The Levantine peoples who were instrumental in forming trading links with the central and western Mediterranean in the first half of the first millennium BC. Their activities were strongly connnected with the Orientalizing period, providing a number of the exotic products found in rich graves of that period (ivories, glass, silverware, and bronzes). The Pyrgi inscriptions on gold also show the close connection between Etruscan and Phoenician political leaders and religious cults in the late sixth century BC. In the later part of the first millennium BC, the term Punic is applied, closely connected with the political rise of Carthage and showing a relative disconnection with the eastern Mediterranean.
Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans. Simon K. F. Stoddart.