With Dr. Eireann Marshall

In this lecture, we will explore who the Etruscans were, starting from their origins and including their language. Perhaps the most enduring fascination with the Etruscans is that they were clearly so powerful and yet we hear about them only from Greek and Roman writers who were often hostile towards them, not to say ignorant about them. It is apparent to us today that Etruscans derived from a culture that we know today as the “Villanovan Culture”, suggesting that they indigenous to Italy despite their language not being Indo-European. Greek writers called them Tyrrhenian and described them as pirates, which gives us a hint about their sea faring prowess. They were merchants who traversed the seas providing the Mediterranean with important metals.