A major new show in the Etruscan heartland has reunited for the first time splendours from Italy's earliest major civilisation that have been spread across Europe ever since Volterra's tombs and acropolis were excavated in the 18th century.
Several important Italian collections of Etruscan works are contributing to the upcoming exhibition here including Rome's Villa Giulia and Pigorini museums and Florence's Archaeological Museum.
Etruscan jewels, funerary urns, statues, coins and tomb decorations have also come from the Vatican Museums and other top European museums including the Louvre and the State Art Museum in Berlin.
The array of riches from the 8th to the 2nd century BC will be complemented, during the duration of the show, by visits to fascinating new digs at Volterra's acropolis and surrounding necropolises, as well as an exciting new tour of the city's ancient fortifications, gateways and massive walls.
Volterra was a prosperous city state, its wealth based on metalworking, which lay at the heart of the Etruscan Empire.
The Etruscans are believed to have formed the first advanced civilisation in Italy, based in an area called Etruria which corresponds mainly to present-day Tuscany and Northern Lazio.
At the height of their power at around 500 BC - when Rome itself was subjugated - their power spread north almost to the foothills of the Alps and southward close to Naples.
Our knowledge of their civilisation is based largely on archeological finds, as much of their language has yet to be deciphered.
Tomb excavations have offered valuable insights into Etruscan material culture and fashions - showing for example that Etruscan men's jewellery was relatively complex and elaborate compared to the simplicity of the objects worn by women.
Etruscans perfected at least one important aesthetic and practical device - false teeth fashioned from ivory and bone and secured with gold - whose sophistication was unrivalled until the 18th century.
The origins of this ancient people, who even in antiquity were viewed as foreigners by the other peoples of Italy, have long been a mystery.
Recent research indicates that - as the Greek historian Herodotus first claimed - they came to Italy from what is now Turkey.
'The Etruscans At Volterra, Masterpieces From Great European Museums' runs at Volterra's Palazzo dei Priori until January 8.
