Etruscan Orientalization

Abstract

The terms ‘orientalizing’ and ‘orientalization’ have been employed to describe an art historical style, historical period, and process of cultural interaction between East and West within the early first-millennium BCE Mediterranean. With particular focus on Etruria and Italy, this historiography explores the Orientalist framework at the heart of ‘orientalizing’ terms while outlining how modern political movements and ideologies of nationalism and colonialism have influenced interpretations of ‘orientalizing.’ By showing the political viewpoints underlying the origins of the term and the ways in which these positions have continued to shape modern interpretations of the effects of eastern imported objects, ideas, and practices in Etruria, this work argues that the term ‘orientalizing’ should no longer be used. Instead, the period should be fit into existing chronological periodizations, and the process of cultural change should be interrogated outside of an Orientalist discourse.