Day of the Dead

Wednesday, June 17: Today we saw dead people, or rather, their burial places.  Perfect for the mood I was in after learning of the Cleveland Cavs losing in the NBA Finals.  We traveled north of Rome to what was once known as Etruria, the land of the Etruscans.  Etruria was the area between Rome and Florence (south to north) and Perugia to the east.  Our first stop was the Monterozzi Necropolis (Necropolis means "City of the Dead") in Tarquinia.  Upon entering the grounds, once immediately sees a collection of Etruscan funerary urns.

The Etruscan landscape is beautiful.

The Monterozzi Necropolis is famous for the frescoes on the walls of the tombs.  All of these tombs are underground, cut into the native rock.

After wandering through and looking at these interesting tombs, we went to a small museum in the town of Tarquinia, where pieces of decorative artwork and sarcophagi (stone coffins) from the tombs are held.  Here is a depiction of gladiatorial combat.  The Romans adopted the Etruscan custom of having gladiator fights as part of a funeral celebration.

In this relief we see soldiers and horses.

Sarcophagi are portraits of the deceased.  All show the person reclining.

This is a statue of a lion.  Often paintings, carvings and statues of fierce wild animals were placed near the entrance of tombs to scare would-be grave robbers away.

Two more sarcophagi.

We had a nice lunch in Tarquinia.  Here is a view from the square looking to the ocean.

After lunch we drove to another, much larger, necropolis, Cerveteri.

The Etruscans in Cerveteri created a small city of tombs, carved from native tufa stone both inside and out.  The tombs look in some ways like circular huts, with thatched roofs, but are entirely carved from stone.  

This is the "Main Street" of the necropolis, called, as you might expect, the "Avenue of Hades."

Inside, these tombs are multi-room affairs.

In a later period, they constructed these square tombs, almost like an apartment complex for dead people.

 In the tombs there were final resting places for women and men, typically on opposite sides of each room.  Looks comfy, right?

To end today's post, another view of the lovely Etruscan countryside.  The picture hardly does it justice.

arrivederci!