The Etruscan elite furnished their tombs with extraordinary sumptuousness, following a specifically “barbarian” custom—adopted throughout their civilization—that began in the second half of the eighth century BC and reached its peak in the seventh. The three major arts—stone sculpture, architecture, and painting—developed in this period mostly for use in burials. The sets of grave goods include luxury items of Near Eastern and other provenances, which testify to the considerable capacity for assimilating outside influences and the role the Etruscans played in the Mediterranean and Europe. Archaeological evidence shows that the Etruscans received objects and ideas relating to a new way of life from the Near East, while their mythology came from Greece; they received cultural models from both. This original mixture determined a new type of culture, which allowed both men and women to play important roles in society.