The economical and political importance of Tarquinia is attested to from the earliest times by the mythical-historical events which the sources tell us about and which link the city to Rome, for the latter lived out its "Etruscan period" under the influence of, mainly, Tarquinia.

We know very little about the topography of the Etruscan settlement; there are remains of the city walls (5th and 4th centuries BCE), which extend for a perimetre of about 8 kilometres around the boundaries of the city and were made of massive blocks of limestone. There are also remains of a large temple, the so called Altar of the Queen on the Civita hill. This was probably constructed in the 6th century BCE and then reconstructed at the beginning of the 4th century BCE and successively thereafter. From this temple come remains of clay decorations among which are the celebrated Winged Horses, which are preserved in the beautiful museum of Tarquinia.

The first permanent nucleus of the city must have been in development during the early Iron Age as the burial places from the same period would seem to indicate. These were discovered east of Civita at places called Poggio Selciatello, dell'Impiccato, Selciatello di Sopra, and contain well-tombs carved out of the naked earth. The biconical cinerary urns with a bowl shaped cover, along with a few objects from the deceased person's possessions were placed inside. This evidence of the oldest phase of the Villanovan period is of great importance due to the presence of bronze objects of an exceptionally high technical level.

From the middle of the 8th century BCE the city grew noticeably as is evidenced by an important trench-tomb called the Tomb of the Warrior (Museum of Berlin). It contains grave-goods consisting of arms and ceramics which attest to the vitality of Tarquinian culture and its openness to Greek influences. A bit more recent (beginning of the 7th century BCE) is the famous Tomb of Bocchoris, thus named because of the presence of extremely rich grave-good with a situla of ceramic with the cartouche of Pharaoh Bocchoris, ruler of Egypt from 715 to 710 BCE and a point of reference for the chronology of the orientally oriented period of the peninsula.

The occupation of the hill of Monterozzi dates from the middle of the 8th century BCE and this then became the principal burial place of the city, especially during the 6th century BCE. From the middle of the 6th century BCE, examples of burial paintings begin to show up. This has turned out to be the most important example of ancient painting prior to the Imperial Age of Rome. Beginning from this period, the decoration of the walls and ceilings of the tombs became a constant characteristic of the Tarquinian necropolis. The limited number of these tombs (about 60) compared with the total number of those discovered (about 150) shows that the painted tombs belong to the high social class.

It is difficult to grasp even partially the extraordinary quality and the importance of Tarquinian painting.

Here, I shall limit myself to giving soem brief notes about its chronological and stylistic development.

The first identifiable phase is the one in which Etruscan art is the recipient of the "Ionic" figurative experience and illustrative of this are the Lotus Flower Tomb (6th century), the Tomb of the Bulls (540 BCE), the Hunting and Fishing Tomb (530 BCE) and the Tomb of the Omens (530 BCE).

Transitory tombs between the "Ionic" phase and the so called "severe" style are the Tomb of the Baron (500 BCE), the Tomb of the Jesters (520-500 BCE), the Tomb of the Cardarelli (about 500 BCE). The famous Tomb of the Leopards and the Tomb of the Triclinium (first half of 5th century BCE) appear when this "severe" style is in full swing, whereas the classical and Hellenistic phases are evidenced by the Tomb of the Whale, the Tomb of the Giglioli, the Tomb of the Shields and the Typhoon Tomb.

The subjects of the wall decorations usually refer to scenes from real life, such as banquets, games, sporting event and hunts. Mythological episodes appear only rarely. All the most significant themes of archaic Etruscan ideology of the aristocratic sphere and of the funereal ritual are present. Stylistically, a first stage has been identified in which there was almost certainly foreign influence, with craftsmen coming from Ionic Greece. A second stage has also been identified when local schools of decorators were set up who worked on the tombs of the first quarter of the 5th century BCE with more fixed plans.