DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.786#0334
chap, xlix.] TOMBS LIKE CKOMLECHS. 317
be no doubt that these structures of Saturnia are of that
character, though nothing beyond analogy and tradition
now remains to attest it. Here the slope of the cover-
stone is evidently to carry off the rain.
These tombs have stood for so many ages open and
dismantled—the haunts of the fox, the porcupine, and
unclean reptiles—that no traces of the ancient dead are
now visible, beyond the broken pottery which strews the
plain. At a spot called II Puntone, west of the Pian di
Palma, and nearer the banks of the Albegna, are more of
these singular sepulchres. Those at La Pestiera on the
south of Saturnia have already been mentioned ; and it is
possible that more exist on other sides of the city, but I
could not ascertain the fact.
These monuments of Saturnia are particularly worthy
of notice, as nothing like them is to be seen on any other
site in Etruria. Similar tombs, however, have in ages
past been discovered at Cortona,7 and of late years at
Santa Marinella;8 but no traces of them now remain on
either site. I have never seen any description of these
tombs in the Pian di Palma; nor am I aware that any
traveller has visited them, besides Mr. Ainsley and myself.9
To what era, and to what race, are we to attribute
these tombs % Prior to the Roman conquest they must be,
for that people never constructed such rude burial-places
for their dead. Can we assign them to the Etruscans—to
' Baldelli, MS. quoted by Gori, Mus. appears after hard rains." Classical
Etrus. III. pp. 75—6, and Inghirami, Tour, I. p. 52. But he does not appear
Mon. Etrus. IV. p. 72. to have seen them, or he must have
8 Ut supra, page 8. been struck by their peculiar character.
9 Sir E. C. Hoare merely states that Repetti (V. p. 207) only mentions those
" several subterraneous grottos are still on the slope beneath Saturnia, towards
open in the neighbouring fields, but the Bagni, and describes them simply
there is great reason to suppose that as " fosse coperte da lastroni di traver-
many more exist undiscovered, for in tino," containing human bones and
various spots the water suddenly dis- nothing else.
be no doubt that these structures of Saturnia are of that
character, though nothing beyond analogy and tradition
now remains to attest it. Here the slope of the cover-
stone is evidently to carry off the rain.
These tombs have stood for so many ages open and
dismantled—the haunts of the fox, the porcupine, and
unclean reptiles—that no traces of the ancient dead are
now visible, beyond the broken pottery which strews the
plain. At a spot called II Puntone, west of the Pian di
Palma, and nearer the banks of the Albegna, are more of
these singular sepulchres. Those at La Pestiera on the
south of Saturnia have already been mentioned ; and it is
possible that more exist on other sides of the city, but I
could not ascertain the fact.
These monuments of Saturnia are particularly worthy
of notice, as nothing like them is to be seen on any other
site in Etruria. Similar tombs, however, have in ages
past been discovered at Cortona,7 and of late years at
Santa Marinella;8 but no traces of them now remain on
either site. I have never seen any description of these
tombs in the Pian di Palma; nor am I aware that any
traveller has visited them, besides Mr. Ainsley and myself.9
To what era, and to what race, are we to attribute
these tombs % Prior to the Roman conquest they must be,
for that people never constructed such rude burial-places
for their dead. Can we assign them to the Etruscans—to
' Baldelli, MS. quoted by Gori, Mus. appears after hard rains." Classical
Etrus. III. pp. 75—6, and Inghirami, Tour, I. p. 52. But he does not appear
Mon. Etrus. IV. p. 72. to have seen them, or he must have
8 Ut supra, page 8. been struck by their peculiar character.
9 Sir E. C. Hoare merely states that Repetti (V. p. 207) only mentions those
" several subterraneous grottos are still on the slope beneath Saturnia, towards
open in the neighbouring fields, but the Bagni, and describes them simply
there is great reason to suppose that as " fosse coperte da lastroni di traver-
many more exist undiscovered, for in tino," containing human bones and
various spots the water suddenly dis- nothing else.