Etruscan Architecture

Etruscan architecture was produced by the civilization of ancient Etruria in central Italy from roughly 900 BC until Rome absorbed Etruscan territory by 27 BC. Early Etruscans worshipped in open air enclosures, and it was only around 600 BC, influenced by contact with the Greeks, that they began building monumental temples. Etruscan temples resembled Greek ones in having stone foundations, a columned front porch and raised platforms reached by stairs, but unlike Greek temples their walls were built of wood or mud brick rather than stone, and each temple typically enclosed three separate worship chambers called cellae. Their roofs were covered in terracotta tiles and decorated with life-size terracotta statues of deities, and their columns, unique to the Etruscans, were made of wood with plain rather than fluted shafts; because only the stone platforms generally survive, much of what is known about the timber superstructures comes from these terracotta roof fragments and later Roman descriptions.