DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0160
58 VEIL—The Cemetery. [chap. h.
same ledge are eight tall jars, some plain, others painted
—banded red and yellow. Two stand in pans of terra-
cotta, with a rim of animals of archaic form, beautifully
executed in relief. There are other smaller jars or rases,
all probably of cinerary character. In the centre of the
apartment stands a low brazier of bronze, nearly two
feet in diameter; which must have served for burning
perfumes to destroy the effluvium of the sepulchre.
The walls of this inner chamber are unpainted, save
opposite the doorway, where six discs or " crowns," as Cav.
Campana calls them, are represented as suspended. They
are fifteen inches in diameter, and are painted with a
mosaic-work of various colours, black, blue, red, yellow, and
grey, in such small fragments, and with such an arrange-
ment, as if they were copies of some kaleidoscope effect.
What they are intended to represent is not obvious;
nor have I ever heard a satisfactory explanation. They
are too small for shields ; and the whole disc being
filled with colour, seems to preclude the idea of crowns or
chaplets. They more probably represent patera or goblets,
though their colouring is an objection also to this suppo-
sition ; but the colour may here represent merely the
carving with which such patera were adorned.1 Above
them are many stumps of iron nails rusted away, formerly
supporting, perhaps, crockery—the originals, it may be,
of these painted discs ; and around the door between
the two chambers are many similar traces of nails. It
was a common custom to suspend vessels, and jugs of
terra-cotta or bronze in this manner in Etruscan tombs ;
Plut. Public. Festua v. Eatumena. Plin. Whatever these be, they may, as Dr.
VIII. 65. XXVIII. 4. XXXV. 45. Braun suggests, have relation to the
1 Patera on sepulehral urns are not hero here interred, who seems to have
unfrequently found with the same stylo died gloriously for his country. Bull,
of adornment, but carved not coloured. Inst. 1843, p. 70.
same ledge are eight tall jars, some plain, others painted
—banded red and yellow. Two stand in pans of terra-
cotta, with a rim of animals of archaic form, beautifully
executed in relief. There are other smaller jars or rases,
all probably of cinerary character. In the centre of the
apartment stands a low brazier of bronze, nearly two
feet in diameter; which must have served for burning
perfumes to destroy the effluvium of the sepulchre.
The walls of this inner chamber are unpainted, save
opposite the doorway, where six discs or " crowns," as Cav.
Campana calls them, are represented as suspended. They
are fifteen inches in diameter, and are painted with a
mosaic-work of various colours, black, blue, red, yellow, and
grey, in such small fragments, and with such an arrange-
ment, as if they were copies of some kaleidoscope effect.
What they are intended to represent is not obvious;
nor have I ever heard a satisfactory explanation. They
are too small for shields ; and the whole disc being
filled with colour, seems to preclude the idea of crowns or
chaplets. They more probably represent patera or goblets,
though their colouring is an objection also to this suppo-
sition ; but the colour may here represent merely the
carving with which such patera were adorned.1 Above
them are many stumps of iron nails rusted away, formerly
supporting, perhaps, crockery—the originals, it may be,
of these painted discs ; and around the door between
the two chambers are many similar traces of nails. It
was a common custom to suspend vessels, and jugs of
terra-cotta or bronze in this manner in Etruscan tombs ;
Plut. Public. Festua v. Eatumena. Plin. Whatever these be, they may, as Dr.
VIII. 65. XXVIII. 4. XXXV. 45. Braun suggests, have relation to the
1 Patera on sepulehral urns are not hero here interred, who seems to have
unfrequently found with the same stylo died gloriously for his country. Bull,
of adornment, but carved not coloured. Inst. 1843, p. 70.