HISTORY · OPEN COLLECTION

Etruscans and Rome

Villages and established burial grounds preceded the growth of cities. Etruscan city-states developed in Etruria, while Rome grew from connected hilltop settlements in Latium.

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Before you begin · Etruscans and Rome

Italy before Etruria and Rome

Etruscan cities and Rome grew in a landscape of villages, fields, necropolises and exchange routes that came before.

11th–10th centuries BCE
Final Bronze Age communities
Villages and burials in central Italy document a human landscape prior to the historical cities.
9th–8th centuries BCE
The Villanovan phase
In Etruria, centres and funerary practices grow that allow study of the beginnings of Etruscan history.
8th–6th centuries BCE
The formation of cities
Etruria and Latium reorganise population, authority and exchanges in related but different trajectories.

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Prehistoric origins

At the end of the Bronze Age, central Italy brought together communities settled on hills and agricultural territories. Dwellings and funerary assemblages allow study of how they organised themselves without relying on foundation narratives written much later. In Latium, materials from the 11th and 10th centuries BCE show a world prior to the city of Rome and its tradition of kings.

The earliest cultures

During the 9th and 8th centuries BCE, the communities that archaeology calls Villanovan developed important centres in Etruria. Cremations, urns and objects deposited in tombs allow recognition of shared practices and social differences. Their location favoured control of land, metals and communications. In Latium, other communities followed their own trajectories: proximity and exchange did not mean political identity.

How this history is formed

The concentration of population and resources contributed to the growth of Etruscan cities. Mediterranean contacts expanded techniques, goods and prestige languages. Rome also formed through the integration and transformation of earlier settlements. Its history intertwined with that of Latins, Etruscans and other neighbours, before the republican and imperial expansion that occupies much of the route.

From the past to the museum you are about to explore

Urns, prestige objects and urban testimonies help situate the origins of Etruria and Rome before their great monuments.

Interpreting these traces. The traditional foundation date of Rome does not replace the urban formation process documented by archaeology.

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Explore the earliest cultures

Etruscan → Roman

≈900–700 BCE → Rome from ≈750 · EUROPE AND AEGEAN

Access to the museum brings together the atlas and background of Etruscans and Rome. Then, seven areas organise the historical context, culture, architecture, figures and society, treasures and grave goods, beliefs and curiosities, and five historical gateways to other museums. Each file preserves narrative layers, cautions and differentiated sources.

The room combines a specific visual catalog with an audited thematic dossier. Separates facts, interpretations and cautions; the 3D volumes continue to be replaceable markers until models with provenance and license are incorporated.

Tyrrhenian central Italy and the Latian hills, from Bronze Age villages to Villanovan communities

The concentration of villages and the definition of stable necropolises led to urban communities: in Etruria, city-states emerged; in Latium, Rome grew from interconnected hilltop nuclei.

Villanovan describes an archaeological facies. Its relationship with later Etruscan or Latin identities must be explained as a process, not as an immediate equivalence.

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01 · COLLECTION

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01 · INITIAL ATLAS · ORIGIN AND EXPANSION

Map of Etruscans and Rome

Locate the Etruscan cities and follow Rome’s expansion across the Mediterranean.

Etruscans and Rome

Final Bronze Age communities

The Villanovan phase

The formation of cities

Prehistoric origins

The earliest cultures

How this history is formed

From the past to the museum you are about to explore

Etruscan → Roman

Tyrrhenian central Italy and the Latian hills, from Bronze Age villages to Villanovan communities

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Connected cultures

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