DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0466
chap, xviii.] SINGULAR CHIMNEY IN THIS TOMB. 361
plain above.9 In the sides of this chimney or shaft are
the usual niches for the feet and hands. This can hardly
have been the sole entrance, though tombs so constructed
have been found — some in this very necropolis, illus-
trated by Byres, and described by Winckelmann,1 and
others in the plain of Ferento already mentioned.2 A
similar tomb has been discovered on the Aventine Hill,
the necropolis of early Rome.3 Yet it seems strange that
a sepulchre so singularly and elegantly decorated as this,
should be so carefully concealed—that there should be so
much " art to conceal the art." It is impossible to deter-
mine if there were a doorway below, for the cliff is too
much broken away ; but there are manifest traces of a
chamber in front of this, whether a mere vestibule or a
distinct sepulchre cannot be decided. It is worthy of
remark that in its roof this tomb, which is unique in this
particular, represents that sort of cavcedium, which Vitru-
vius terms displuviatum* or that description of court, the
roof of which slopes from within, so as to carry the rain
outwards, instead of conveying it into the implnvium or
tank in the centre of the atrium. It may be, however,
that this opening represents — what it more strictly
resembles—-a chimney ; for we know it was the practice of
the Greeks of old to have "a vent for the smoke in the
centre of their apartments.5
9 The height of the tomb from the by a corridor, in which was sunk a
floor to the square aperture in the ceil- second shaft, IS feet deep,
ing is 13 feet; the height of the walls 4 Vitruv. VI. 3. No specimen of such
9 feet. a cavwdium, is, I believe, extant, but a
1 Winckelmann, Storia delle Arti, lib. painting of it may be seen on the walls
III. c. 2, § 23. of the Casa de' Capitelli Dipinti, and also
2 See Chap. XIII. p. 210. of the Casa de' Dioscuri, at Pompeii.
3 Bartoli, Sepoleri Antichi, tav. L. s Orph. Hymn. LXX XIII. 2; cf. He-
It was discovered in 1692. It was a rod. VIII. 137; though Becker (Charicles,
round chamber excavated in the rock, Exc. I. Sc. III.) cannot understand the
45 feet below the surface, entered only KairvoB6xv here as a regular chimney,
by a perpendicular shaft, and encircled Maffei, Gori, and other early writers on
plain above.9 In the sides of this chimney or shaft are
the usual niches for the feet and hands. This can hardly
have been the sole entrance, though tombs so constructed
have been found — some in this very necropolis, illus-
trated by Byres, and described by Winckelmann,1 and
others in the plain of Ferento already mentioned.2 A
similar tomb has been discovered on the Aventine Hill,
the necropolis of early Rome.3 Yet it seems strange that
a sepulchre so singularly and elegantly decorated as this,
should be so carefully concealed—that there should be so
much " art to conceal the art." It is impossible to deter-
mine if there were a doorway below, for the cliff is too
much broken away ; but there are manifest traces of a
chamber in front of this, whether a mere vestibule or a
distinct sepulchre cannot be decided. It is worthy of
remark that in its roof this tomb, which is unique in this
particular, represents that sort of cavcedium, which Vitru-
vius terms displuviatum* or that description of court, the
roof of which slopes from within, so as to carry the rain
outwards, instead of conveying it into the implnvium or
tank in the centre of the atrium. It may be, however,
that this opening represents — what it more strictly
resembles—-a chimney ; for we know it was the practice of
the Greeks of old to have "a vent for the smoke in the
centre of their apartments.5
9 The height of the tomb from the by a corridor, in which was sunk a
floor to the square aperture in the ceil- second shaft, IS feet deep,
ing is 13 feet; the height of the walls 4 Vitruv. VI. 3. No specimen of such
9 feet. a cavwdium, is, I believe, extant, but a
1 Winckelmann, Storia delle Arti, lib. painting of it may be seen on the walls
III. c. 2, § 23. of the Casa de' Capitelli Dipinti, and also
2 See Chap. XIII. p. 210. of the Casa de' Dioscuri, at Pompeii.
3 Bartoli, Sepoleri Antichi, tav. L. s Orph. Hymn. LXX XIII. 2; cf. He-
It was discovered in 1692. It was a rod. VIII. 137; though Becker (Charicles,
round chamber excavated in the rock, Exc. I. Sc. III.) cannot understand the
45 feet below the surface, entered only KairvoB6xv here as a regular chimney,
by a perpendicular shaft, and encircled Maffei, Gori, and other early writers on