DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0339
CHAP. XV.]
SEPULCHRAL INTERIORS.
235
clown these passages, mostly choked with rocks and bushes,
and squeezing my body through the doorways, now often
nearly reclosed with earth, by the aid of a taper, without
which nothing would hare been visible, I explored most
of the sepulchres. They are now half filled with earth,
and I had to crawl on all-fours, over upturned sarcophagi,
fragments of pottery, and the bones and dust of the
ancient dead.
The tombs are of various sizes, some very spacious,
others extremely small—all rudely hollowed in the rock,
and most of a quadrilateral form. The ceilings are gene-
rally flat, though sometimes slightly vaulted; but I do
not recollect an instance of beams and rafters in relief,
so common in other cemeteries. The resemblance to
houses is here external only. Some have the usual
ledges of rock against the walls for the support of sarco-
phagi : in others are double rows of coffins, sunk in the
rock, side by side, with a narrow passage down the middle,
like beds in an hospital or workhouse, or, as Orioli sug-
gests, like the bones in a fish's spine. In one tomb these
sunken sarcophagi radiate from the centre. The bodies
being laid in these hollows were probably covered with tiles.
I was greatly surprised at the studied economy of space
displayed in these sepulchres—a fact which entirely sets
aside the notion that none but the most illustrious of the
nation were here interred. The truth is, that the tombs
with the largest and grandest facades have generally the
meanest interiors. The last tomb in the great glen, in
the direction of Viterbo, is externally the largest of all,
and a truly magnificent monument, its facade rising
nearly thirty feet above the upper chamber ;10 and it is
natural to conclude that it was appropriated to some
10 It is seen on the right hand in the
annexed lithograph, which shows the
range of cliff-hewn tombs in the glen
opposite the Castle.
SEPULCHRAL INTERIORS.
235
clown these passages, mostly choked with rocks and bushes,
and squeezing my body through the doorways, now often
nearly reclosed with earth, by the aid of a taper, without
which nothing would hare been visible, I explored most
of the sepulchres. They are now half filled with earth,
and I had to crawl on all-fours, over upturned sarcophagi,
fragments of pottery, and the bones and dust of the
ancient dead.
The tombs are of various sizes, some very spacious,
others extremely small—all rudely hollowed in the rock,
and most of a quadrilateral form. The ceilings are gene-
rally flat, though sometimes slightly vaulted; but I do
not recollect an instance of beams and rafters in relief,
so common in other cemeteries. The resemblance to
houses is here external only. Some have the usual
ledges of rock against the walls for the support of sarco-
phagi : in others are double rows of coffins, sunk in the
rock, side by side, with a narrow passage down the middle,
like beds in an hospital or workhouse, or, as Orioli sug-
gests, like the bones in a fish's spine. In one tomb these
sunken sarcophagi radiate from the centre. The bodies
being laid in these hollows were probably covered with tiles.
I was greatly surprised at the studied economy of space
displayed in these sepulchres—a fact which entirely sets
aside the notion that none but the most illustrious of the
nation were here interred. The truth is, that the tombs
with the largest and grandest facades have generally the
meanest interiors. The last tomb in the great glen, in
the direction of Viterbo, is externally the largest of all,
and a truly magnificent monument, its facade rising
nearly thirty feet above the upper chamber ;10 and it is
natural to conclude that it was appropriated to some
10 It is seen on the right hand in the
annexed lithograph, which shows the
range of cliff-hewn tombs in the glen
opposite the Castle.