This article presents the results of the weaving together of two traditions. The first is the cultural history of Etruscan urbanism which has been widely presented in numerous accounts and is not offered in detail here. The second is the regional-survey tradition of settlement archaeology which has not previously been synthesized as one continuous historical process from the late second millennium BC into the first millennium BC. The combined result is a stronger balanced study that will, in time, allow comparison of Etruscan urbanism not only with the better known cases of urbanism in the Mediterranean but with others in the Old and New World. From this combination of intellectual traditions, it is apparent that some features of Etruscan urbanism are distinctive and others exhibit important potential comparisons with other urban societies.