DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0282
chap, xlvi.] POLYGONAL WALLS AND ETRUSCAN TOMBS. 265
this description never had and never needed cement;
holding together by the enormous weight of its masses.
It seems highly probable from the character of this
masonry, and the position of the town on the level of the
shore, that Orbetello, like Pisa, Pyrgi, and Alsium, was
originally founded by the Pelasgi; to whom I would attri-
bute the construction of these walls. But that it was also
occupied by the Etruscans is abundantly proved by the
tombs of that people, which have been discovered in the
close vicinity of the city, on the isthmus of sand which
connects it with the mainland. Most of them were found
in the vineyard of Signor Raffael de Wit, an inhabitant of
the town, who has made a collection of their contents.
No tombs now remain open ; in truth, the soil is so loose
that they are found with their roofs fallen in, and their
contents buried in the earth. The articles brought to
light are, sarcophagi of nenfro, though the dead were
generally laid uncoffined on a slab of rock, and covered
with tiles—vases, seldom painted, and then coarsely, like
those of Volterra rather than of Vulci—tripods, and other
articles in bronze ; but nothing of extraordinary beauty or
value.5
Orbetello, then, by these remains is clearly proved an
Etruscan site. What was its name ? Some take it to have
been the Succosa of the Peutingerian Table ;6 but I hesitate
5 Bull. Inst. 1829, p. 7 ; 1830, p. of Paris and Helen in Campanari's
254. Here was found a sistrum, with Garden at Toscanella (Vol I. p. 451),
a little cow on the top, representing in having human heads between the
Isis, in whose worship these instruments volutes.
were used. Micali (Mon. Ined. p. 109, 6 Gerhard, Bull. Inst. 1830, pp. 251,
tav. XVII. 10) says it was found not 254 ; Memor. Inst. III. p. 83 ; Repetti,
far from Cosa. It is now in the Labo- III. p. 665. The Peutingerian Table,
ratory of the Duke of Tuscany. In which alone makes mention of Succosa
Signor De Wit's garden there is the (see Vol. I. p. 388), places it two miles
capital of a column, taken from an to the east of Cosa, while Orbetello is
Etruscan tomb, which resembles that four or five miles to the west. The
this description never had and never needed cement;
holding together by the enormous weight of its masses.
It seems highly probable from the character of this
masonry, and the position of the town on the level of the
shore, that Orbetello, like Pisa, Pyrgi, and Alsium, was
originally founded by the Pelasgi; to whom I would attri-
bute the construction of these walls. But that it was also
occupied by the Etruscans is abundantly proved by the
tombs of that people, which have been discovered in the
close vicinity of the city, on the isthmus of sand which
connects it with the mainland. Most of them were found
in the vineyard of Signor Raffael de Wit, an inhabitant of
the town, who has made a collection of their contents.
No tombs now remain open ; in truth, the soil is so loose
that they are found with their roofs fallen in, and their
contents buried in the earth. The articles brought to
light are, sarcophagi of nenfro, though the dead were
generally laid uncoffined on a slab of rock, and covered
with tiles—vases, seldom painted, and then coarsely, like
those of Volterra rather than of Vulci—tripods, and other
articles in bronze ; but nothing of extraordinary beauty or
value.5
Orbetello, then, by these remains is clearly proved an
Etruscan site. What was its name ? Some take it to have
been the Succosa of the Peutingerian Table ;6 but I hesitate
5 Bull. Inst. 1829, p. 7 ; 1830, p. of Paris and Helen in Campanari's
254. Here was found a sistrum, with Garden at Toscanella (Vol I. p. 451),
a little cow on the top, representing in having human heads between the
Isis, in whose worship these instruments volutes.
were used. Micali (Mon. Ined. p. 109, 6 Gerhard, Bull. Inst. 1830, pp. 251,
tav. XVII. 10) says it was found not 254 ; Memor. Inst. III. p. 83 ; Repetti,
far from Cosa. It is now in the Labo- III. p. 665. The Peutingerian Table,
ratory of the Duke of Tuscany. In which alone makes mention of Succosa
Signor De Wit's garden there is the (see Vol. I. p. 388), places it two miles
capital of a column, taken from an to the east of Cosa, while Orbetello is
Etruscan tomb, which resembles that four or five miles to the west. The