The Etruscans were a group of people inhabiting west-central Italy from about 900BC to 90BC. They emerged during a dark age which shadowed the Mediterranean, during which the Mycenaeans of Greece declined, bringing into Greece the illiterate Dorians, who went without written language until the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet.
Although we know that their culture originated about 900BC, we do not know from whom they are descended. Herodotus, the father of history, believed that the Etruscans descended from Lydians who fled out of Asia Minor during a famine of the country of Lydia. Some believe the area was a melting pot, and the many peoples merged to form one culture. Others say they were the 'sea people' mentioned in records from ancient Egypt.
Most of what is known to modern scholars about the Etruscans comes from the tombs found there. We know they traded extensively with other cultures, more Greek potery has been found in Etruscan tombs than in Greece itself. Many wall paintings and artifacts have been found in the tombs, and many examples of Etruscan writing. In fact, of the 13,000 or so examples of Etruscan writing, most of them are small inscriptions found in the tombs, such as "son of Larce, nephew of Larth." Because of limitations such as these, scholars have only been able to decipher about 300 useful words.
At first the Etruscans believed in a good and happy afterlife; this was reflected in the wall paintings in the tombs. But because of their extensive trade with other people, ideas from their cultures were gradually absorbed by the Etruscans. Later tombs had paintings depicting monsters and demons, more characteristic of the Greeks.
Toward the end of their civilization, "the Etruscans developed a closed view of history." They believed they only had a short amount of time for their civilization left. Priests would predict by insect swarms that the civilization was at its end. Finally they just wanted "to merge with the Roman world." And so came the end of the Etruscans.
I found this article interesting, although rather long (I did not realize how long it was until I was about halfway through it, which was too late to find something else). In fact, until I read this article, I did not know there was another great civilization in Italy before the Romans.