GEOGRAPHY

The geography of Etruria can be broadly divided into three core zones of cross-cutting physical and cultural geography: South Etruria, Northwestern Etruria, and the tectonic valleys to the north and east.

South Etruria was a predominantly volcanic area, packed with five outstandingly large principal cities (Veii, Caere, Tarquinia, Vulci, and Orvieto) and bounded by the sea to the southwest and the major river systems of the Tiber and Albegna to the southeast, east, northeast, and northwest. The volcanic landscape had considerable potential for agricultural intensification, especially when combined with water control (the so-called cunicoli or water tunnels in the territory of Veii). The zone has important salt resources at the mouth of the Tiber that formed one element of the political dispute between Rome and Veii. There are also significant metallurgical mineral resources in the Tolfa hills between Caere and Tarquinia in an upland area that must also have served to define the boundary of their respective political territories, as indicated also by the placing of sanctuaries such as Foce del Marangone and Punta della Vipera.

The boundary between North Etruria and South Etruria was formed by the Albegna Valley and Monte Amiata. This intermediary zone was relatively unstable politically, containing shorter-lived smaller political settlements and no large city until the foundation of La Doganella in the sixth century BC. Monte Amiata, part of a zone of high volcanic relief, formed a natural political boundary, which was enhanced by its ritual significance. Northwestern Etruria is a zone of more varied Plio-Pleistocene deposits, today in many cases subject to intense erosion, as well as sandstones and limestones, and is bounded by the major river valleys of the Albegna, Arno, and Chiana. This area contained the major cities of Populonia, Volterra, Vetulonia, and Roselle, which all gravitated toward the coast and the important mineral deposits on Elba and the Colline Metallifere.

To the north and east lie the important tectonic valleys of the Arno and the Chiana, which contained the four smaller Etruscan cities of Fie-sole, Arezzo, Cortona, and Chiusi. The most easterly city is Perugia, set within an enclave south, west, and north of a further set of tectonic basins that form the greater part of Umbria. All these valley systems formed natural territories and communication routes through central Italy and, in some cases, such as the Mugello, almost penetrating the Apennines.