DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0330
294
ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTUBE.
Paet I.
palaces worthy of attention. It at least seems certain that nothing
of the sort is now to be found, even in ruins, and were it not that
the study of Etruscan art is a necessary introduction to that of
Itoman, it would hardly he worth while trying to gather together
and illustrate the few fragments and notices of it that remain.
Tombs.
The tombs of the Etruscans now found may be divided into two
classes—first, those cut in the rock, and resembling dwelling-houses;
secondly, the circular tumuli, which latter are by far the most nume-
rous ancl important class.
Each of these may be again subdivided into two kinds. The rock-
cut tombs include, firstly, those with only a fagade on the face of the
rock and a sepulchral chamber within; secondly, those cut quite out
of the rock and standing free all round. To this class probably once
belonged an immense number of tombs built in the ordinary way ; but
all these have totally disappeared, and consequently the class, as now
under consideration, consists entirely of excavated examples.
The second class may be divided into those tumuli erected over
chambers cut in the tufaceous rock which is found all over Etruria, and
those which have chambers built above-ground.
In the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to say which
of these classes is the older. We know that the Egyptians buried in
caves long before the Etruscans landed in Italy, and at the same time
raised pyramids over rock-cut and built chambers. We know too that
Abraham was buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Syria. On the other
hand, the tombs at Smyrna (Woodcut No. 113), the treasuries of
Mycense (Woodcut ISTo. 124), the sepulchre of Alyattes (Woodcut
No. 115), and many others, are proofs of the antiquity of the tumuli,
which are found all over Europe and Asia, and appear to have existed
from the earliest ages.
The comparative antiquity of the different kinds of tombs being
thus doubtful, it will be sufficient for the purposes of the present work
to classify them architecturally. It may probably be assumed, with
safety, that all the modes which have been enumerated were practised
by the Etruscans at a period very slightly subsequent to their migra-
tion into Italy.
Of the first class of the rock-cut tombs-—those with merely a fa^ade
extern&lly—the most remarkable group is that at Castel d’Asso. At
this place there is a perpendicular cliff with hundreds of these tombs
ranged along its face, lilce houses in a street. A similar arrangement
is found in Egypt at Benihasan, at Petra, and Cyrene, and around
all the more ancient cities of Asia Minor.
ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTUBE.
Paet I.
palaces worthy of attention. It at least seems certain that nothing
of the sort is now to be found, even in ruins, and were it not that
the study of Etruscan art is a necessary introduction to that of
Itoman, it would hardly he worth while trying to gather together
and illustrate the few fragments and notices of it that remain.
Tombs.
The tombs of the Etruscans now found may be divided into two
classes—first, those cut in the rock, and resembling dwelling-houses;
secondly, the circular tumuli, which latter are by far the most nume-
rous ancl important class.
Each of these may be again subdivided into two kinds. The rock-
cut tombs include, firstly, those with only a fagade on the face of the
rock and a sepulchral chamber within; secondly, those cut quite out
of the rock and standing free all round. To this class probably once
belonged an immense number of tombs built in the ordinary way ; but
all these have totally disappeared, and consequently the class, as now
under consideration, consists entirely of excavated examples.
The second class may be divided into those tumuli erected over
chambers cut in the tufaceous rock which is found all over Etruria, and
those which have chambers built above-ground.
In the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to say which
of these classes is the older. We know that the Egyptians buried in
caves long before the Etruscans landed in Italy, and at the same time
raised pyramids over rock-cut and built chambers. We know too that
Abraham was buried in the Cave of Machpelah in Syria. On the other
hand, the tombs at Smyrna (Woodcut No. 113), the treasuries of
Mycense (Woodcut ISTo. 124), the sepulchre of Alyattes (Woodcut
No. 115), and many others, are proofs of the antiquity of the tumuli,
which are found all over Europe and Asia, and appear to have existed
from the earliest ages.
The comparative antiquity of the different kinds of tombs being
thus doubtful, it will be sufficient for the purposes of the present work
to classify them architecturally. It may probably be assumed, with
safety, that all the modes which have been enumerated were practised
by the Etruscans at a period very slightly subsequent to their migra-
tion into Italy.
Of the first class of the rock-cut tombs-—those with merely a fa^ade
extern&lly—the most remarkable group is that at Castel d’Asso. At
this place there is a perpendicular cliff with hundreds of these tombs
ranged along its face, lilce houses in a street. A similar arrangement
is found in Egypt at Benihasan, at Petra, and Cyrene, and around
all the more ancient cities of Asia Minor.