Fun Fact Friday: The Last of the Etruscans

So you’ve been reading along the last several Fridays and you’ve been thinking, why have I never heard of this ancient civilization before? (Or if you haven’t been reading along and need to catch up you can go here.) Well, it may have something to do with the old Winston Churchill quote, “History is written by the victors.”

As the Etruscan civilization began to decline, many of the cities were conquered by the Romans. An unimaginable amount of art and artifacts of the Etruscans were destroyed in the sieges. Other pieces of Etruscan culture and art were absorbed into the Roman civilizations.

A lot of what we know about Etruria and the Etruscans comes from examining their tombs. They had very elaborate burial customs that left clues (in the form of paintings, writings, and artifacts of art and personal belongs) to the lives of the people who were buried in the tombs.

Here’s a short but great video that talks about the legacy of the Etruscan civilization.

I hope you enjoyed learning more about my favorite ancient civilization of the Etruscans the last couple of weeks. Is there something that you found particularly interesting? Are there any other pieces of art history that you’d like me to dive into for future weeks?