DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0077
chap, xxxiii.] GROTTA TORLONIA. 61
chamber at the entrance, which opens into a spacious hall,
having three compartments, like chapels or stalls, on either
hand, decorated with Tuscan pilasters, and a chamber also
at the upper end, which, being the post of honour, was
elevated, and approached by a flight of steps. Each
chamber contained several sepulchral couches, altogether
fifty-four in number. At the moment of opening the tomb,
these were all laden with their dead, but in a little while,
after the admission of the atmosphere, the bodies crumbled
to dust and vanished, like Avvolta's Etruscan warrior at
Corneto, leaving scarcely a vestige of their existence.8
The external grandeur of this tomb augured a rich harvest
to the excavator, but it had been already stript of its
furniture—not a piece of pottery was to be seen—so com-
pletely had it been rifled by plunderers of old.9
In that part of the necropolis, called Zambra, which lies
on the west of Cervetri, towards Pyrgi, some very ancient
8 Visconti, p. 21. A full description Indeed, if the tumular form of sepulture
of this tomb, with illustrations, will be were not one of natural suggestion, and
found in the said work of Visconti. which has therefore been employed by
The architectural decorations do not almost every nation from China to Peru,
betray a very high antiquity. it might be supposed that the Lydians,
9 An externa] analogy to houses is who employed it extensively (see Vol.
not very obvious in these tumular sepul- f. p. 3S3), had copied the subterranean
chres. They have been supposed to huts of their neighbours the Phrygians,
have the funeral pyre for their type and introduced the fashion into Etruria.
(Ann. Inst. 1832, p. 275), but the usual The conical pit-houses of the ancient
analogy may, perhaps, be traced in the Armenians might in the same way be
habitations of the ancient Phrygians, regarded as the types of the tombs of
who, dwelling in bare plains, on account that form which abound in southern
of the scarcity of wood raised lofty Etruria, and are found also south of the
mounds of earth, weaving stakes above Tiber, as well as in Sicily (see Vol. I.
them into a cone, heaping reeds and p. 121) ; for the description given of
stubble around them, and hollowing them (Xenophon, Anab. IV. 5, 25 ; cf.
them out for their habitation. Such Diodor. XIV. pp. 258—9) closely cor-
dwellings were very cool in summer, responds. The interiors of these sub-
and extremely warm in winter. Vitruv. terranean huts of Armenia presented
II. 1, 5. Externally they must have scenes very like those in an Italian
resembled the shepherds' capamie, capanna.
which now stud the Campagna of Rome.
chamber at the entrance, which opens into a spacious hall,
having three compartments, like chapels or stalls, on either
hand, decorated with Tuscan pilasters, and a chamber also
at the upper end, which, being the post of honour, was
elevated, and approached by a flight of steps. Each
chamber contained several sepulchral couches, altogether
fifty-four in number. At the moment of opening the tomb,
these were all laden with their dead, but in a little while,
after the admission of the atmosphere, the bodies crumbled
to dust and vanished, like Avvolta's Etruscan warrior at
Corneto, leaving scarcely a vestige of their existence.8
The external grandeur of this tomb augured a rich harvest
to the excavator, but it had been already stript of its
furniture—not a piece of pottery was to be seen—so com-
pletely had it been rifled by plunderers of old.9
In that part of the necropolis, called Zambra, which lies
on the west of Cervetri, towards Pyrgi, some very ancient
8 Visconti, p. 21. A full description Indeed, if the tumular form of sepulture
of this tomb, with illustrations, will be were not one of natural suggestion, and
found in the said work of Visconti. which has therefore been employed by
The architectural decorations do not almost every nation from China to Peru,
betray a very high antiquity. it might be supposed that the Lydians,
9 An externa] analogy to houses is who employed it extensively (see Vol.
not very obvious in these tumular sepul- f. p. 3S3), had copied the subterranean
chres. They have been supposed to huts of their neighbours the Phrygians,
have the funeral pyre for their type and introduced the fashion into Etruria.
(Ann. Inst. 1832, p. 275), but the usual The conical pit-houses of the ancient
analogy may, perhaps, be traced in the Armenians might in the same way be
habitations of the ancient Phrygians, regarded as the types of the tombs of
who, dwelling in bare plains, on account that form which abound in southern
of the scarcity of wood raised lofty Etruria, and are found also south of the
mounds of earth, weaving stakes above Tiber, as well as in Sicily (see Vol. I.
them into a cone, heaping reeds and p. 121) ; for the description given of
stubble around them, and hollowing them (Xenophon, Anab. IV. 5, 25 ; cf.
them out for their habitation. Such Diodor. XIV. pp. 258—9) closely cor-
dwellings were very cool in summer, responds. The interiors of these sub-
and extremely warm in winter. Vitruv. terranean huts of Armenia presented
II. 1, 5. Externally they must have scenes very like those in an Italian
resembled the shepherds' capamie, capanna.
which now stud the Campagna of Rome.