page_title: Etruscan civilization
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Etruscan civilization / Culture / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: 3D view, facing west, of the Hypogeum of the Volumnis, Perugia, Italy, cut from a laser scan. A small vestibule rests atop the Hypogeum, containing several artifacts from surrounding tombs and a door to the steep staircase shown here. This is the only entrance to the tomb of the Velimna family (translated to Volumnius in Roman); it descends 5.3 meters underground over 30 steps through a travertine doorway into the main central chamber, or atrium. From this point the layout of the Hypogeum mimics a traditional Etruscan house, bordered by lateral chambers (two alae and six cellae) with a tablinum at the far end of the chamber. Of particular note is the form of the ceiling of the central atrium. Here the carved limestone ceiling explicitly mimics the interior form of the traditional wood framed Etruscan house, sloped in two directions from a central ridge beam, complete with correctly placed rafters, joists, and planks. The ceilings of the right ala and the tablinum likewise have the forms of coffered ceilings constructed of wood.
context_page_description: The Etruscan civilization was a civilization of ancient Italy whose territory covered roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio, as well as parts of what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and Campania.
  The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region. Etruscan civilization endured until it was assimilated into Roman society. Assimilation began in the late 4th century BC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars; it accelerated with the grant of Roman citizenship in 90 BC, and became complete in 27 BC, when the Etruscans’ territory was incorporated into the newly established Roman Empire.
  Etruscan culture was influenced by Ancient Greek culture, beginning around 750 BC, during the last phase of the Villanovan period, when the Greeks, who were at this time in their Archaic Orientalizing period, started founding colonies in southern Italy.
context_section_description: Relatively little is known about the architecture of the ancient Etruscans. They adapted the native Italic styles with influence from the external appearance of Greek architecture. In turn, ancient Roman architecture began with Etruscan styles, and then accepted still further Greek influence. Roman temples show many of the same differences in form to Greek ones that Etruscan temples do, but like the Greeks, use stone, in which they closely copy Greek conventions. The houses of the wealthy were evidently often large and comfortable, but the burial chambers of tombs, often filled with grave-goods, are the nearest approach to them to survive. In the southern Etruscan area, tombs have large rock-cut chambers under a tumulus in large necropoleis, and these, together with some city walls, are the only Etruscan constructions to survive. Etruscan architecture is not generally considered as part of the body of Greco-Roman classical architecture.
caption: 3D view, facing west, of the Etruscan Hypogeum of the Volumnis, Perugia, Italy, cut from a laser scan
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