Almost all that the Etruscans left behind was left in their graves: Little else of their civilization remains. Scholars know they were fantastic plumbers—they built the first major sewer in what is now Rome, known as the Cloaca Maxima, and drained much of the swamp where the city now stands. Historians also believe it was from the Etruscans that the Romans derived the tradition of gladiatorial showdowns, although for the Etruscans they were a religious sacrifice rather than sport.

However, the knowledge that they were advanced plumbers and enjoyed gladiator battles reveals little about the everyday lives of the Etruscan people who flourished in what is now central Italy from around 900 BCE until the first century BCE when they were assimilated into Roman society.