The Mysterious Etruscans

Etruscan Hut Urn (Photo Credit: Google Images)

So many things interested me during this Roman Art History Seminar, but the subject that was the most intriguing for me was the Etruscans. No one really knows exactly what happened to them, but their art and the ideas that they left behind made a huge impact on Ancient Romans, and even on us today. The fact that they are so mysterious makes me want to learn more about them.

During the seminar, it was so interesting to find out that Etruscan towns are buried under present day cities but are, however, too dangerous to excavate. Knowing this makes me very anxious to see if archeologists will ever find a safe way to excavate the remains of the Etruscan towns and possibly solve the mystery of who exactly they were and what happened to them.

I decided to do a little more research on the Etruscans and their influences. I found that the Etruscans might have originally come to Italy from Lydia. They were once considered a “superpower” along with Greece, and many countries they established are still around today, like Florence. Even though none of the Etruscans’ history or literature was ever recovered, it is still known that they taught the Romans the alphabet and that Ancient Roman art and culture was influenced by them. I also found that in 510 B.C., they were driven out of Rome because the Romans believed they acquired too much power. However, much of this I already knew because of my research done while creating my timeline.

In my extra research, I just kept wishing there was more information about the Etruscans. More and more questions continued to pop up in my mind: How did they become so dominant? Where did their art and culture influences come from? How did they just disappear? None of these questions had a definite answer. I’ve never been this curious to learn more about something in my life! Of all, it was still amazing to learn about these mysterious Etruscans for the mere fact that we can only make inferences about them based on their influences on Roman art, architecture and culture. 

~Aurea Colston