Posted on 08/13/2007 4:43:25 PM PDT by blam
Intact 2,000-year old Etruscan tomb discovered
Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:58PM BST
By Deepa Babington
ROME (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a more than 2,000-year-old Etruscan tomb perfectly preserved in the hills of Tuscany with a treasure trove of artefacts inside, including urns that hold the remains of about 30 people.
The tomb, in the Tuscan town of Civitella Paganico, probably dates from between the 1st and 3rd centuries B.C., when Etruscan power was in decline, Andrea Marcocci, who led digging at the site, told Reuters.
"It's quite rare to find a tomb intact like this," said Marcocci, who had suspected one might exist in the area after work on a nearby road scattered pieces of artefacts.
"When we found fragments outside, we thought we would find that the tomb had been violated. But the main burial room was completely intact."
Inside the tomb, a narrow corridor led to a small burial chamber, about 2 metres long and 1.79 metres wide, he said. It housed about 80 objects including vases and mirrors in bronze and ceramic. Urns holding human remains were also found.
"It's quite exceptional to find so many objects in a tomb so small," Marcocci said. "Some of the vases (urns) were fairly small, so we think they were probably for children."
One of Italy's first and most mysterious civilisations, the Etruscans lived north of Rome in present day regions of Tuscany and Umbria. Their civilisation lasted for about 1,000 years, reaching its height roughly from the 7th to the 6th century B.C., before its cities were replaced by Roman settlements.
Much of what is known about the Etruscans derives from other lavish burial sites, decorated with paintings and filled with vases and other objects.
Anatolia so.
quick, Marty ... quick.
Etruscans introduced the chariot into Italy - a concept ahead of its time by over two millennia.
The predecessor of the Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo used biofuel!
Particularly wonderful because it is untouched.
Always great stuff. Thanks, Blam
“The predecessor of the Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo used biofuel!”
A lot of great cars within 100 miles of the Alps, either way. North you get Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Audi.
This year the F1 contest is between Ferrari and McClaren-Mercedes.
Italian women; German cars.
Some might take Umbriage at that comment...
You know, I’ve enjoyed the company of some gorgeous German women.
It’s a good thing I’m a dominant, strong male. In my experience, like James Bond’s, the Hun are either at your feet or at your throat!
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
Old volcanoes are turning into meteor craters. I wonder whether Italian geologists could be wrong in regarding Lago di Bolsena as a typical extinct volcano crater. The Roman encyclopedist Pliny said that it was the spot where a Jovian thunderbolt had destroyed the Etruscan city of Volsinium...
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc031500.html
ca. 520 BCE Destruction of Etruscan town of Volsinii
VERY cool!
:’)
A relative of Napoleon’s (or maybe it was Napoleon III’s relative) got the license to excavate one of the then-recently discovered Etruscan sites. He found so much intact Etruscan pottery that he thought he’d never be able to sell it all at a good price.
So he had at least half of the pottery smashed to bits, to keep the market price for “his” antiquities high.
That’s today’s history moment.
ClusiumIt was according to Roman tradition one of the oldest cities of Etruria and indeed of all Italy, and, if Camars (the original name of the town, according to Livy) is rightly connected with the Camertes Umbri, its foundation would go back to pre-Etruscan times... The chief interest of the place lies in its extensive necropolis, which surrounds the city on all sides... The most remarkable group of tombs is, however, that of Poggio Gaiella, 3 m. to the N., where the hill is honeycombed with chambers in three storeys (now, however, much ruined and inaccessible), partly connected by a system of passages, and supported at the base by a stone wall which forms a circle and not a squarea fact which renders impossible its identification with the tomb of Porsena, the description of which Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 91) has copied from Varro... A conception of the size of the whole necropolis may be gathered from the fact that nearly three thousand Etruscan inscriptions have come to light from Clusium and its district alone, while the part of Etruria north of it as far as the Arno has produced barely five hundred. Among the later tombs bilingual inscriptions are by no means rare, and both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions are often found in the same cemeteries, showing that the use of the Etruscan language only died out gradually.
LoveToKnow 1911 Online EncyclopediaDig Like a SurgeonBurial G was one of a small group, probably belonging to members of a single family, atop the hill of Casa Nocera, outside the modern town of Casale Marittimo. In the center we found the earliest sepulchre, dating from the eighth century B.C., that of the clan's progenitor, who was cremated and buried in a chest made of stone slabs. Within the chest was a large terra-cotta vessel known as a dolium, covered with an embossed bronze shield. Inside the dolium was a bronze cinerary urn containing the burnt bones wrapped in a linen cloth; silver items including a bowl and dragon fibula (garment pin); and small objects of ivory and amber. Outside the dolium were a banquet service consisting of a small bronze and iron table, ribbed bronze phialai (libation bowls), and other vessels; an ax, lance, helmet, and scepter; and the iron fittings of a two-wheeled chariot.
by Anna Maria Esposito
Photographs by Giovanni Lattanzi
February 22, 1999
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Are you serious????
Germans aren;t Huns and I like German women. Also Italian women, Irish women, Scandinavian women, English women, American women, and most women in general - just the live ones though.
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