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[Pottery]
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ETRUSCANS A History of the Etruscan people including their cities, art, society, rulers and contributions to civilization By: Robert Guisepi 2002 Expansion and dominion Archaeological evidence helps to develop a
picture of the beginnings of Etruscan cities during the Villanovan period.
Nearly every major Etruscan city of historical times has yielded Villanovan
remains, but it is in the south, particularly near the coast, that the earliest
signs of city formation appear. It is hypothesized that clusters of huts forming
a network of villages on a single hill or on several adjacent hills coalesced
into pre-urban settlements at this time. (The plural form of the names of some
of these--Vulci, Tarquinii, and Veii--is consistent with this hypothesis.) Ash
urns in the shape of oval huts with thatched roofs excavated in the area suggest
what the houses of the living may have looked like, while the parity of grave
goods for men and women implies a basically egalitarian society, at least in
earlier stages. Cremation with ashes in a biconical vessel is commonly found as
a holdover from the Proto-Villanovan; inhumation also appeared and during the
Orientalizing period eventually became the prevailing rite, except in northern
Etruria, where cremation persisted to the 1st century BC. After contact was made with Greeks and
Phoenicians, new ideas, materials, and technology began to appear in Etruria. In
the Orientalizing period the use of writing, the potter's wheel, and monumental
funerary architecture accompanied the accumulation of luxury goods of gold and
ivory and exotic trade items such as ostrich eggs, tridacna shells, and faience.
The Regolini-Galassi Tomb at Caere (c. 650-625 BC), discovered in 1836 in an
unplundered state, dramatically revealed the full splendor of the Orientalizing
period. The tomb's main chamber belonged to a fabulously wealthy lady who,
inhumed with her banquet service and a wide array of jewelry made by granulation
and repoussé, might well be called a queen; the word Larthia on her belongings
may record her name. Even if Caere did not have kings and queens at this time
(as did Rome, or as Caere certainly did in the 5th century), it is clear that
society had become sharply differentiated, not only in regard to wealth but also
in division of labor. Many scholars hypothesize the existence of a powerful
aristocratic class, and craftsmen, merchants, and seamen would have formed a
middle class; it was probably at this time that the Etruscans began to maintain
the elegant slaves for which they were famous. (Various Greek and Roman authors
report on how Etruscan slaves dressed well and how they often owned their own
homes. They easily became liberated and rapidly rose in status once they were
freed.) The dramatic growth of Etruscan civilization and influence in the 7th
century is reflected in the so-called "princely" tombs, closely akin to the
Regolini-Galassi Tomb, found in Etruria itself at Tarquinii, Vetulonia, and
Populonia and along the Arno River (e.g., at Quinto Fiorentino) and in the south
at Praeneste in Latium and at Capua and Pontecagnano in Campania. Literary
sources report that Rome itself came under the rule of Etruscan kings in the
late 7th century. Livy describes the arrival from Tarquinii of Tarquinius
Priscus, the later king, and his ambitious, learned wife Tanaquil, a worthy
counterpart to Queen Larthia of Caere. There is also archaeological evidence of
Etruscan expansion northward into the Po valley in the 6th century. True urbanization followed these
developments. Mighty city-states featuring fortified walls and other public
works flourished both in Etruria and in its spheres of influence. The Rome of
the Etruscan kings, described in detail by Livy and known through excavation,
had fortifications, a paved forum, a master drainage system (the Cloaca Maxima),
a public stadium (the Circus Maximus), and a monumental Etruscan-style temple
dedicated to Jupiter Optimus Maximus. It is at the end of the 6th century that one
finds the earliest evidence for the grid system in towns and cemeteries
mentioned earlier. The ample but surprisingly uniform houses and tombs imply
growing regulation and cooperation and possibly signal a change in government.
Etruscan cities, like Rome itself, may have begun to remove their kings at this
time and to operate under an oligarchic system with elected officials from
powerful noble families. The Roman orator Cato's statement that
"almost all of Italy was once under Etruscan control" best applies to this
period. Undoubtedly, Etruscan maritime power and commerce played a central role
in this domination. Exported Etruscan objects of the period have been found in
North Africa, Greece and the Aegean, Anatolia, Yugoslavia, France, and Spain;
later they even reached the Black Sea. But land routes were well under control
also, especially in the corridor leading through Rome and Latium down to Capua
and the other Etruscanized cities of Campania. In northern Italy, Bologna (Felsina)
was the principal city, and colonies such as the ones at nearby Marzabotto and
at Adria and Spina on the Adriatic Sea represented significant posts along the
northern trade network. Almost from the beginning, the Etruscans must have been rivaled in their own seas by the Greeks, who, from the founding of Pithekoussai and Cumae, settled in numerous colonies in southern Italy, and by the Phoenicians, who had established Carthage about 800 BC. The Carthaginians claimed parts of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia as spheres of influence and dominated the seas west of these islands to Spain. The generally salutary trading relations among these three nations and the delicate balance of power were upset, however, in the Archaic period, as new waves of Greek colonists arrived. Phocaean Greeks established a colony on Corsica at Alalia (modern Aleria) which threatened both the Etruscans at Caere and the Carthaginians and led to a naval coalition between them. The ensuing battle in the seas off Corsica (c. 535 BC) had disastrous results for the Phocaeans, who emerged as victors but lost so many ships that they abandoned their colony and moved to southern Italy. The Carthaginians and Etruscans reasserted control over Corsica, and Etruscan might was to hold firm for another quarter of a century. Home Page |
