The Etruscans are one of the enigmas of history. A cultured, artistic, socially adept, economically prosperous and pleasure-loving people, they dominated Central Italy for 800 years until, eclipsed by the burgeoning power of Rome in the fourth and third centuries BC, their civilization was absorbed and their identity obliterated. But gradually during the last four hundred years their art has come to be appreciated and enjoyed, with the emergence of richly frescoed tombs, exquisite jewelry and sculpture, metalwork and painted vases at sites such as Cerveteri, Tarquinia and Vulci. Nigel Spivey's incisive book is the first critical survey of this elusive people for more than twenty years, bringing the Etruscan world to life in the light of the most recent discoveries and the latest scholarship. 223 black and white illus..

The Etruscans were the most powerful force in central Italy until Roman unification of the peninsula. Vestiges of their art, architecture, and unique language have long intrigued scholars, and the search for this mysterious civilization continues to fire the imagination. Despite a history of pillage, rich archaeological evidence survives: thousands of tombs, many of them frescoed and filled with vases, sculpture, jewelry, and metalwork; and the mysterious Etruscan sites that are places of tourist pilgrimage, such as Cerveteri, Vulci, and Tarquinia. In this new book, the first survey of its kind in more than twenty years, Nigel Spivey brings the Etruscan world to life, illuminating the social, political, and cultural context of the art objects and artifacts that remain the singular achievement of the Etruscans.