Last
night’s post got me thinking about Etruscan tombs. Yup, some people think about
how to earn more from the stock exchange or about cool new IT devices; I think
about things like the accomplishments of Julius Caesar and Etruscan tombs.
The
Etruscans were a culture who inhabited central Italy between the 10th
and the 1st centuries BCE. Their heartland was the region of Tuscany.
They were neighbors of the Greeks, who settled colonies in southern Italy and taught
the Etruscans about engineering, mythology, and art. They were also neighbors
of the Romans, who slowly conquered Etruria.
Because
the Etruscans were ultimately conquered, we are not able to explore their cities
easily, as most were transformed into Roman, then Medieval, then modern cities.
There are many Etruscan cemeteries, places upon which later cultures did not
build. Today, many Etruscan cemeteries have been converted into outdoor museums
for us to explore.
(Early Etruscan tomb, Banditaccia cemetery at Caere; photo Eric De Sena, 2008)
When
Etruscan cities were governed by kings, the royal families were buried in
large, round tombs covered by mounds of earth. These tombs, which date to the 8th
and 7th centuries, had diameters of 50-100 feet and clusters of
burial chambers inside. The burial chambers were stocked with everything the
family members needed for the afterlife – beautiful clothing, jewelry, bronze armor
and weapons for the men, silver and bronze dining sets, and beautifully painted
pottery, often imported from Greece.
Beginning
in the late 600s BCE, when cities evolved into democracies, tombs were smaller,
often consisting of a single burial chamber measuring 15x12 feet, but the
interiors were painted. Much of the painting was very simple, like how we paint
the rooms of our houses. More than 200 tombs that have been discovered, like
the tomb of the shields I described yesterday, had detailed figural scenes,
such as banquets, sporting events, mythological scenes, portraits, and merchant
ships.
(Banditaccia cemetery at Caere; photo by Eric De Sena, 2008)
The
first time I ever visited Italy, as a 19-year old archaeology student, a small
group of us were taken by our professors to visit Etruscan sites. One site was
Caere/Cerveteri, which has many of the monumental round tombs of Etruscan
kings. There are also many smaller, “middle class” tombs. The cemetery is like
wandering around an old town. You follow dirt paths that meander from one tomb
to another. One section of the cemetery has small roads that meet at right
angles, like a properly planned city. All the tombs are overgrown with grass,
moss and weeds, and there are umbrella pines and laurel trees throughout. I
remember wandering and losing track of time during that first visit. In fact, my
professors and fellow archaeology students searched for me for 45 minutes, thinking
I had twisted an ankle or worse. I found them eventually.
Years
later, as a professor of archaeology for the Saint Mary’s College Rome Program,
I used to lead my own students on explorations of Caere, ducking in and out of
tombs, leaping over puddles of stagnant water in some of the chambers, checking
that spiders did not get entangled in our hair. Great fun!
One
of the most fascinating tombs, here, is the Tomb of the Painted Reliefs. You
walk down a set of treacherous steps into a corridor and then into the main
chamber. This is an unusual tomb in many respects. Whereas most burial chambers
were only intended for 2, this tomb held more than 40 people. The walls and
pillars inside the chamber have carved and painted representations of, mostly,
military equipment: shields, breastplates, swords, greaves, ropes, etc. Set
into the walls are 13 niches, each of which has a pillow sculpted from the
bedrock. Below the central, presumably, most important burial niche is a
different kind of representation. The mythological figure, Charon, who ferries
the dead across the river Styx to the entrance of the underworld is depicted
together with the 3-headed dog Cerberus. Cerberus may have been friendly to
newly arrived guests, wagging his tail, but just try to escape from the
underworld… The tomb dates to later 4th century BCE, when the Etruscans
were involved in a harsh existential struggle against the Romans. This tomb likely
served as the final resting place of Caeretian Etruscans who lost their lives
in a battle against Rome.
(Tomb of the Painted Reliefs, Banditaccia cemetery, Caere; photo Eric De Sena, 2008)
Even
as a professor, I would lose track of time, wandering with my class and explaining
the history of the tombs and the art within. Toward the end of the tour, I
would gather my class into a tomb and we would all climb onto a platform were
an Etruscan had laid for centuries before archaeologists explored and removed
all artifacts. Now that the students had explored Caere and gotten a strong
sense of the place, I would open D.H. Lawrence’s book, Etruscan Places (1927),
and read with the dim illumination of a flashlight. My favorite passage was:
“The
tombs seem so easy and friendly, cut out of rock underground. One does not feel
oppressed, descending into them. It must be partly owing to the peculiar charm
of natural proportion which is in all Etruscan things…There is a simplicity,
combined with a most free-breasted naturalness and spontaneity, in the shapes and
movements of the underworld walls and spaces, that at once reassures the
spirit. The Greeks sought to impress; the Etruscans no. The things they did, in
their easy centuries, are as natural and as easy as breathing. They leave the
breast breathing freely and pleasantly, with a certain fullness of life. And
that is the true Etruscan quality: ease, naturalness, and an abundance of life,
no need to force the mind of the soul in any direction.”
We
would remain in the tomb for a moment to reflect and then we would climb out of
the tomb, returning to the present. The bus ride back to Rome was always
uneventful, in fact most of us slept after a long day of time-traveling to visit
the Etruscans.
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