a culture that evolved in Italy as Etruscan. The “orientalizing” wave of the seventh century is integrated into this evolution and is now viewed, not as a period of invasion, but as a period in which Italy opened up to Near Eastern and Greek trade, especially through the eighth-century b.c. Greek settlement at Pithekoussai (Ridgway 1988, 639).

Achievements in Etruscan studies in the twentieth century (Bonfante 1986; Les étrusques e l’Europe 1992, 458–461) cannot be easily summarized. Of key significance was the founding in Florence in 1925 of a Comitato Permanente per l’Etruria, spearheaded by A. Minto, which soon organized the First International Etruscan Congress, which was held in 1928. This meeting in turn led to the creation in 1932 of the principal organization for the study of the Etruscans, the Istituto di Studi Etruschi (later Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi e Italici). The periodical it sponsors, Studi Etruschi, had already begun to appear in 1927.

Sensational individual discoveries have continued: the Apollo of Veii in 1916; the gold bilingual Pyrgi tablets (Etruscan and Phoenician) in 1964; the Tomb of the Blue Demons at Tarquinia in 1985. Of greater significance for the advancement of Etruscan science have been the long-term excavations that help to provide context and a sense of continuity in Etruscan history, society, and religion. Excavations by the University of Rome at Pyrgi, beginning in 1957 under the direction of Pallottino and continued by Giovanni Colonna, have revealed startling new information about Etruscan temples and sanctuaries. Habitation sites have been explored by the British School at Rome under J.B. Ward Perkins; by the Swedish Institute at Rome, with the participation of King Gustavus VI Adolphus (Les etrusques et l’Europe 1992, 462–467); and by a U.S. team from Bryn Mawr College under Kyle Phillips. The Italians have also made noteworthy discoveries in recent decades in the cities of Cerveteri (Mauro Cristofani) and especially Tarquinia (Bonghi Jovino 1999). In cemeteries, geophysical prospecting techniques used by the Lerici Foundation in 1955–1962 identified some 6,000 new tombs at Tarquinia, including some significant painted examples.

Enormous strides in the understanding of the Etruscans have been made in connection with a number of exhibitions and their catalogs as well as scientific meetings of the Istituto Nazionale and other bodies. The important show “Art and Civilization of the Etruscans” toured six European cities in 1955–1956 (Mostra dell’arte e civiltà etrusca). In 1985, proclaimed “the year of the Etruscans” in Italy, the Second International Etruscan Congress was held, and some eight different major exhibitions were mounted in Italy covering a wide range of topics, including sanctuaries, houses and palaces, metallurgy, inscriptions, the Romanization of Etruria, and the Etruscan legacy. Of more recent exhibits, the most significant for the study of the history of Etruscan archaeology was the splendid Les étrusques et l’Europe shown in Paris and Berlin in 1992–1993.

Nancy Thomson de Grummond

References

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Bonfante, L. 1986. “Etruscan Studies Today.” In Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies, 1–17. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Bonghi Jovino, M. 1999. Oltre le colonne d’Ercole: Etruscologia tra ricerca e didattica. Bologna: Rastignano.

Borsi, F., ed. 1985. Fortuna degli etruschi. Milan: Electa.

Buranelli, F. 1992. Gli scavi a Vulci della società Vincenzo Campanari: Governo Pontificio (1835–1837). Rome: “L’Erma” di Bretschneider.

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Colonna, G. 1987. “Archeologia dell’età romantica in Etruria, i Campanari di Toscanella e la Tomba dei Vipinana.” Studi Etruschi 46: 81–117.

Cristofani, Mauro. 1983. La scoperta degli etruschi, archeologia e antiquaria nel ‘700. Rome: CNR.

de Grummond, Nancy T. 1986. “Rediscovery.” In Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies, 18–46. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

de Grummond, Nancy T., ed. 1996. An Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. Westport and London: Greenwood.

Les étrusques et l’Europe. 1992. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux. German ed.,