Rediscovering the Etruscans

Everyone has heard of the Roman Empire, but how many have heard of the Etruscans? Far fewer - and it's no surprise, considering how little we have left from their civilization. This is unfortunate because they laid the groundwork for the Romans: founding Rome, creating roads, and much more. Today, study of them is growing as fresh artifacts come to light.

The Independent reports:

[T]he "mysterious Etruscans" are back in business, and making headlines in Rome, the city they founded (contrary to self-serving Latin myth) and ruled over for more than a century before Tarquinius Superbus, the Etruscan king, was forced out by the Latins who established a republic in his stead.

Etruscans laid the foundations of the Rome we know today: drained and paved the Forum, built a paved road, the Sacra Via, part of which survives, and put an imposing temple dedicated to Jupiter on the Capitol, destroyed by fire in 83BC. But once their last king was expelled, the Etruscans were in retreat. After that the rise of the Latins/Romans was unstoppable, and the once-proud and civilised Etruscans melted away into nothing as Roman legions spread across the peninsula.

Built in wood, the cities of the Etruscans rotted away within generations. They were literate - they used the Greek alphabet - but had no literature beyond brief, cryptic texts which have yet to be fully deciphered. Once their temples and villas had rotted, and their gold jewellery and carvings had been melted down by the Romans and re-cast as coins, nothing remained to tell of their origins or their fate. ... Etruscan civilisation endured for seven centuries before fading away in the sixth century BC, and so underwent many evolutions which account for the rich variety of art that survives.

It would certainly be great if we could learn more about the Etruscans — our current knowledge is rather paltry in this area and it seems as though we would be able to understand a great deal more about ancient Italy if we could just dig up (literally) more evidence about their civilization.