DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0515
chap, xxi.] THE BONAPARTE EXCAVATIONS. 409
two tombs at Cervetri; whence we may conclude it was
no uncommon decoration of Etruscan houses. In this
same tenuta, under the walls of the city, was found in
1833, a painted tomb of remarkable character, and the
only one ever discovered on this site. It is now utterly
destroyed, but a record of it has been preserved, and copies
of its paintings now in the British Museum rescue it from
oblivion.5
But it is on the other bank of the Fiora that most of
the excavations have been, and are, annually made. Here,
about a mile from the castle, towards the Cucumella, we
came upon a gang of excavators, in the employ of the
Princess of Canino ; most of the necropolis on this bank of
the Fiora being her property. And a pretty property it
is, rendering a large per-centage to its possessor; for while
her neighbours are contenting themselves with well-stocked
granaries, or overflowing wine-presses, the Princess to her
earlier is adding a latter harvest—the one of metaphorical,
the other of literal gold, or of articles convertible into that
metal. Yet, in gathering in the latter harvest, the other
is not forgotten, for to lose no surface that can be sown
with grain, the graves, when rifled, are re-filled with earth.
On this account, excavations are carried forward only in
winter. They were now just commencing for the season.
At the mouth of the pit in which they were at work,
sat the capo, or overseer—his gun by his side, as an in
terrorem hint to his men to keep their hands from picking
and stealing. We found them on the point of opening a
tomb. The roof, as is frequently the case in this light,
friable tufo, had fallen in, and the tomb was filled with
earth, out of which the articles it contained had to be dug
in detail. This is generally a process requiring great care
diagonally, so often seen in Egyptian 5 For a description of it see the
door-mouldings. Appendix to this chapter.
two tombs at Cervetri; whence we may conclude it was
no uncommon decoration of Etruscan houses. In this
same tenuta, under the walls of the city, was found in
1833, a painted tomb of remarkable character, and the
only one ever discovered on this site. It is now utterly
destroyed, but a record of it has been preserved, and copies
of its paintings now in the British Museum rescue it from
oblivion.5
But it is on the other bank of the Fiora that most of
the excavations have been, and are, annually made. Here,
about a mile from the castle, towards the Cucumella, we
came upon a gang of excavators, in the employ of the
Princess of Canino ; most of the necropolis on this bank of
the Fiora being her property. And a pretty property it
is, rendering a large per-centage to its possessor; for while
her neighbours are contenting themselves with well-stocked
granaries, or overflowing wine-presses, the Princess to her
earlier is adding a latter harvest—the one of metaphorical,
the other of literal gold, or of articles convertible into that
metal. Yet, in gathering in the latter harvest, the other
is not forgotten, for to lose no surface that can be sown
with grain, the graves, when rifled, are re-filled with earth.
On this account, excavations are carried forward only in
winter. They were now just commencing for the season.
At the mouth of the pit in which they were at work,
sat the capo, or overseer—his gun by his side, as an in
terrorem hint to his men to keep their hands from picking
and stealing. We found them on the point of opening a
tomb. The roof, as is frequently the case in this light,
friable tufo, had fallen in, and the tomb was filled with
earth, out of which the articles it contained had to be dug
in detail. This is generally a process requiring great care
diagonally, so often seen in Egyptian 5 For a description of it see the
door-mouldings. Appendix to this chapter.