ETRUSCAN ORIGINS AND ITALIAN NATIONALISM
ETRUSCAN ORIGINS AND ITALIAN NATIONALISM

Summary/Abstract: This study will address the historical interaction between Italian archaeology and the development of Italian nationalism. In order to understand this relationship it is imperative to discuss the crucial role that Etruscology has played within the tradition of Italian archaeology. The debate over Etruscan origins has raged for over 2000 years and a very polarized discussion has recurred without significant changes through centuries and millennia of history. When classical historians such Herodotus and Dionysius first debated Etruscan origins, archaeology as a social science and the current political border of the Italian nation did not yet exist; however, the question of origins set the tone for what would later become a political debate.

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