DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0460
chap, xvm.] VAST EXTENT OF THIS CEMETERY. 355
assured me that it covered sixteen square miles. Others
tell us it stretched eight miles in length and six in
breadth8—an extent hardly to be credited. It covers not
only the whole of the Montarozzi, which is so thickly sown
with tombs, that almost every step you take is on hollow
ground, but it extends far down the slope towards the
sea, and comprehends also Monte Quagliero, on the opposite
bank of the Marta, and to the north of the ancient city.
It is highly probable that the heights around the city in
every other direction would be found to contain tombs, for
the Etruscans did not confine their cemeteries to one spot,
but availed themselves of any advantages afforded by the
disposition of the ground or the nature of the soil, and
sometimes quite encircled the city of the living by a " city
of the dead."
The necropolis on the slope of Monte Quagliero was
discovered only in 1829. A sepulchral road, sunk in the
tufo, crossed the hill, and contained sepulchres in both its
walls. Other tombs were sunk beneath the surface, for
there were no tumuli on this spot.9
Excavations which were carried on in this necropolis
pretty briskly some fifteen or twenty years ago have long
ceased. The attention of the tomb-burglars has been
absorbed by the more lucrative operations at Vulci and
Chiusi. For, though tombs are so abundant that almost
every step you take in the neighbourhood of Corneto is
over a sepulchre, yet the cemetery has been so well rifled
in bygone ages, that it is rare to find anything to repay the
expense of excavation. Cavalieri Manzi and Fossati, who
have been the principal spadesmen on this site, give it as
their opinion that this rifling took place in the time of
8 Pacciaudi, quoted by Lanzi, II. p. remains of a Roman villa, the substruc-
465. cf. Inghir. Mon.Etr. IV. p. 111. tions of which had cut into Etruscan
9 Bull. Inst. 1829, p. 8 ; Ann. Instil tombs. The Poggio della Vipera, further
1830, p. 38—Westphal. Here were the up the Marta, also contains sepulchres.
A a2
assured me that it covered sixteen square miles. Others
tell us it stretched eight miles in length and six in
breadth8—an extent hardly to be credited. It covers not
only the whole of the Montarozzi, which is so thickly sown
with tombs, that almost every step you take is on hollow
ground, but it extends far down the slope towards the
sea, and comprehends also Monte Quagliero, on the opposite
bank of the Marta, and to the north of the ancient city.
It is highly probable that the heights around the city in
every other direction would be found to contain tombs, for
the Etruscans did not confine their cemeteries to one spot,
but availed themselves of any advantages afforded by the
disposition of the ground or the nature of the soil, and
sometimes quite encircled the city of the living by a " city
of the dead."
The necropolis on the slope of Monte Quagliero was
discovered only in 1829. A sepulchral road, sunk in the
tufo, crossed the hill, and contained sepulchres in both its
walls. Other tombs were sunk beneath the surface, for
there were no tumuli on this spot.9
Excavations which were carried on in this necropolis
pretty briskly some fifteen or twenty years ago have long
ceased. The attention of the tomb-burglars has been
absorbed by the more lucrative operations at Vulci and
Chiusi. For, though tombs are so abundant that almost
every step you take in the neighbourhood of Corneto is
over a sepulchre, yet the cemetery has been so well rifled
in bygone ages, that it is rare to find anything to repay the
expense of excavation. Cavalieri Manzi and Fossati, who
have been the principal spadesmen on this site, give it as
their opinion that this rifling took place in the time of
8 Pacciaudi, quoted by Lanzi, II. p. remains of a Roman villa, the substruc-
465. cf. Inghir. Mon.Etr. IV. p. 111. tions of which had cut into Etruscan
9 Bull. Inst. 1829, p. 8 ; Ann. Instil tombs. The Poggio della Vipera, further
1830, p. 38—Westphal. Here were the up the Marta, also contains sepulchres.
A a2