DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0098
90 VEIL
might be the date of the tomb, and why such a date
is assigned, in nineteen instances ont of twenty they
are unable to tell you. Fortunately for science and
for history, and for knowledge in general, the
attention of some learned and powerful minds
has at last been awakened to the subject: the richest
and finest tombs opened since a.d. 1836 have been
made known to the Archaeological Society, and laid
open to their inspection before they were destroyed,
and their contents removed; and some of the dealers
and some of the private collectors are themselves studi-
ous men. Amongst them we can name with honour
Cavaliere Campana, Capranesi and Campanari, and
many are following in their wake. Still a more
general attention to the subject is desirable, for as yet
those who put science on a par with gold, and do not
get the tomb opened solely for its treasures, and then
fill it in again, are the exceptions, and not the rule.
After leaving Pozzo Michele, we went with
the workmen to see how the graves were dis-
covered—an operation which the earliest of our
party had already seen in the disinterment of Pozzo
Michele. The foreman of the labourers took his
pickaxe, and struck the ground in many places,
but it resounded to the tufo. He went on, how-
ever, in the same line along the hill, perhaps 150 feet
above the Pozzo, and at last the axe stuck in the
earth, and he ordered a man to dig. Here, about
two feet deep, the man came upon tufo. The fore-
man bade him stop, and we marched on. At the
distance of a (ew paces the axe again stuck, and the
might be the date of the tomb, and why such a date
is assigned, in nineteen instances ont of twenty they
are unable to tell you. Fortunately for science and
for history, and for knowledge in general, the
attention of some learned and powerful minds
has at last been awakened to the subject: the richest
and finest tombs opened since a.d. 1836 have been
made known to the Archaeological Society, and laid
open to their inspection before they were destroyed,
and their contents removed; and some of the dealers
and some of the private collectors are themselves studi-
ous men. Amongst them we can name with honour
Cavaliere Campana, Capranesi and Campanari, and
many are following in their wake. Still a more
general attention to the subject is desirable, for as yet
those who put science on a par with gold, and do not
get the tomb opened solely for its treasures, and then
fill it in again, are the exceptions, and not the rule.
After leaving Pozzo Michele, we went with
the workmen to see how the graves were dis-
covered—an operation which the earliest of our
party had already seen in the disinterment of Pozzo
Michele. The foreman of the labourers took his
pickaxe, and struck the ground in many places,
but it resounded to the tufo. He went on, how-
ever, in the same line along the hill, perhaps 150 feet
above the Pozzo, and at last the axe stuck in the
earth, and he ordered a man to dig. Here, about
two feet deep, the man came upon tufo. The fore-
man bade him stop, and we marched on. At the
distance of a (ew paces the axe again stuck, and the