\f1 \fs22 The ancient Etruscan center of Curtun stood on the hill occupied by present-day Cortona, overlooking the
fertile Val di Chiana. A few stretches of the ancient city walls have survived, while all that is left of the \b \cf1 \ATXht14 necropolis\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 are some isolated burial mounds known as <<melons>> in the local dialect. In 1726 the Accademia Etr
usca di Cortona, the most important center of erudite eighteenth-century research into ancient Etruria, was founded in the town. The Academy's museum houses a splendid \b \cf4 \ATXht4023 bronze candelabrum\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 with a lavish figured decoratio
n that attests to a flourishing local artistic activity in the working of bronze around the middle of the fifth century BC.\par
