The Origins

T he Etruscan population called Tirreni by the Greeks and Etruscan or Tusci by the Romans; they auto-defined with the name of Rasenna. They were already known in the time of the Greek poet Esiodo in 700 B.C., The archaeological discoveries demonstrates that already in that time, in the area defined Etruria, corresponded to a vast area in the actual central Italy, they began to spread into a great civilisation. But where do they come from? The hypotheses, about which the scholars have worked for centuries, are three:

• the Eastern origin, they came from a population migrated to Italy by sea
• the Northern origin, they came from a population from north Europe, arrived in Italy across the Alps.
• the native origin, that such comes from the people descended from the pre-Italians, people that lived on the peninsular before the invasion of the Indo-Europeans.

It is certain that the most important population in the Italian peninsular in the Iron Age, which has presented communal culture characteristics, is the so called Villanovian civilisation, from which the Etruscans came from or from which the Etruscans had to integrate.

Actually, the research of the external origins has been abandoned in favour of the more relevant study, as results from the conclusions of which the major part of the modern scholars have arrived.