The Land of the Etruscans

Előszó

PREFACE The land of the Etruscans is not simply the stage on which their remarkable history unfolded. It played an important role in the long line of events that began well before theformádon of the Etruscan nation and continued beyond its slow assimilation within the civilization ofKome. The territory between the Tiber and the Arno, both because of its variety of landscape and potential resources (from its vast forests to its mineral reserves) and because of the balance between inland and coast (ideálfor maritime trade), offers us the essential elements for an understanding of its history. And, conversely, it is the work of the historians and archaeologists that allows us to reconstruct the characteristics of the natural environment in dijferent periods. Hilltop villages and the development of úrban communities; regulation of watercourses and agrarian organization of the land; development of communication routes, by river or on land (up to the Komán roads); manufacturing, agricultural and trading activities; mechanisms of cultural and social differentiation: in all these spheres man and the land are the protagonists. And it is not a casual collection of events, but a complex historical development, from which spring the roots of our present. Following a rírcular geographic route, from Veii northwards to Fiesole and Pisa, and then south again to Tarquinia and Caere, this book attempts to illustrate the history of each area. Our sources are mostly archaeological finds, rather than written documents. Our historical survey goes beyond the Etruscan and Komán periods to the early Middle Ages, but it is not our intention to prove the existence of a continuity that too many facts could easily refute. We intend merely to illustrate the essential elements of an exemplary case of close interaction between man and the land he lives on. Salvatore Settis Vissza