The Etruscans: Gods, Tombs and Feasts
They were seafarers and connoisseurs of the good life, and over 2,500 years ago they brought Greek chic to Tuscany: the Etruscans. This coming Friday, 30 October 2026, the smac – short for the State Museum of Archaeology in Chemnitz – will open its new special exhibition ‘The Etruscans: Gods, Tombs and Feasts’.
Running until Easter Monday, 29 March 2027, the exhibition presents the history, trade, art, gods, everyday culture and distinctive characteristics of this first ancient civilisation to flourish in what is now Italy.
Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria have more to offer than just wine, beaches and beautiful countryside. The remains of Etruscan civilisation are everywhere, in the form of ruined towns and necropolises.
The wall paintings in the necropolises of Tarquinia and Cerveteri are world-famous. Alabaster, a material the Etruscans used to make jewellery, delicate vessels and relief-carved urns, is still worked there today.
With the exhibition ‘The Etruscans: Gods, Tombs and Feasts’, the smac is once again presenting a theme from Classical Antiquity, following on from ‘Pompeii and Herculaneum’ (2022/23). But this time – and this is what makes it so appealing and exciting – the focus is not on the universally familiar Romans, but on the Etruscans, an advanced civilisation that achieved great things in the Italian peninsula even before the Romans.
An immersive projection introduces visitors to the world of the Etruscans: it shows their settlement areas, ports, contemporary cultures around the Mediterranean, the main trade routes, and archaeological sites across Europe and North Africa where Etruscan export goods have been found. Further projections and films complement the archaeological exhibits. They depict modern-day towns that trace their origins back to Etruscan settlements, the famous wall paintings from the great necropolises, the pediment decorations of Etruscan temples, granulation and filigree techniques, and an alabaster workshop.
The exhibition is presented in a mystical anthracite colour scheme. Large-scale reproductions of wall paintings from Etruscan burial chambers adorn the backgrounds of some display cases. The heavy, relief-adorned alabaster urns stand freely on pedestals.
Particular design highlights include a large wall display case containing utensils for wine-drinking and the walk-in, scaled-down replica of a family burial chamber, which presents the almost complete furnishings of the original chamber.