The ancient Etruscan people occupied a swath of central Italy stretching roughly between Campania in the south, and the Po River in modern-day Lombardy. Their culture flourished in the pre-Roman era, between approximately 1,000 and 90 BCE. The name “Etruscan” formed the root of the word Tuscany; the Greek word for the people of central Italy, tyrennoi, gave the name for the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

Some of the richest burials in the Mediterranean world were located in central Italy. In fact, much of what we know about the ancient Etruscans comes from tomb excavations and study of its elaborate funerary culture. Among these impressive works of funerary sculpture, painting, and metalwork, the Etruscan sarcophagus stands as one of the culture’s hallmarks and it also holds a special place in the history of art.