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Etruscan Tomb

Biconical urn in stone well (in recovery museum Guarnacci Volterra).

Tomb shrine, the Tomb of Ildebranda Sovana

Access trench to the grave dug in the rock ( Populonia ).

The Etruscan tomb obeys many funeral rites in force in periods of civilization: the simple urn buried in the ground and then into a well, the stone bench receiving the body of the deceased dressed attributes of his office, then sarcophagi, reliefs or to figurative, mass graves bringing the members of one family (noble), decorated with frescoes, bringing together a rich grave goods. Several types emerge whose name is descriptive.

Typology of Tombs

Individual:

They are for the most grave pit dug in the ground and then closed by a pile of stone:

Sinks stone containing the hut-urn , the urn biconical ...
Tomb itself has Ziro (a jar containing the canopy , then placed in the well, closed with a stone surface).
Tomb itself has tramezzo (wall, isolating the polls in the same cavity, separating the servants of the masters).

Collective:

Grave dug in the rock reached by a trench in the soil ( Sovana , Populonia , Sarteano )
Tomb built and then covered with a barrow , excavated in rock or tuff following places ( Tuscany today), it hosts several urns of the dead from the same community on stone benches, niches carved into the walls (nicchiotti has dropped), rooms individualized. Some are open pediments carved into the tufa ( Sovana ).
Dado tomb ("cube" - Cerveteri, necropolis of Castel d'Asso , Orvieto )
Edicole falls (at Block - Cerveteri, Sovana , Populonia)
Tomb tomb accessible by a corridor ( dromos ), distributing several rooms or niches from an atrium (Sarteano)
Falls volta (vaulted stone pillar with or without central omphalos )
Falls camera (simulating the interior of a house with its pitched roof and the main beam of columen - Monterozzi, Banditaccia ).
Grouping in cemeteries (Sovana) cut into the hill of tufa, or built next to each other ( Monterozzi , Caere ) mass graves (family) are then sets (real city) where the funeral rite is celebrated by notable family whose power is expressed by the richness of the decorations on sarcophagi as the walls of tombs, and later in the juxtaposition of the graves in a dado plane hippodamian (Orvieto, Banditaccia).

On the eve of decadence Etruscan ^References Heurgon Jacques , Daily Life of the Etruscans, Hachette, 1961 and 1989, p. 198 Bibliography Heurgon Jacques , Daily Life of the Etruscans, Hachette, 1961 and 1989. The Etruscans and Europe, with a preface by Massimo Pallottino , after the eponymous exhibition of the Grand Palace, Paris, between September 15 and December 14, 1992, and in Berlin in 1993. Jean-Paul Thuillier , The Etruscans, the end of a mystery, 1991. Dominique Briquel , Etruscan Civilization, 1999. Related articles Etruscan sculpture Archaeology portal Portal Etruscans Italy portal