Roman Iron Age]], marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic.<ref name="bookone"/>

That many Roman cities were formerly Etruscan was well known to all the Roman authors. Some cities were founded by Etruscans in prehistoric times, and bore entirely Etruscan names. Others were colonized by Etruscans who Etruscanized the name, usually [[Italic languages|Italic]].<ref name="booktwo"/>

==Culture==
===Agriculture===
The Etruscans were aware of the techniques of [[Irrigation#History|water accumulation and conservation]] in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece. They built canals and dams to irrigate the land, and drained and reclaimed swamps. The archaeological remains of this infrastructure are still evident in the maritime southwestern parts of [[Tuscany]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2022 |title=The Etruscans and agriculture |url=https://antropocene.it/en/2022/11/21/the-etruscans-and-agriculture/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240113105505/https://antropocene.it/en/2022/11/21/the-etruscans-and-agriculture/ |archive-date=January 13, 2024 |website=Un Mondo Ecosostenibile}}</ref>

''Vite maritata'' is a [[viticulture]] technique exploiting [[companion planting]] named after the [[Maremma]] region of Italy which may be relevant to [[climate change]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Limbergen |first=Dimitri Van |date=2024-01-04 |title=Ancient Roman wine production may hold clues for battling climate change |url=https://theconversation.com/ancient-roman-wine-production-may-hold-clues-for-battling-climate-change-214518 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229223137/https://theconversation.com/ancient-roman-wine-production-may-hold-clues-for-battling-climate-change-214518 |archive-date= February 29, 2024 }}</ref> It was developed around the area by these early predecessors of the Romans who cultivated plant as nearly as possible in their natural habitat. The [[vine]]s from which wine is made are a kind of [[liana]] that naturally intertwine with trees such as maples or willows.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mazzeo |first=Jacopo |date=June 6, 2023 |title=Vite Maritata, an Ancient Vine-Growing Technique, Makes a Comeback |url=https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/wine/vite-maritata/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240113105433/https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/wine/vite-maritata/ |archive-date=Jan 13, 2024 |website=Wine Enthusiast Magazine}}</ref>

===Religion===
{{Main|Etruscan religion}}
{{multiple image
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 |  caption1 = [[Chimera of Arezzo]]
 | image2 = Chimera d'arezzo, firenze, 05 firma.JPG
 |  caption2 = Inscription of [[Tinia]] on the Chimera's leg
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The Etruscan system of belief was an [[immanent]] [[polytheism]]; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of [[divinity|divine]] power and that power was subdivided into [[deity|deities]] that acted continually on the world of man and could be dissuaded or persuaded in favor of human affairs. How to understand the will of deities, and how to behave, had been revealed to the Etruscans by two initiators, [[Tages]], a childlike figure born from tilled land and immediately gifted with prescience, and [[Vegoia]], a female figure. Their teachings were kept in a series of sacred books. Three layers of deities are evident in the extensive Etruscan art motifs. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous nature: [[Etruscan mythology|Catha]] and [[Usil]], the sun; ''Tivr'', the moon; [[Selvans]], a civil god; [[Turan (goddess)|Turan]], the goddess of love; [[Laran]], the god of war; [[Leinth]], the goddess of death; [[Maris (mythology)|Maris]]; [[Thalna]]; [[Turms]]; and the ever-popular [[Fufluns]], whose name is related in some way to the city of [[Populonia]] and the [[populus Romanus]], possibly, the god of the people.<ref name="bookonereligion">{{cite book|first1=De |last1=Grummond |first2=Nancy |last2=Thomson |year=2006 |title=Etruscan Mythology, Sacred History and Legend: An Introduction |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="booktworeligion">{{cite book |first=Erika |last=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hQtbJyFCd40C&q=Etruscan+religion&pg=PA1 |title=The religion of the Etruscans |via=Google Books | isbn=978-0-292-70687-3 |df=dmy-all|date = 2009-04-20|publisher=University of Texas Press }}</ref>

Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the [[Proto-Indo-European religion|Indo-European]] system: Tin or [[Tinia]], the sky, [[Uni (mythology)|Uni]] his wife ([[Juno (mythology)|Juno]]), and [[Cel (goddess)|Cel]], the earth goddess. In addition, some<!--Minerva is roman--> Greek and Roman gods were inspired by the Etruscan system: [[Artume|Aritimi]] ([[Artemis]]), [[Menrva]] ([[Minerva]]), Pacha ([[Dionysus]]). The Greek heroes taken from [[Homer]] also appear extensively in art motifs.<ref name="bookonereligion"/><ref name="booktworeligion"/>

===Architecture===
{{main|Etruscan architecture}}
[[File:Hypogeum cyark 1.jpg|thumb|right|200px|3D view, facing west, of the Etruscan Hypogeum of the Volumnis, [[Perugia]], Italy, cut from a [[3D scanner|laser scan]]]]
Relatively little is known about the architecture of the ancient Etruscans. They adapted the native Italic styles with influence from the external appearance of [[Greek architecture]]. In turn, [[ancient Roman architecture]] began with Etruscan styles, and then accepted still further Greek influence. [[Roman temple]]s show many of the same differences in form to Greek ones that Etruscan temples do, but like the Greeks, use stone, in which they closely copy Greek conventions. The houses of the wealthy were evidently often large and comfortable, but the burial chambers of tombs, often filled with grave-goods, are the nearest approach to them to survive. In the southern Etruscan area, tombs have large rock-cut chambers under a [[tumulus]] in large [[Necropolis|necropoleis]], and these, together with some city walls, are the only Etruscan constructions to survive. Etruscan architecture is not generally considered as part of the body of Greco-Roman [[classical architecture]].<ref name="booktwoarchitecture">{{cite book|first1=Axel |last1=Boëthius |first2=Roger |last2=Ling |first3=Tom |last3=Rasmussen |year=1994 |title=Etruscan and early Roman architecture |publisher=Yale University Press| df=dmy-all}}</ref>

=== Art and music ===
{{Main|Etruscan art}}
[[File:Danseurs et musiciens, tombe des léopards.jpg|thumb|200px|5th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC fresco of dancers and musicians, [[Tomb of the Leopards]], [[Monterozzi necropolis]], Tarquinia, Italy]]

Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly lifesize on [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] or temples), wall-painting and [[metalworking]] (especially engraved bronze mirrors). Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze was famous and widely exported, but few large examples have survived (the material was too valuable, and recycled later). In contrast to terracotta and bronze, there was apparently little Etruscan sculpture in stone, despite the Etruscans controlling fine sources of marble, including [[Carrara marble]], which seems not to have been exploited until the Romans. Most surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including all the [[fresco]] wall-paintings, a minority of which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/it/2-1024/i-banchetti-etruschi/|title=I banchetti etruschi|access-date=24 November 2021|language=it}}</ref>

[[Bucchero]] wares in black were the early and native styles of fine Etruscan pottery. There was also a tradition of elaborate [[Etruscan vase painting]], which sprung from its Greek equivalent; the Etruscans were the main export market for [[Pottery of ancient Greece|Greek vases]]. Etruscan temples were heavily decorated with colorfully painted terracotta [[antefix]]es and other fittings, which survive in large numbers where the wooden superstructure has vanished. Etruscan art was strongly connected to [[Etruscan religion|religion]]; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.<ref name="etruscianartmusic">{{cite book |title=Etruscan Art |first=Nigel |last=Spivey |year=1997 |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London}}</ref>

The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs are different types of pipes, such as the [[aulos|plagiaulos]] (the pipes of [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]] or [[Syrinx]]), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the [[Tintinnabulum (Ancient Rome)|tintinnabulum]], [[Timpani|tympanum]] and [[crotales]], and later by stringed instruments like the [[lyre]] and [[kithara]].

===Language===
{{Main|Etruscan language|Tyrsenian languages}}
[[File:Perugia, Museo archeologico Nazionale dell'Umbria, cippo di Perugia.jpg|thumb|right|170px|[[Cippus Perusinus]]. 3rd–2nd century BC, San Marco near [[Perugia]]]]
Etruscans left around 13,000 [[epigraphy|inscriptions]] which have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a [[Pre-Indo-European languages|Pre-Indo-European]]<ref>[[Massimo Pallottino]], ''La langue étrusque Problèmes et perspectives'', 1978.</ref><ref>Mauro Cristofani, ''Introduction to the study of the Etruscan'', Leo S. Olschki, 1991.</ref><ref>Romolo A. Staccioli, ''The "mystery" of the Etruscan language'', Newton & Compton publishers, Rome, 1977.</ref> and [[Paleo-European languages|Paleo-European language]],<ref name=Haarmann2014>{{cite book |last1=Haarmann |first1=Harald |author-link1=Harald Haarmann |year=2014 |chapter=Ethnicity and Language in the Ancient Mediterranean |editor1-last= McInerney|editor1-first= Jeremy |title=A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean |language=en |location=Chichester, UK |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc |publication-date=2014 |pages=17–33 |doi=10.1002/9781118834312.ch2 |isbn= 9781444337341}}</ref> and the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the [[Tyrsenian languages|Tyrsenian language family]], which in itself is an [[language isolate|isolate family]], that is unrelated directly to other known language groups. Since [[Helmut Rix|Rix]] (1998), it is widely accepted that the Tyrsenian family groups [[Raetic language|Raetic]] and [[Lemnian language|Lemnian]] are related to Etruscan.<ref name="Rix-2008" />

===Literature===
[[File:Lanena_knjiga_(Liber_linteus_Zagrebiensis).jpg|thumb|right|220px|Samples of Etruscan script, from the [[Liber linteus]]]]
Etruscan texts, written in a space of seven centuries, use a form of the [[Greek alphabet]] due to close contact between the Etruscans and the Greek colonies at [[Ischia|Pithecusae]] and [[Cumae]] in the 8th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC (until it was no longer used, at the beginning of the 1st&nbsp;century&nbsp;AD). Etruscan inscriptions disappeared from [[Chiusi]], [[Perugia]] and [[Arezzo]] around this time. Only a few fragments survive, religious and especially funeral texts, most of which are late (from the 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC). In addition to the original texts that have survived to this day, there are a large number of quotations and allusions from classical authors. In the 1st&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC, [[Diodorus Siculus]] wrote that literary culture was one of the great achievements of the Etruscans. Little is known of it and even what is known of their language is due to the repetition of the same few words in the many inscriptions found (by way of the modern epitaphs) contrasted in bilingual or trilingual texts with Latin and [[Punic language|Punic]]. Out of the aforementioned genres, is just one such Volnio (Volnius) cited in classical sources mentioned.<ref>[[Varro]], ''De lingua Latina'', 5.55.</ref> With a few exceptions, such as the [[Liber Linteus]], the [[Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae|only written records in the Etruscan language]] that remain are inscriptions, mainly funerary. The language is written in the [[Etruscan alphabet]], a script related to the early [[Euboean alphabet|Euboean Greek alphabet]].<ref>{{cite book |last1= Maras|first1=Daniele F. |year=2015 |chapter=Etruscan and Italic Literacy and the Case of Rome |editor1-last= Bloome |editor1-first=W. Martin |title=A Companion to Ancient Education |language=en |location=Chichester, UK |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |page= 202}}</ref> Many thousand inscriptions in Etruscan are known, mostly [[epitaph]]s, and a few [[Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae|very short texts]] have survived, which are mainly religious. Etruscan imaginative literature is evidenced only in references by later Roman authors, but it is evident from their visual art that the Greek myths were well known.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Nielsen |first1=Marjatta |last2=Rathje |first2=Annette |chapter=Artumes in Etruria—the Borrowed Goddess |editor1-last=Fischer-Hansen |editor1-first=Tobias |editor2-last= Poulsen|editor2-first=Birte |title=From Artemis to Diana: The Goddess of Man and Beast |language=en|location=Copenhagen |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |page=261 |quote= A massive Greek impact is clear especially in the coastal territory, which has led many to believe that the Etruscans were entirely Hellenized. Countless depictions show that Greek myths were, indeed, adopted and well-known to the Etruscans.}}</ref>

With the founding of [[wikt:Πιθηκοῦσαι|Pithekussai]] on [[Ischia]] and Kyme (lat. [[Cumae]]) in [[Campania]] in the course of the [[Greek colonization]], the Etruscans came under the influence of the [[Greek culture]] in the 8th century BC. The Etruscans adopted an [[alphabet]] from the western Greek colonists that came from their homeland, the Euboean [[Chalkis]]. This alphabet from Cumae is therefore also called Euboean<ref name="Larissa Bonfante p. 14">Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 14.</ref> or Chalcidian<ref>Friedhelm Prayon: ''The Etruscans. History, religion, art.'' p. 38.</ref> Alphabet. The oldest written records of the Etruscans date from around 700 BC.<ref>Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 56.</ref>

{| class="wikitable" 
|-
! colspan="24"|Euboean alphabet<ref>Steven Roger Fischer: ''History of Writing.'' S. 138.</ref>
|-
|style="text-align:left;width:20px"|Letter
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Alpha 06.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Beta 16.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Gamma archaic 1.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Delta 03.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Epsilon archaic.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Digamma oblique.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Zeta archaic.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Eta archaic.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Theta archaic.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Iota normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Kappa normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Lambda 06.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Mu 02.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Nu straight.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Xi archaic grid.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Omicron 04.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Pi archaic.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek San 02.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Koppa normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Rho pointed.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Sigma normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Tau normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Upsilon normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Chi normal.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Phi 02.svg|20px]]
|style="width:20px"|[[File:Greek Psi straight.svg|20px]]
|-
|Transcription
|A
|B
|G
|D
|E
|V
|Z
|H
|TH
|I
|K
|L
|M
|N
|X
|O
|P
|Ś
|Q
|R
|S
|T
|U
|X
|PH
|CH
|}

One of the oldest Etruscan written documents is found on the [[:it:Tavoletta di Marsiliana|tablet of Marsiliana d’Albegna]] from the hinterland of [[Vulci]], which is now kept in the [[National Archaeological Museum of Florence|National Archaeological Museum]] of [[Florence]]. A western Greek model alphabet is engraved on the edge of this [[wax tablet]] made of [[ivory]]. In accordance with later Etruscan writing habits, the [[Letter (alphabet)|letters]] in this model alphabet were mirrored and arranged from right to left:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="24"|Early Etruscan alphabet<ref>Steven Roger Fischer: ''History of Writing.'' S. 140.</ref>
|-
|style="text-align:left;width:20px"|Letter
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanA-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanB-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanC-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanD-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanE-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanF-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanZ-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanH-02.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanTH-03.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanI-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanK-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanL-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanM-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanN-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:Greek Xi archaic grid.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:Greek Omicron 04.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanP-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanSH-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanQ-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanR-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:Greek Sigma Z-shaped.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanT-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanV-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanX-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanPH-01.svg|20px]]
|style="text-align:center;width:20px"|[[File:EtruscanKH-01.svg|20px]]
|-
|Transcription
|align="center"|A
|align="center"|B
|align="center"|C
|align="center"|D
|align="center"|E
|align="center"|F
|align="center"|Z
|align="center"|H
|align="center"|TH
|align="center"|I
|align="center"|K
|align="center"|L
|align="center"|M
|align="center"|N
|align="center"|S
|align="center"|O
|align="center"|P
|align="center"|SH 
|align="center"|Q
|align="center"|R
|align="center"|S
|align="center"|T
|align="center"|U
|align="center"|X
|align="center"|PH
|align="center"|KH
|-
|}

The script with these letters was first used in southern Etruria around 700 BC in the Etruscan [[Etruscan cities|Cisra]] (lat. [[Caere]]), today's [[Cerveteri]].<ref name="Larissa Bonfante p. 14"/> The science of writing quickly reached central and northern Etruria. From there, the alphabet spread from [[Volterra]] (Etr. [[Etruscan cities|Velathri]]) to [[Etruscan cities|Felsina]], today's [[Bologna]], and later from [[Chiusi]] (Etr. [[Etruscan cities|Clevsin]]) to the Po Valley. In southern Etruria, the writing spread from [[Tarquinia]] (Etr. [[Etruscan cities|Tarchna]]) and [[Veii]] (Etr. [[Etruscan cities|Veia]]) further south to Campania, which was controlled by the Etruscans at the time.<ref>Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 54.</ref> In the following centuries the Etruscans consistently used the letters mentioned, so that the [[deciphering]] of the Etruscan inscriptions is not a problem. As in Greek, the characters were subject to regional and temporal changes. Overall, one can distinguish an archaic script from the 7th to 5th centuries from a more recent script from the 4th to 1st centuries BC, in which some characters were no longer used, including the X for a sh sound. In addition, in writing and language, the emphasis on the first syllable meant that internal vowels were not reproduced, e.g. ''[[Menrva]]'' instead of ''Menerva''.<ref>Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 81.</ref> Accordingly, [[linguists]] also distinguish between Old and New Etruscan.<ref>Friedhelm Prayon: ''Die Etrusker. History, Religion, Art.'' pp. 38–40.</ref>

[[File:Etruscan bucchero cock.jpg|thumb|Bucchero cockerel from [[Viterbo]]. Small Etruscan bottle from 630 to 620 BCE with an early form of the alphabet]]

Alongside the [[:it:Tavoletta di Marsiliana|tablet of Marsiliana d’Albegna]], around 70 objects with model alphabets have been preserved from the early period.<ref>Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 55.</ref> The most famous of these are:
* [[Alabastron]] from the [[Regolini-Galassi tomb]] in Cerveteri
* [[:de:Bucchero-Amphore von Formello|Bucchero amphora from Formello]]
* [[:de:Bucchero-Hähnchen von Viterbo|Bucchero cockerel from Viterbo]]
* [[Bucchero]] vessel from the necropolis of Sorbo near Cerveteri

As all four artifacts date from the 7th century B.C. come from, the alphabets are always written clockwise.<ref>Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 133.</ref> The last object has the special feature that, in addition to the letters of the alphabet, almost all consonants are shown in sequence in connection with the vowels I, A, U and E ([[Syllabary]]). This syllabic writing system was probably used to practice the written characters.<ref name="Larissa Bonfante p. 14"/>

The most important Etruscan written monuments that contain a large number of words include:
* [[Liber Linteus]] (''Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis'') – ritual text with around 1400 words
* [[Tabula Capuana|Clay Tablet of Capua]] (''Tabula'' or ''Tegula Capuana'') – ritual text as a bustrophedon with 62 lines and around 300 words
* [[Tabula Cortonensis|Tablet of Cortona]] (''Tabula Cortonensis'') – contract text with a length of 32 lines and about 200 words
* [[Cippus Perusinus]] – travertine block with 46 lines and about 125 words from near [[Perugia]]
* [[Pyrgi Tablets]] – parallel texts in Etruscan and [[Phoenician script|Punic script]]
* [[Sarcophagus of Laris Pulenas]] – grave inscription of Laris Pulena with nine lines of text on a sarcophagus scroll
* [[Liver of Piacenza]] – model of a sheep's liver with 40 inscriptions
* [[Lead Plaque of Magliano]] – sacrificial instructions with 70 words
* [[:de:Bleistreifen von Santa Marinella|Lead strip from Santa Marinella]] – two fragments of a sacrificial vow
* Building inscription of the tomb of San Manno near Perugia – 30-word consecration inscription
* {{ill|Poupé aryballos|fr|Aryballe Poupé}} – Clockwise dedication inscription on a bucchero bottle
* [[Tuscanian dice]] – Two dice with the numbers 1 to 6

No further Etruscan literature has survived and from the early 1st century AD, inscriptions with Etruscan characters have ceased to exist. All existing ancient Etruscan written documents are systematically collected in the [[Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum]].

In the middle of the 7th century BC, the Romans adopted the Etruscan writing system and letters. In particular, they used the three different characters C, K and Q for a K sound. Z was also initially adopted into the Roman alphabet, although the affricate TS did not occur in the Latin language. Later, Z was replaced in the alphabet by the newly formed letter G, which was derived from C, and Z was finally placed at the end of the alphabet.<ref>Steven Roger Fischer: ''History of Writing.'' pp. 141–142.</ref> The letters Θ, Φ and Ψ were omitted by the Romans because the corresponding aspirated sounds did not occur in their language.

The Etruscan alphabet spread across the northern and central parts of the Italian peninsula. It is assumed that the formation of the [[Oscan language|Oscan script]], probably in the 6th century BC, was fundamentally influenced by Etruscan. The characters of the [[Umbrian language|Umbrian]], [[Faliscan language|Faliscan]] and [[Venetic language|Venetic]] languages can also be traced back to Etruscan alphabets.<ref>Larissa Bonfante, Giuliano Bonfante: ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction.'' p. 117.</ref>

== See also ==
{{History of Italy}}
{{ancient history}}
*[[Daily life of the Etruscans]]
*[[Fanum Voltumnae]]
*[[Etruria]]
*[[Etruscan art]]
*[[Etruscan language]]
*[[Etruscan origins]]
*[[Etruscan religion]]
*[[List of ancient peoples of Italy]]
*[[Tyrrhenians]]
*[[Villanovan culture]]
{{clear}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Antonio |first1=Margaret L. |last2=Gao |first2=Ziyue |display-authors=1 |date=November 8, 2019 |title=Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] |volume=366 |issue=6466 |pages=708–714 |doi=10.1126/science.aay6826 |pmc=7093155 |pmid= 31699931|bibcode=2019Sci...366..708A |ref={{harvid|Antonio et al.|2019}}}}
* {{cite book |last=Strauss Clay |first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Strauss Clay |year=2016 |chapter=Visualizing Divinity: The Reception of the ''Homeric Hymns'' in Greek Vase Painting |title=The Reception of the Homeric Hymns |editor-last1=Faulkner |editor-first1=Andrew |editor-last2=Vergados |editor-first2=Athanassios |editor-last3=Schwab |editor-first3=Andreas |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198728788.003.0002 |pages=29–52 |isbn=9780191795510}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* Bartoloni, Gilda (ed). ''Introduzione all'Etruscologia'' (in Italian). Milan: Hoepli, 2012.
* [[Sinclair Bell]] and Carpino A. Alexandra (eds). ''A Companion to the Etruscans'', Oxford; Chichester; Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2016.
* [[Giuliano Bonfante|Bonfante, Giuliano]] and [[Larissa Bonfante|Bonfante Larissa]]. ''The Etruscan Language: An Introduction''. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
* Bonfante, Larissa. ''Out of Etruria: Etruscan Influence North and South''. Oxford: B.A.R., 1981.
* Bonfante, Larissa. ''Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies''. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986.
* Bonfante, Larissa. ''Etruscan Myths''. London: British Museum Press, 2006.
* [[Dominique Briquel|Briquel, Dominique]]. ''Les Étrusques, peuple de la différence'', series Civilisations U, éditions Armand Colin, Paris, 1993.
* Briquel, Dominique. ''La civilisation étrusque'', éditions Fayard, Paris, 1999.
* [[Nancy Thomson de Grummond|De Grummond, Nancy T]]. (2014). ''Ethnicity and the Etruscans''. In McInerney, Jeremy (ed.). ''A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean''. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp.&nbsp;405–422.
* [[Sybille Haynes|Haynes, Sybille]]. ''Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History.'' Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000.
* Izzet, Vedia. ''The Archaeology of Etruscan Society''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
* Naso, Alessandro (ed). ''Etruscology'', Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2017.
* [[Massimo Pallottino|Pallottino, Massimo]]. ''Etruscologia''. Milan: Hoepli, 1942 (English ed., ''The Etruscans''. [[David Ridgway (scholar)|David Ridgway]], editor. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1975).
* Shipley, Lucy. ''The Etruscans: Lost Civilizations'', London: Reaktion Books, 2017.
* [[Christopher Smith (academic)|Smith, C]]. ''The Etruscans: a very short introduction '', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
* Spivey, Nigel. ''Etruscan Art''. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
* [[Judith Swaddling|Swaddling, Judith]] and Philip Perkins. ''Etruscan by Definition: The Culture, Regional, and Personal Identity of the Etruscans: Papers in Honor of Sybille Haynes''. London: British Museum, 2009.
* * Torelli, M. (ed.) (2001) ''The Etruscans''. London.
* [[Turfa, Jean MacIntosh]] (ed). ''The Etruscan World''. London: Routledge, 2013.
* Turfa, Jean MacIntosh. ''The Etruscans''. In Farney, Gary D.; Bradley, Gary (eds.). ''The Peoples of Ancient Italy''. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp.&nbsp;637–672.

===Cities and sites===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060508054703/http://www.eng.archeopg.arti.beniculturali.it/canale.asp?id=499 (Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria) "The Cai Cutu Etruscan tomb"] An undisturbed late Etruscan family tomb, reused between the 3rd and 1st century BC, reassembled in the National Archeological Museum of Perugia
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090922211541/http://archive.cyark.org/hypogeum-of-the-volumnis-info Hypogeum of the Volumnis digital media archive] ([[creative commons]]-licensed photos, laser scans, panoramas), data from a [[University of Ferrara]]/[[CyArk]] research partnership

==External links==
{{Commons category|Etruscans}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Etruscan civilization}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.academia.edu/5957978 |title=Etruscan weapons and warfare |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130043903/http://www.academia.edu/5957978/The_Art_of_the_Etruscan_Armourer |archive-date=30 January 2016 |access-date=3 November 2017 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/uscarc/Pendant.shtml |title=Etruscan Lion Plaque Pendant |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509232347/http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/uscarc/Pendant.shtml |archive-date=9 May 2017 |access-date=2 February 2002 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all}}
* {{cite web|author=Nancy Thomson de Grummond |author-link= Nancy Thomson de Grummond |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica |location= Chicago|language= English|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/ancient-Italic-people#ref26562|title=Britannica. Ancient Italic people: the Etruscans|access-date=21 September 2023|df=dmy-all }}

{{Etruscans}}
{{Italy topics}}
{{Former monarchies Italian peninsula}}

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:Archaeological cultures in Italy]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of Italy]]
[[Category:9th-century BC establishments]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 1st century BC]]
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