National Etruscan Museum

The National Etruscan Museum in Rome displays the art and artifacts of the Etruscan civilization, which flourished in Tuscany, Umbria, and the area around Rome between the 8^th and 3^rd centuries BCE. While Etruria is the museum’s focus, it has smaller collections that recount the history of other pre-Roman civilizations.

The Etruscan Museum’s collections include pottery, jewellery, bronzes, tools, weapons, and funeral urns. Highlights include the so-called Sarcophagus of the Spouses, a late 6^th-century terra cotta funerary monument that depicts a couple enjoying a banquet in the afterlife; the Pyrgi Tablets, Etruscan and Phoenician gold-leaf inscriptions, and a large painted statue of Apollo known as the Apollo of Veii that dates from the 6^th century BCE.

The Museum is housed in the Renaissance-era Villa Guilia, a palace originally built for Pope Julius III between 1550 and 1555.

_{(Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)}