Etruscan Architecture
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. Not many Etruscan temples survive. This is probably because some of them were built out of wood and clay, and others were destroyed by the Romans when they conquered the Etruscans. But there are ruins of a big Etruscan temple west of Rome at Veii, and on the Capitoline hill in Rome, overlooking the Roman Forum, there are the foundations of a really big Etruscan temple.
Etruscan temples were the same as Greek temples in some ways, but in other ways they were different. Like Greek temples, Etruscan temples had a stone room, the cella, on the inside, and they were on a platform that raised them above the ground. And, like Greek temples, they had peaked roofs and columns. But in Etruscan temples, the columns were only across the front, not all the way around. And the platforms of Etruscan temples were much higher, sometimes two meters high (about six feet) or even more, and they only had steps in the front, not all the way around like Greek temples. Etruscan temples were usually built out of the local tufa and travertine, instead of marble. Also, Etruscan temples often had clay statues on the roof.
Etruscan tombs at Cerveteri
We don’t know much about Etruscan houses, because they were built in wood and mud-brick so they didn’t last. But the Etruscans built their tombs out of stone, and they liked their tombs to look like their houses, so we can get some idea what Etruscan houses looked like from their tombs.
There are two main Etruscan cemeteries that have been excavated: one is called Cerveteri and the other is called Tarquinia. Both of them are just a little north of Rome.
To find out more about Etruscan architecture, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Vulca the Etruscan, by Roberta Angeletti (1999). For kids.
The Etruscans, by Don Nardo (2004). For kids.
Hands-On Ancient People, Volume 2: Art Activities about Minoans, Mycenaeans, Trojans, Ancient Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, by Yvonne Merrill (2004). For kids.
Etruscan Art, by Nigel Spivey (1997). A college textbook.
Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture (Pelican History of Art), by Axel Boethius, Roger Ling, and Tom Rasmussen (second edition 1992). Likewise a textbook.
