DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0129
chap, xxxvn.] SINGULAR TOMB AT FIGLINE. 113
Eighteen miles on the road from Florence to Arezzo is
the little town of Figline, which had never been suspected
of possessing Etruscan antiquities in its neighbourhood, till
in 1843 a sepulchre was discovered on a hill hardly a mile
beyond it. The roof had fallen in, but it was evident that
the tomb had been formed of masonry, the hill being of
too soft an earth to admit of excavated sepulchres ; the
pavement was of opus incertum—a very singular feature,
which I have never seen, or heard of as existing else-
where in an Etruscan tomb. But a still more remarkable
thing was that around one of the urns which had a female
recumbent figure on the lid, was scattered an immense
quantity of gold leaf in minute fragments, twisted and
crumpled, which seemed to have been thrown over the
figure in a sheet or veil, and to have been torn to pieces
by the fall of the roof, which had destroyed most of the
urns. It was of the purest gold, beaten out very thin ;
and the fragments collected weighed about half a pound.6
Other Etruscan relics have been discovered in the neigh-
bourhood of Florence in past times. Buonarroti—the
painter's nephew—states, that, in 1689, at a spot called
St. Andrea a Morgiano, in the heights above Antella, a
village a few miles to the south-east of Florence, he saw an
Etruscan inscription cut in large letters in the rock.7 At
Antella has also been found a stele, or monumental stone,
with bas-reliefs, in two compartments—one representing a
6 Migliarini, Bull. Inst. 1843, pp. sents it as merely a huge stone cut from
35—7. It may be that the so-called the rock, IS Roman feet long, by 6 high,
opus incertum, of the pavement was only with letters 6 inches in height. The
a collection of small stones put down at inscription translated into Roman letters
random, for no mention is made of would be
cement, which forms the basis of the
Roman masonry known by that name. TULAR •**••*• VIS • « •
7 Buonar. p. 95, Explicat. ad Dempst. AO ■ c™cli
torn. II. Passeri (p. 65, ap. Gori, Mus. It was found on the estate of the Cap-
Etrus. III. tab. XV.), however, repre- poni family.
VOL. II. I
Eighteen miles on the road from Florence to Arezzo is
the little town of Figline, which had never been suspected
of possessing Etruscan antiquities in its neighbourhood, till
in 1843 a sepulchre was discovered on a hill hardly a mile
beyond it. The roof had fallen in, but it was evident that
the tomb had been formed of masonry, the hill being of
too soft an earth to admit of excavated sepulchres ; the
pavement was of opus incertum—a very singular feature,
which I have never seen, or heard of as existing else-
where in an Etruscan tomb. But a still more remarkable
thing was that around one of the urns which had a female
recumbent figure on the lid, was scattered an immense
quantity of gold leaf in minute fragments, twisted and
crumpled, which seemed to have been thrown over the
figure in a sheet or veil, and to have been torn to pieces
by the fall of the roof, which had destroyed most of the
urns. It was of the purest gold, beaten out very thin ;
and the fragments collected weighed about half a pound.6
Other Etruscan relics have been discovered in the neigh-
bourhood of Florence in past times. Buonarroti—the
painter's nephew—states, that, in 1689, at a spot called
St. Andrea a Morgiano, in the heights above Antella, a
village a few miles to the south-east of Florence, he saw an
Etruscan inscription cut in large letters in the rock.7 At
Antella has also been found a stele, or monumental stone,
with bas-reliefs, in two compartments—one representing a
6 Migliarini, Bull. Inst. 1843, pp. sents it as merely a huge stone cut from
35—7. It may be that the so-called the rock, IS Roman feet long, by 6 high,
opus incertum, of the pavement was only with letters 6 inches in height. The
a collection of small stones put down at inscription translated into Roman letters
random, for no mention is made of would be
cement, which forms the basis of the
Roman masonry known by that name. TULAR •**••*• VIS • « •
7 Buonar. p. 95, Explicat. ad Dempst. AO ■ c™cli
torn. II. Passeri (p. 65, ap. Gori, Mus. It was found on the estate of the Cap-
Etrus. III. tab. XV.), however, repre- poni family.
VOL. II. I