The increase in field survey and urban excavation since the 1950s has led to a new area of Etruscan research, initially supported by British and Swedish field teams and now energetically undertaken by Italian scholars. An important influence has been the rise of amateur archaeological groups, who had easier access to field surveys and have provided some of the most innovative professional scholars once they emerged from the university system. The availability of these data has led to more quantitative analysis of settlements, ranging from site catchment analysis and rank size analysis to forms of central place analysis. More recently, geographical information systems have also played a role by computerizing the large quantities of data, which could not be readily investigated with earlier cartographic techniques.
Historical Dictionary of the Etruscans. Simon K. F. Stoddart.