DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.785#0598
490 SOVANA. [chap. xxvi.
This is a feature not uncommon on this site ; it is seen, in
fact, in the Pontana.5
These facades are separated as usual by flights
of steps, hewn in the rock, and leading from the
base of the cliff to the level of the plain.6 In front
of each monument is a long pit, the deep narrow pas-
sage to the tomb, which lies at an unusual depth, and
has a moulded door precisely like that on the facpade.
Even where the roofs of these passages have not fallen in,
there is a large oblong pit at the base of the monument,
the mouth of a vertical shaft, like those at Falleri and
Civita Castellana. The sepulchres are in general spacious,
surrounded by benches of rock, but with no internal
decoration, as far as I could perceive.
Following the range of cliffs northward, I came upon
another group of tombs of similar character, and many
with inscriptions, more or less legible. This part of the
necropolis is called Sopraripa.
It were vain to attempt a visit to these tombs unarmed
with a hatchet, so dense are the tangled thickets ; and all
care must be had in crossing the yawning pits with which
the slopes are furrowed ; for the ground is kept moist and
slippery by the overhanging foliage, and a false step on
the brink would, in every sense, be a step into the grave.
Mr. Ainsley was obliged to get the peasants to pioneer
him a way from one monument to another with their
5 In the Sopraripa is a monument 6 An instance is shown in the woodcut
with a recessed arch, as in the Fontana, at the head of this Chapter. Such steps
but without inscription or sculptured as these are regarded by Orioli (ap.
pediment; and in the cliffs on the oppo- Inghir. Mon. Etrus. IV. p. 181) as a
site side of the glen, such an arch con- proof that the Etruscans had an exter-
tains a sepulchral column or cippus, nal staircase, leading from one story to
hewn out of the rock; and it is probable another of their houses. But it would
that all these arched recesses held cippi, be fairer to infer that such staircases
portable in some cases, fixtures in others. led to the roofs of their abodes.
This is a feature not uncommon on this site ; it is seen, in
fact, in the Pontana.5
These facades are separated as usual by flights
of steps, hewn in the rock, and leading from the
base of the cliff to the level of the plain.6 In front
of each monument is a long pit, the deep narrow pas-
sage to the tomb, which lies at an unusual depth, and
has a moulded door precisely like that on the facpade.
Even where the roofs of these passages have not fallen in,
there is a large oblong pit at the base of the monument,
the mouth of a vertical shaft, like those at Falleri and
Civita Castellana. The sepulchres are in general spacious,
surrounded by benches of rock, but with no internal
decoration, as far as I could perceive.
Following the range of cliffs northward, I came upon
another group of tombs of similar character, and many
with inscriptions, more or less legible. This part of the
necropolis is called Sopraripa.
It were vain to attempt a visit to these tombs unarmed
with a hatchet, so dense are the tangled thickets ; and all
care must be had in crossing the yawning pits with which
the slopes are furrowed ; for the ground is kept moist and
slippery by the overhanging foliage, and a false step on
the brink would, in every sense, be a step into the grave.
Mr. Ainsley was obliged to get the peasants to pioneer
him a way from one monument to another with their
5 In the Sopraripa is a monument 6 An instance is shown in the woodcut
with a recessed arch, as in the Fontana, at the head of this Chapter. Such steps
but without inscription or sculptured as these are regarded by Orioli (ap.
pediment; and in the cliffs on the oppo- Inghir. Mon. Etrus. IV. p. 181) as a
site side of the glen, such an arch con- proof that the Etruscans had an exter-
tains a sepulchral column or cippus, nal staircase, leading from one story to
hewn out of the rock; and it is probable another of their houses. But it would
that all these arched recesses held cippi, be fairer to infer that such staircases
portable in some cases, fixtures in others. led to the roofs of their abodes.