Dennis, George: The cities and cemeteries of Etruria: in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1848)

54 , VEIL—The Cemetery. [chap. ii.

On either side of this tomb, and projecting from the
walls, is a bench of rock about two feet and a half high,
on each of which, when the tomb was opened, a skeleton
was found extended ; but exposure to the air caused them
in a very short time to crumble to dust. One of these
had been a warrior, and on the right-hand bench you still
see portions of the breast-plate, and the helmet entire,
which once encased his remains. Observe the helmet
—it is a plain casque of the simplest form, rather Greek
than Roman. You perceive on one side of it a hole,
which seems by the indentation of the metal to have
been caused by a hard blow. Do you doubt it ? Turn
the casque about and you will observe on the opposite
side a gash, evidently formed by the point of a sword or
lance from within; proving this to have been the fatal
wound which deprived the warrior of life.

" Through teeth and skull and helmet
So fierce a thrust was sped,
The good sword stood a hand-breadth out
Behind the Tuscan's head."

On the same bench you see the iron head, much corroded,
and the bronze rest of a spear—it may be the very
weapon which inflicted the death-wound. And how long
since may that be? If it were not subsequent to the deco-
rations of the tomb—and the fact of this warrior being
laid out on one of the rock-hewn benches, goes far to
prove him one of its earliest occupants—it must have
been in very remote antiquity. The most untutored eye
can perceive at a glance that the paintings belong to a
very early age of the world. To me, after I had seen and
studied every other painted tomb now open in Etruria, this
seemed in point of antiquity pre-eminent; and I have not
a moment's hesitation in asserting, that it is unquestionably
the oldest painted tomb yet discovered in that land, or, as