The alloy of copper and tin employed from the Bronze Age onward in central Italy as the main utilitarian metal, partly substituted by iron in the Villanovan and full Etruscan periods. The benefit of using bronze was its adaptability of use; it could be used for precise molding in a molten state (bronze has a lower melting temperature [950°C] than iron) and had greater ductility than iron as sheet bronze. Manufacture of the more complex artistic items was by the lost wax process. Bronze was therefore used for ritualized items (e.g., bronze figurines) or decorative, high-status items (e.g., shields and chariot attachments). Copper was available locally in Etruria, particularly in Colline Metallifere and the Tolfa region, but tin had to be imported.
See also BRONZEWORK; TOLFA HILLS.
Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans. Simon K. F. Stoddart.