A rare inscription found on a stone unearthed near Florence is exciting archaeologists who say it may help reveal the secrets of the Etruscans, one of Italy's earliest and most enigmatic civilizations.

The Etruscans flourished in central Italy 2,500 years ago but their culture and language were assimilated into the Roman empire. They left behind lavish tombs, pottery and statues but tantalizingly few written documents and patchy evidence of their daily lives.

Etruscans usually wrote longer texts on perishable linen or wax, so archaeologists excavating in Tuscany's Mugello Valley were delighted when they found a 200-kilogram sandstone slab, inscribed with more than 100 characters, in the foundations of a buried temple.