Charlie Patterson, age 15, of Birmingham, Ala., for his question:
WHO WERE THE ETRUSCANS?
Etruscans were members of a tribe of people that lived in Etruria starting about 1000 B.C. Etruria is present day Tuscany in Italy and the land stretches from the Arno River in the north to the Tiber River in the south, and from the Apennine Mountains in the east to the Tyrhenian Sea in the west.
Etruscans came to Etruria from the east, historians tell us, and they probably arrived by sea. They made near slaves of the people who were living in the area.
The civilization of the Etruscans reached its height in the 400s B.C. Then Etruria itself passed wholly under the control of Rome early in the 200s B.C.
The historical importance of the Etruscans lies in their influence on early Rome. Theirs was the first well developed city culture with which the small farming communities in ancient Latium came into contact.
Etruscan kings ruled Rome during the 500s B.C. when Rome itself grew from a village into a city. Rome became so prosperous and powerful under the Etruscan kings that it was able to rule most of Latium even after the last Etruscan king was driven out of the city.
The Etruscan language cannot yet be understood, although it is written in letters much like Greek. Historians have a great many inscriptions in the language, but most are very brief.
We know that the language did not belong to the Indo European family, like Latin and Greek, but it seems related to such obscure languages of Asia Minor as Lydian.
Etruscan art was greatly influenced by the Greeks. The most spectacular Etruscan remains are their tombs. Many of the tombs were decorated with wall paintings. Hundreds of these have been preserved.
The Etruscans were skilled in metalworking and in terra cotta, or molded and baked clay sculpture.
The Etruscans had a complicated set of religious ceremonies and they were very concerned with life after death and foretelling the future. They tried to predict the future by studying the flight of birds and the intestines of animals.
The Etruscans also staged duels as human sacrifices at funerals. These later became Roman gladiator battles.
At the peak of their civilization, the Etruscans were very wealthy. The wealth came partly from iron mining but mostly from their control of trade in the western Medterranean Sea.
The influence of Etruria upon early Rome was strong and continuous. But scholars in general, however, no longer advance the theory that the Romans borrowed their political institutions, such as the magistracies, from the Etruscans.
The political unit of the Etruscans was the city, of which there were 12 in Etruria proper. A small aristocratic ruling class governed each city, sometimes through a king, more often through a magistracy.
The cities themselves were joined in a common federation or league. The league was not strong enough to prevent war between the cities, or even to ensure unity in the face of danger. With the Roman conquest of southern Etruria, the league virtually ceased to function.