DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0356
CJERE OR AGYLLA. 331
Monterone, and yet something in that style. The
face of the mount is said to have presented the same
appearance, the plain part having heen the earth
we had walked over, and the wall having been
covered from view by the accumulations of time.
It had been as smooth as Monterone, before the
Arci Prete and General Galassi, feeling sure that
it was a place of sepulture, agreed to undertake
together the excavation of it in 1836. There were
lions and griffins on the cornice of stone above the
doors of the graves, and there was a large lion
on the top of the mount. I do not remember
whether these lower tombs had been opened before,
or whether they were found sealed ; probably the
former, as nothing of importance was brought out of
them; and yet there can be no doubt that they were
the graves of distinguished persons only.
Having found these sepulchres at the base of the
mound, the Arci Prete and the general agreed, from
what they knew of the Etruscan method of burying,
that the tomb of the chief person in whose honour
the entire mound had been erected, must occupy a
more elevated place by itself, and was therefore to be
sought for a considerable way higher up towards the
centre, and far above the tombs already found. It was
my impression, from the many holes which we looked
down into between the lower wall and the principal
tomb, that there had been a second row of vaulted
burying places in this hill; but we were not told so,
neither have I heard, in any lecture, of such a form
of burial. The wall had a coping-stone, very neatly
Monterone, and yet something in that style. The
face of the mount is said to have presented the same
appearance, the plain part having heen the earth
we had walked over, and the wall having been
covered from view by the accumulations of time.
It had been as smooth as Monterone, before the
Arci Prete and General Galassi, feeling sure that
it was a place of sepulture, agreed to undertake
together the excavation of it in 1836. There were
lions and griffins on the cornice of stone above the
doors of the graves, and there was a large lion
on the top of the mount. I do not remember
whether these lower tombs had been opened before,
or whether they were found sealed ; probably the
former, as nothing of importance was brought out of
them; and yet there can be no doubt that they were
the graves of distinguished persons only.
Having found these sepulchres at the base of the
mound, the Arci Prete and the general agreed, from
what they knew of the Etruscan method of burying,
that the tomb of the chief person in whose honour
the entire mound had been erected, must occupy a
more elevated place by itself, and was therefore to be
sought for a considerable way higher up towards the
centre, and far above the tombs already found. It was
my impression, from the many holes which we looked
down into between the lower wall and the principal
tomb, that there had been a second row of vaulted
burying places in this hill; but we were not told so,
neither have I heard, in any lecture, of such a form
of burial. The wall had a coping-stone, very neatly