Massa Aldo. The World of the Etruscans

Translated by Anthony Werner. — New York: Tudor Publishing Co, 1973. — 144 p. — ISBN: 0-8148-0579-5.A great variety of peoples, most of which have left only a vague imprint on history, has passed in succession over the territory of Italy. We are told of Aborigines, Ligures, Ausonian, Japygians, Siculi, Oenotrians, Umbrians, Italiots, Pelasgi, Etruscans, etc. But to which peoples did these names refer? How were these peoples different from one another? To which races did they belong? Where did they come from? In what order did they follow one another? How far did they intermix? There are a great many questions which science has not yet answered.
Yet there has been no lack of theories, each more ingenious than the last. But all this wisdom and imagination has produced only improbable, and often fantastic, solutions.
Thus, the Etruscans, whose origin is still unknown, have been successively assigned to all races and countries. They have been described as indigenous Italians, Slavs, Basques, Celts, Canaanites, Armenians, Egyptians, Tatars, etc. Some have agreed with Herodotus that they were Pelasgo-Tyrrhenians who had left the coasts of Lydia and arrived in Italy by sea. Others, like Dionysius of Halicarnassus, have claimed that they were a tribe which originated in the Rhaetian Alps. But no-one has succeeded in penetrating the mists surrounding the past of this enigmatic people. Scarcely any more is known about the other peoples who shared the territory of Italy with them.At the dawn of civilization.
The Etruscan people and its mystery.
History of the Etruscans.
The land and the towns.
Trade.
An art of living.
Knowledge and the arts.
Beliefs.
The art of divination.