An Etruscan Family Story

Surprising evidence of daily life and of one of Rome’s greatest conflicts is found in a wealthy residence in Tuscany

- Marco Merola

BEFORE THE ROMANS CAME to dominate the Italian Peninsula, another powerful civilization once held sway in central Italy—the Etruscans. Though a fair amount is known about their wealthy, cosmopolitan culture, nearly all that knowledge comes from the hundreds of tombs that have been found in the land of Etruria, between the Tiber and Arno Rivers, west and south of the Apennine Mountains. These burial chambers, which are often brightly painted and filled with costly grave goods, have provided most of the evidence scholars have used to reconstruct Etruscan customs, cultural connections, and technological achievements. But to this day, their language, despite being written in an alphabet probably related to one of the early Greek alphabets, remains undeciphered, and relatively few Etruscan domestic properties have been identified. Thus many questions about their daily life remain.

Over the past several years in the modern village of Vetulonia (the ancient Etruscan settlement of Vetluna), 10 miles northwest of Grosseto, archaeologists from the University of Perugia and the local museum have been excavating a large house. The team’s leader, archaeologist Simona Rafanelli, believes it belonged to a powerful Etruscan family for at least 200 years, until the first quarter of the first century b.c. “This was a rich villa measuring more than 4,300 square feet, with 10 main rooms in addition to other back rooms and servants’ quarters,” says Rafanelli. From at least the third century b.c. on, she explains, was a prosperous time for Vetluna, which enjoyed good relations and a peaceful coexistence with Rome. “This can be seen not only in this house, which we assume was built in this flourishing period,” Rafanelli says, “but also in the expansion of the settlement, as well as in the construction of other rich houses and new decoration of sacred buildings.”