Etruscans

Hello! We are the Etruscans. A long, long time ago, we lived in our special home. It was a beautiful land called Etruria. Today, you would call this place Italy. Our home had green hills that rolled up and down and a big, shiny blue sea. We loved our land very much.

We built big cities for our families to live in. We wanted our cities to be full of wonderful things. We filled them with beautiful art to look at and happy music to hear. Our communities were busy and creative places where we enjoyed our lives together.

We were great artists, and we loved to make things with our hands. We made special shiny black pots. These pots were very useful for holding our food and our water. We also loved to paint. On the walls of our tombs, which were special resting places, we painted happy pictures. The paintings showed people dancing and having fun. They showed us eating at parties and playing games together. We painted these pictures so we could always remember the good times we shared.

Our favorite thing to do was have a big party called a banquet. We loved having fun with our friends and family! Everyone came to our parties. We would lie on comfy couches and eat delicious food. We would also listen to music. We watched dancers move to the music, and we listened to people play instruments like pipes. It was a happy time for all of us.

We are not here anymore, but you can still remember us. If you go to a museum, you can see the beautiful things we made. Our neighbors, the Romans, lived near us and learned a lot from our ways. Because we taught them so much, a little piece of our world is still a part of your world today.