Etruria

Dancers and a harpist on an Etruscan fresco from Tarquinia, Italy. This fresco was found on the wall of a tomb and dates from c. 465 BC. Tarquinia was a principal city of the Etruscan people, who inhabited parts of modern day Tuscany and Umbria from the 8th to the 2nd centuries BC.

Region of ancient Italy (corresponding to modern Tuscany and part of Umbria), inhabited by the Etruscans. Etruria Propria, through which the River Arno flowed, lay west of the Apennines and the Tiber; Etruria Campaniana lay south of the Tiber; and Etruria Circumpadana embraced the valley of the Po. Etruria formed the seventh of the 11 regiones of Italy (administrative districts) established by the emperor Augustus.

The confederation of 12 cities in Etruria Propria included Veii, Tarquinii, Clusium, Volaterrae, and Perusium; in the northern province were Felsina (Bologna), Mantua, Ravenna, and Adria; in the south was Capua. Etruria established colonies in Corsica, Elba, and elsewhere.

Etruria

Part of the suburb of Hanley in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. Etruria is historically associated with pottery; in 1769, Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley opened their Etruria Works in the district.

Wedgwood's original factory is now used for other purposes, but the fabric is preserved as an historic building. There is a memorial to Thomas Wedgwood, photography pioneer and patron of Coleridge, in Etruria Park. Etruria has given its name to certain beds of marls and clays found in the west Midlands, which are useful for pottery manufacture and are also used to make Staffordshire ‘blue’ bricks, a very high-grade, water-resistant type of brick, ideal for engineering work.