DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0075
chap, xxxm.] GROTTA DELLA SEDIA, MONTE D'ORO. 59
GROTTA DELLA SEDIA.
This tomb lies under a large tumulus, with a square
basement of masonry, which makes it highly probable that
the superincumbent mound was in this case of pyramidal
form.2 Half-way down the passage which leads to the
sepulchre, you pass through a doorway of masonry, which
marks the line of the tumulus-basement. The passage is
lined with masonry, whose converging courses indicate the
existence originally of a vault overhead. The tomb con-
sists of two chambers, and has nothing extraordinary,
except an arm-chair, with a footstool attached, hewn out
of the living rock, as in the two tombs of the Banditaccia,
already described. Here it is not by the side of a sepul-
chral couch, but against the wall of rock which separates
the two chambers.3
This tomb had been rifled in ages past, but very care-
lessly, for, when recently opened, some gold leaf, and
several fibulae of the same metal were discovered in one of
the chambers. Other furniture was also found, indicative
of a high antiquity.4 A singular feature was the skeleton
2 The basement is 63 feet by 56. Vis- seats are Mithraie symbols—and so he
conti makes it larger—108 by 91 Roman also regards the celebrated marble chair
palms. At the back, or on the side op- of the Corsini Palace. Mon. Ined. p.
posed to the entrance, is a square pro- 152.
jection or buttress in the masonry. The * Here were fragments of embroidery
blocks are of tufo, and the courses recede in flowers of smalt of Egyptian workman-
as they ascend, as in the walls of Servius ship—a piece of blue pasta inscribed
Tullius at Rome. Similar square base- with hieroglyphics—alalastra'mtheform
ments of masonry, generally emplecton, of Egyptian females—and bits of amber
and probably the bases of pyramids, are and other oriental gums placed around
not uncommon in this necropolis, espe- the corpse. A morsel of one of these
cially in the glen of the Vaccina, beneath gums being put to the fire emitted so
the cliffs of the city. powerful an odour as to be insupportable,
3 See page 34. Micali, in his last says Visconti, even in the spacious hall of
work, in which he seeks to establish the Ducal palace at Ceri. Ant. Mon. di
oriental analogies in Etruscan monu- Ceri, pp. 29—32. The vault at the en-
ments, expresses his opinion that these trance proves this tomb to be very ancient.
GROTTA DELLA SEDIA.
This tomb lies under a large tumulus, with a square
basement of masonry, which makes it highly probable that
the superincumbent mound was in this case of pyramidal
form.2 Half-way down the passage which leads to the
sepulchre, you pass through a doorway of masonry, which
marks the line of the tumulus-basement. The passage is
lined with masonry, whose converging courses indicate the
existence originally of a vault overhead. The tomb con-
sists of two chambers, and has nothing extraordinary,
except an arm-chair, with a footstool attached, hewn out
of the living rock, as in the two tombs of the Banditaccia,
already described. Here it is not by the side of a sepul-
chral couch, but against the wall of rock which separates
the two chambers.3
This tomb had been rifled in ages past, but very care-
lessly, for, when recently opened, some gold leaf, and
several fibulae of the same metal were discovered in one of
the chambers. Other furniture was also found, indicative
of a high antiquity.4 A singular feature was the skeleton
2 The basement is 63 feet by 56. Vis- seats are Mithraie symbols—and so he
conti makes it larger—108 by 91 Roman also regards the celebrated marble chair
palms. At the back, or on the side op- of the Corsini Palace. Mon. Ined. p.
posed to the entrance, is a square pro- 152.
jection or buttress in the masonry. The * Here were fragments of embroidery
blocks are of tufo, and the courses recede in flowers of smalt of Egyptian workman-
as they ascend, as in the walls of Servius ship—a piece of blue pasta inscribed
Tullius at Rome. Similar square base- with hieroglyphics—alalastra'mtheform
ments of masonry, generally emplecton, of Egyptian females—and bits of amber
and probably the bases of pyramids, are and other oriental gums placed around
not uncommon in this necropolis, espe- the corpse. A morsel of one of these
cially in the glen of the Vaccina, beneath gums being put to the fire emitted so
the cliffs of the city. powerful an odour as to be insupportable,
3 See page 34. Micali, in his last says Visconti, even in the spacious hall of
work, in which he seeks to establish the Ducal palace at Ceri. Ant. Mon. di
oriental analogies in Etruscan monu- Ceri, pp. 29—32. The vault at the en-
ments, expresses his opinion that these trance proves this tomb to be very ancient.