DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0097
VEIL
89
ever yet been made of the ground explored, so that
the situation of the ancient, and opened, and rifled
tombs might or could be known without a second
excavation. In the first instance, too, they were
almost all explored by dealers in antiquities; men
who cared much for profit, but nothing for science;
and therefore those observations, the most interest-
ing to society in general, of the style of architecture,
the objects found accumulated together, and their
era, were never made, and in the greater number of
instances can now never be ascertained. In Etruria
the ground that has been opened is as yet well
known, because, with scarcely an exception, it is
either in the hands of a very few dealers, such as
Capranesi, Campanari, Fossati, Basseggio, or of emi-
nent collectors like Cav. Campana, or of the Prince
ofCanino. It is the same in Tuscan Etruria and
in Neapolitan, at least as far as our inquiries went;
but when this generation shall have passed away,
what is there to preserve the memory of the ground
which they hired, searched and filled in again ? and
who is to say what was found in any particular tomb,
and what bronzes or sculpture in marble or ala-
baster, what vases or terra cotta vessels, what figures
in stone or clay, what scarabei engravings or gold
ornaments are cotemporary, and were found toge-
ther ? Any of the first-rate dealers will tell you
at once that such a vase, or marble, or bronze, came
from Veii Etruscan, or Veii Roman; from Cere,
Volci, Viterbo, &c.; but what tomb they came from,
and what other objects were found with them, what
89
ever yet been made of the ground explored, so that
the situation of the ancient, and opened, and rifled
tombs might or could be known without a second
excavation. In the first instance, too, they were
almost all explored by dealers in antiquities; men
who cared much for profit, but nothing for science;
and therefore those observations, the most interest-
ing to society in general, of the style of architecture,
the objects found accumulated together, and their
era, were never made, and in the greater number of
instances can now never be ascertained. In Etruria
the ground that has been opened is as yet well
known, because, with scarcely an exception, it is
either in the hands of a very few dealers, such as
Capranesi, Campanari, Fossati, Basseggio, or of emi-
nent collectors like Cav. Campana, or of the Prince
ofCanino. It is the same in Tuscan Etruria and
in Neapolitan, at least as far as our inquiries went;
but when this generation shall have passed away,
what is there to preserve the memory of the ground
which they hired, searched and filled in again ? and
who is to say what was found in any particular tomb,
and what bronzes or sculpture in marble or ala-
baster, what vases or terra cotta vessels, what figures
in stone or clay, what scarabei engravings or gold
ornaments are cotemporary, and were found toge-
ther ? Any of the first-rate dealers will tell you
at once that such a vase, or marble, or bronze, came
from Veii Etruscan, or Veii Roman; from Cere,
Volci, Viterbo, &c.; but what tomb they came from,
and what other objects were found with them, what