ABSTRACT
From the last three centuries bc the Etruscans have left behind a huge amount of sarcophagi and ash chests (or cinerary urns), with or without name inscriptions or sculptural decoration. When decorated, the artistic level is highly varied, but the trend went decidedly from quality to quantity.1 That is why only a few tomb complexes and a few fine examples of the late ash chests are illustrated in most books on the Etruscans. This contributes to a gloomy idea of “the period of decline,” and the last generations of Etruscans who followed the old burial customs are rarely mentioned at all. Further, there is a tendency to consider everything Greek older than Etruscan, and everything Etruscan older than Roman, as if there were not considerable overlap.
