The late sixth century was a crucial period in Etruscan history: it witnessed the first monumental sanctuaries, the beginnings of planned cities, and the radical reorganisation of cemeteries. More widely, it was a period of intense contact with other cultures, notably those of Greece, Phoenicia and Central Italy; and it marked a dramatic and irreversible transformation of the agricultural and political landscapes of Etruria. Such changes came at the end of several centuries of internal development within Etruria, the beginnings of which can be traced back at least to the early first millennium bc. This book aims to examine these changes in Etruscan material culture. It brings together different aspects of Etruscan archaeology within a single analytical framework. While doing so it develops a new approach to Etruscan material and an integrated perspective on a society that is usually separated by intra-disciplinary boundaries. As such, it aims to provide a coherent explanation for change in Etruscan society.

Changes in Etruscan material culture (artefacts, images and standing structures) are traditionally explained in two main ways. The first sees the changes as a logical progression from primitive to modern; the second describes how the cultural world of Etruria falls under the influence of the Greeks. According to most accounts of Etrusco-Greek interaction, as Ridgway has so accurately put it, ‘it was the proper business (and privilege) of the barbarians to be Hellenised, e basta!’ (Ridgway 2000: 181).