DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0458
chap, xvni.] TUMULAR SEPULCHRES. 353
Egypt in dimensions, and the conical mounds of Peru,
attest a remote relation between the people of the Old and
New World. Tumuli, we know, were in use among the
Lydians, the traditional colonisers of Etruria, and the
sepulchre of Alyattes, the father of Croesus, described by
Herodotus—magna componere parvis—was very like the
" Mausoleo " of the Montarozzi; " the basement being-
composed of huge stones, the rest of the monument being
a mound of earth."4 The description given by Dionysius
of the necropolis of Orvinium, a city of the Aborigines, a
most ancient people of Italy, long prior to the foundation
of the Etruscan state, answers so strikingly to the Monta-
rozzi, that we might imagine he was writing of TarquiniL
His words are—" The foundations of its walls are visible,
and certain tombs of manifest antiquity, and enclosures
of cemeteries lengthened out in lofty mounds."5
It was within one of these tumuli of the Montarozzi
that Awolta, in 1823, discovered " the celebrated virgin
tomb which gave rise to all the excavations subsequently
made in the neighbourhood of Corneto." The discovery
was owing to accident. He was digging into the tumulus
for stones to mend a road, when he perceived a large slab
of nenfro, part of the ceiling of the tomb. Making a hole
beneath it, he looked in, and there (to give his own words)
—" I beheld a warrior stretched on a couch of rock, and
in a few minutes I saw him vanish, as it were, under my
4 Herod. I. 93. This tomb of Alyattes various sizes, though all much inferior
is still in existence, and lies in a valley to that of Alyattes, none of them now
near the Gygean lake, not far from having basements of masonry. By tra-
Sardis. It is extremely large—a mere vellers they are commonly known as
mound of earth—and has no masonry The Tombs of the Lydian Kings ; but
now visible around its base ; but it may the Turks call them " The Thousand
be concealed by the sinking of the earth and One Hills."
from above. A travelled friend informs 5 Dion. Hal. I. p. 12, ed. Sylb. See
me, that on one of the lofty overhanging the heading to this Chapter,
ridges are numerous tumular mounds of
VOL. I. A A
Egypt in dimensions, and the conical mounds of Peru,
attest a remote relation between the people of the Old and
New World. Tumuli, we know, were in use among the
Lydians, the traditional colonisers of Etruria, and the
sepulchre of Alyattes, the father of Croesus, described by
Herodotus—magna componere parvis—was very like the
" Mausoleo " of the Montarozzi; " the basement being-
composed of huge stones, the rest of the monument being
a mound of earth."4 The description given by Dionysius
of the necropolis of Orvinium, a city of the Aborigines, a
most ancient people of Italy, long prior to the foundation
of the Etruscan state, answers so strikingly to the Monta-
rozzi, that we might imagine he was writing of TarquiniL
His words are—" The foundations of its walls are visible,
and certain tombs of manifest antiquity, and enclosures
of cemeteries lengthened out in lofty mounds."5
It was within one of these tumuli of the Montarozzi
that Awolta, in 1823, discovered " the celebrated virgin
tomb which gave rise to all the excavations subsequently
made in the neighbourhood of Corneto." The discovery
was owing to accident. He was digging into the tumulus
for stones to mend a road, when he perceived a large slab
of nenfro, part of the ceiling of the tomb. Making a hole
beneath it, he looked in, and there (to give his own words)
—" I beheld a warrior stretched on a couch of rock, and
in a few minutes I saw him vanish, as it were, under my
4 Herod. I. 93. This tomb of Alyattes various sizes, though all much inferior
is still in existence, and lies in a valley to that of Alyattes, none of them now
near the Gygean lake, not far from having basements of masonry. By tra-
Sardis. It is extremely large—a mere vellers they are commonly known as
mound of earth—and has no masonry The Tombs of the Lydian Kings ; but
now visible around its base ; but it may the Turks call them " The Thousand
be concealed by the sinking of the earth and One Hills."
from above. A travelled friend informs 5 Dion. Hal. I. p. 12, ed. Sylb. See
me, that on one of the lofty overhanging the heading to this Chapter,
ridges are numerous tumular mounds of
VOL. I. A A