Half a century ago, however, Massimo Pallottino, the father figure of modern "Etruscology", demolished this thesis once and for all, and today it is accepted that the origins of the Etruscan city states must be found in the internal social transformations that took place among the indigenous late prehistoric societies of Etruria in the two or three centuries preceding the emergence of the city states.
the study of Etruscan civilization, especially its artifacts and language.