Understanding ancient worlds by 
The Etruscans, about 700 BC, were the first people in northern and central Italy to build big buildings out of stone. They learned from the Greeks and the Phoenicians to build big stone temples for their gods.
For the first time, Italian archaeologists have uncovered an intact Etruscan house. Researchers hope this find sheds light on the mysterious pre-Roman civilization.
Etruscan civilization, a vanished culture whose achievements set the stage not only for the development of ancient Roman art and culture but for the Italian Renaissance as well.
The architecture of the Etruscan civilization, which flourished in central Italy from the 8th to 3rd century BCE, has largely been obliterated both by the conquering Romans and time, but the very influence of the Etruscans on Roman architecture and the impression their buildings made on later writers give tantalising clues as to what we are missing.
