This past year has been so jam-packed, I had unfortunately let this website languish with no updates. So this is a quick look at allllll the way back into December 2021, when I was visiting some Etruscan tombs around Orvieto, an hour's drive north of Rome.
There are, in fact, close to 250 tombs scattered across the countryside between Rome and Florence, easily accessible by foot. Parking is a little touch and go, and some of these archeological parks are nestled in between active farms. If you are planning to visit them for the first time, see if there is a tour guide who can help you gain access. One great spot is Necopoli Etrusca di Pianezze e Centocamere, where you can see a few dozen tombs along a trail that circles a beautiful road. Most of these photos are from that necropolis.
Part of what is so fascinating about the tombs in this area, this that they have had a multiplicity of uses over time. Normally, a cave is used as a living space, with the more inaccessible areas used for ritual and burial purposes until, finally, the space is exclusively used for burial. However, the tombs cut into the cliffs at Pianezze e Centocamere have been used for the past thousand years as storage sheds by local farmers. The ones you can visit along the trail in that area are a designated archeological park, and therefore cleared of farming equipment.
Looking at Centocamere, you can see how the rooms and doors were fashioned into the walls, and the tombs carefully cut into the floor. The stone slabs that would have been placed over the bodies are pushed to the back of the cave at most of these archeological parks. Today, the tombs are empty. Burial goods have long been moved to museums for display, and archives for study. Some, such as the archeological museum in Florence, have lifted the entire tomb from the floor to display the burial in situ for visitors.
Further along the road you can find individual tomb complexes, including Necropoli Etrusca le Sane. These more clearly show how the cave systems were widened for domestic use, and in some caves you can see walls covered in the small niches where pigeons were kept. These were raised for food.
Being able to examine these caves first hand was a fantastic experience. I will be back again soon. And if there is a field school launching an open study in the area, I will be promoting it here!
Comments