Week Nine: Ancient Etruria

The art history course I'm taking here is on the Etruscan civilization. It's one of my favorite classes, and over my birthday weekend, we traveled to five different ancient Etruscan sites: the cities of Chiusi, Orvieto, Cerveteri, Tarquinia, and Norchia. 

The Etruscan civilization absolutely fascinates me. They were a people that settled the Po Valley in Italy from what is estimated to be between 8,000 and 7,500 B.C.E. to 80 B.C.E. when the last of their independent city states was completely destroyed by the Romans. 

Our first visit was to the city of Chiusi, where we visited the archaeological museum and toured two tombs - Tombe del Leone e La Tomba de Pellegrino. This photo below was from the first tomb, the tomb of the lions.  

The three sarcophagi at the back would have held the primary member's inhumated bodies. You can see the generational progression, as urns for cremated remains are held on the left hand side of the tomb. 

Here's another urn in the tomb. The figure on top would have resembled (somewhat) the person held inside. This urn, if I remember specifically, was carved out of marble - an expensive material in Etruria, this guy was probably pretty loaded. 

Our next stop was in Orvieto. Orvieto is a gorgeous medieval city located on a hilltop. Their archaeological museum also holds a lot of Etruscan artifacts, but what's most unique to Oriveto is its underground city. Carved beneath the city, by what is thought to initially be the Etruscans, the caves of Orvieto were used for olive pressing and as wine storage during the middle ages up until mid-1800s. This photo is of the countryside before we descended beneath the ground. L'italia e bella. 

This is a shot of the countryside from a window in the caves. 

In Orvieto, we also visited the Necropolis there. The Etruscan civilization had a tendency to build their cities on two hills - one to serve as the acropolis, and almost a mirror version on the other hill for the necropolis. Up until the late classical period, the Etruscans believed in a seamless continuity of life. At death, the soul was ferried to the necropolis, to continue living as they were with their old belongings in a mirrored house in the necropolis. 

The Etruscans were known for the idea of the "Banquet of Eternity" - they would throw a giant feast when someone died, usually lasting for days. However, much of the Etruscan ideology shifted around 350 B.C.E. - with the introduction of Greek mythology. Paintings and sculptures begin to reveal mythological scenes, portraying Greek gods, renamed by the Etruscans, but serving similar purpose. The idea of death changed drastically with the introduction of demon figures and the underworld - which was controlled by the Etruscan's Hades - "Aita" and his wife, "Persepnei". 

However, Orvieto was one of their civilizations, where there wasn't a physical hill to build the opposing necropolis on. Instead, the tombs were dug into the ground - and as you'll see below, carved out of the soft rock. 

 The Etruscans loved putting their name on things. Find an Etruscan pot? Named. Find a bowl? Named. Find a tomb? Definitely named. The Etruscan alphabet is sort of similar to the Greek alphabet, but there are very few written records of the Etruscans - most of their writing was destroyed. However, in many places their tombs were clearly marked - read right to left with their name.

This was an ancient Etruscan temple. 

On Saturday, bright and early, we headed to the Etruscan necropolis of Tarquinia. An absolutely gorgeous necropolis, we saw so. many. tombs. The tombs of Tarquinia are best known because of their extravagant wall paintings. The tombs have been sealed since their discovery with a plexiglass door and the temperature is monitored in order to better preserve the already decaying wall paintings. However, with the conservation effort - many tombs have been relatively well conserved. They're absolutely beautiful. This is the view from the necropolis of Tarquinia. 

Here's one of the painted tombs - it would have dated to the classical period. The demon figures on either side of the door are the tomb guardians Charu and Vanth. They appear solely in the classical period onward, and were introduced with the new mythologies that the Etruscans adopted at that time. 

This tomb is perhaps one of the most famous Tarquinian tombs - the tomb of the leopards. As you'll see below, the tomb has two leopards painted above a banqueting scene. The scene was a representative painting of the Banquet of Eternities - a man and a woman reclining on a couch (the Greek word, kline) and being fed by their servants on either side. 

Our next city was Cerveteri, known for their mounded tombs - they were carved out of a volcanic rock specific to the area in and around Cerveteri, known as tufa. Tufa is a soft volcanic rock that hardens once exposed to the elements. As such, it became the perfect carving material for the Etruscans. The entrance to each tomb led down into the ground where there were usually multiple burial chambers, carved in the shape of a house - complete with living room and sometimes windows!

An example bedroom in the tomb. Either "bed"  - sometimes carved with headboards and more elaborate decorations - would have held the inhumed bodies of the dead. The rest of the tomb would have held other sarcophagi or urns and usually housed multiple generations of a single family. The Etruscans practiced both inhumation and cremation. Earliest Etruscan civilizations solely cremated, burying their ashes in long, straight shafts in the ground known as "tombe a pozzo".  But during the orientalizing period, burial shifted from cremation to solely inhumation. In the next couple of centuries, the Etruscans practiced both. 

Nancy Drew in the Etruscan Tomb:

And our final stop: Norchia. 

More than anything, Norchia was just really pretty. It's the prime example of an acropolis and necropolis on opposing hills, but because it started to rain, we couldn't visit the acropolis. 

The tombs of the necropolis are carved into the side of the hill - they're really steep, and most of the rock has been eroded by water. Regardless, I climbed them. 

We got rained out, and wound up soaked before we made it back to the bus... but it was beautiful. 

As interesting as the Etruscans are as a people, so much still remains unanswered about their civilization. As a pre-Roman civilization with little to no written records, their lifestyle patterns are largely inferred from their tombs, paintings, artifacts, and sculptures. Regardless, they're absolutely fascinating to study. 

Adventuring through Italy,

♥ Em