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Archaeologists have unearthed a monumental 2,700-year-old tomb at Vulci, an important ancient Etruscan town north of Rome. Despite repeated attempts by tomb robbers to loot this burial over the centuries, the tomb still contained a massive collection of grave goods, including weapons, gold and bronze plates, chariot parts, a rare pair of women's shoes, and a complete banquet set. The burial, nicknamed the Tomb of the Stone Chamber, was excavated this summer, according to a translated statement from the Italian Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria (SABAP-VT-EM). But the discovery builds...

...The tomb lies within the archaeological site of Vulci—located between the municipalities of Montalto di Castro and Canino in Italy's central Lazio region—which preserves the ruins of an Etruscan city.The Etruscans were an ancient people who lived in parts of what is now Italy more than two thousand years ago. Their civilization reached its height in around the 6th century B.C., before being succeeded by the Romans, who adopted many features of their culture.Vulci was an important Etruscan settlement that flourished in the 6th to 4th centuries B.C.—largely thanks to trade, the extraction of minerals and the manufacture of bronze...

The temple was discovered during the Vulci Cityscape Project which intended to learn about the settlement strategies and urban structures of the eponymous city...The building measures 45x35 meters and is located west of a sacred structure called Tempio Grande.An initial examination of the rocks in the foundation of the temple, as well as artifacts that were found there, enabled the researchers, led by Dr. Mariachiara Franceschini of the University of Freiburg and Paul P. Pasieka of the University of Mainz, to determine that the temple was built around the end of the sixth or the beginning of the fifth century...“The...

Excavations of a tomb in northern Lazio dating to around the 8th century BC have uncovered treasures including an amber necklace, a golden Egyptian scarab amulet and rare pottery that archaeologists say likely belonged to an Etruscan princess. The excavation of the Tomb of the Golden Scarab follows its discovery earlier this year in the archaeological site of Vulci, a former Etruscan city. Anthropological research helped back the theory that the tomb belonged to a princess within the ranks of the nascent Etruscan aristocracy. A few bones wrapped in precious cloth are all that remains of her. The excavation of...