The Monterozzi Necropolis in Tarquinia, June 2012

Monterozzi, Etruscan Necropolis

UNESCO World Heritage Site. Italy’s largest necropolis (750 hectares 3 km outside town) with 6,000 underground tombs (“tomba a camera”). The necropolis of Monterozzi in Tarquinia contains some 200 painted tombs, of a quality indicating the nobility of the people buried there. The images depict everyday scenes, as though to stress a common belief of the afterlife.

The surfaces were prepared using lime and then a charcoal sketch was drawn. The decoration was painted in rich vibrant colours using pigments from plants (black, red and green) or minerals (ochre and lapis lazuli). Some figures were purely imaginary (the Etruscans had never seen any lions, just heard about them) or taken from daily life (banquets, athletics, horse-races, erotic games, hunting and fishing). The men generally had a tanned skin, the women pale and wearing make-up. As the Etruscan civilisation began to decline, demons appeared to take the dead down to the underworld. In fact, their concept of death and afterlife changed during this period: death was no longer a passage to another life with all the joys of earth; but became feared and hellish.

10 tombs can be visited today, indicated by a mound of earth (hence the name “Monterozzi”). The entrance is generally along a dromos (corridor); the tomb itself visible through a glass door that keeps the temperature and humidity constant inside to preserve the paintings. The tombs would have beds and sarcophagi, urns and items for use in the afterlife. The tombs have, needless to say, been raided many times over the centuries.

The most important tombs take their names from the paintings: Hunting and Fishing (520-510 BC), Leonesses (late C6th BC), Hunter (C4th BC), Bacchantes (C6th BC), Leopards (470 BC), Jugglers (late C6th BC), Warrior (C4th BC), Charontes (C2nd BC), Trees (C4th BC), Pulcella (C5th BC), Festoons (C6th BC), Bulls (530 BC) and Augurs (530 BC). One of the deepest and largest is the Tomb of the Typhon (mid C2nd BC). The Scataglini tomb (late C4th BC) is particularly complex.

There are many other smaller necropolises in the Tarquinia area: Poggio Quarto, Poggio degli Archi, Poggio dell'impiccato, Poggio Selciatello di Sopra, Poggio Selciatello di Sotto, Poggio Gallinaro, Poggio Cavalluccio, Poggio Quagliere, Poggio della Perazzetta, Pisciarello, Poggio Cretoncini and Le Rose.

Many of the artifacts found in the tomb are now on show at the local museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi.

Text from: www.etruscanplaces.net/index.php?option=com_content&v...