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Intact 2,000-Year Old Etruscan Tomb Discovered
Reuters ^ | 8-13-2007 | Deepa Babington

Posted on 08/13/2007 4:43:25 PM PDT by blam

Intact 2,000-year old Etruscan tomb discovered

Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:58PM BST

By Deepa Babington

ROME (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a more than 2,000-year-old Etruscan tomb perfectly preserved in the hills of Tuscany with a treasure trove of artefacts inside, including urns that hold the remains of about 30 people.

The tomb, in the Tuscan town of Civitella Paganico, probably dates from between the 1st and 3rd centuries B.C., when Etruscan power was in decline, Andrea Marcocci, who led digging at the site, told Reuters.

"It's quite rare to find a tomb intact like this," said Marcocci, who had suspected one might exist in the area after work on a nearby road scattered pieces of artefacts.

"When we found fragments outside, we thought we would find that the tomb had been violated. But the main burial room was completely intact."

Inside the tomb, a narrow corridor led to a small burial chamber, about 2 metres long and 1.79 metres wide, he said. It housed about 80 objects including vases and mirrors in bronze and ceramic. Urns holding human remains were also found.

"It's quite exceptional to find so many objects in a tomb so small," Marcocci said. "Some of the vases (urns) were fairly small, so we think they were probably for children."

One of Italy's first and most mysterious civilisations, the Etruscans lived north of Rome in present day regions of Tuscany and Umbria. Their civilisation lasted for about 1,000 years, reaching its height roughly from the 7th to the 6th century B.C., before its cities were replaced by Roman settlements.

Much of what is known about the Etruscans derives from other lavish burial sites, decorated with paintings and filled with vases and other objects.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2000; ancientautopsies; civitellapaganico; etruscan; etruscans; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; tomb; tuscany; yearsold
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1 posted on 08/13/2007 4:43:29 PM PDT by blam
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To: SunkenCiv
GGG Ping.

Ancient Etruscans Were Immigrants From Anatolia (Turkey)

2 posted on 08/13/2007 4:44:57 PM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: mikrofon
Ancient Etruscans Were Immigrants From Anatolia (Turkey)

Anatolia so.

3 posted on 08/13/2007 4:50:07 PM PDT by martin_fierro (Mock like an Etruscan)
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To: blam
I’m all for learning but there is a part of me that says the instant they realized they discovered a tomb they should immediately reseal it up and back away. Archaeologists are so concerned about ancient sites being violated yet they love to dive in and sift through every little piece of everything, put things on display, ship items around the world to museums, etc. It is as though after a certain amount of time has past rest in peace does not matter.
4 posted on 08/13/2007 4:56:00 PM PDT by A knight without armor
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To: martin_fierro

quick, Marty ... quick.


5 posted on 08/13/2007 4:57:33 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: martin_fierro

Etruscans introduced the chariot into Italy - a concept ahead of its time by over two millennia.

The predecessor of the Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo used biofuel!


6 posted on 08/13/2007 5:00:29 PM PDT by Stallone (Free Republic - The largest collection of volunteer Freedom Fighters the world has ever known)
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To: blam

Particularly wonderful because it is untouched.


7 posted on 08/13/2007 5:01:29 PM PDT by BlackVeil
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To: blam

Always great stuff. Thanks, Blam


8 posted on 08/13/2007 5:26:09 PM PDT by Riverine
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To: Stallone

“The predecessor of the Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo used biofuel!”

A lot of great cars within 100 miles of the Alps, either way. North you get Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Audi.

This year the F1 contest is between Ferrari and McClaren-Mercedes.

Italian women; German cars.


9 posted on 08/13/2007 5:37:45 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: martin_fierro

Some might take Umbriage at that comment...


10 posted on 08/13/2007 6:35:54 PM PDT by mikrofon ("There's No Trustin' an Etruscan." ~Ancient Roman saying)
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To: truth_seeker

You know, I’ve enjoyed the company of some gorgeous German women.

It’s a good thing I’m a dominant, strong male. In my experience, like James Bond’s, the Hun are either at your feet or at your throat!


11 posted on 08/13/2007 6:42:33 PM PDT by Stallone (Free Republic - The largest collection of volunteer Freedom Fighters the world has ever known)
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To: blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 49th; ...
Thanks Blam. Tuscan be the biggest story of the week.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

12 posted on 08/13/2007 8:16:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Saturday, August 11, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Old volcanoes are turning into meteor craters. I wonder whether Italian geologists could be wrong in regarding Lago di Bolsena as a typical extinct volcano crater. The Roman encyclopedist Pliny said that it was the spot where a Jovian thunderbolt had destroyed the Etruscan city of Volsinium...

13 posted on 08/13/2007 9:47:46 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: SunkenCiv

http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc031500.html

ca. 520 BCE Destruction of Etruscan town of Volsinii


14 posted on 08/13/2007 9:56:35 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (Fair dinkum!)
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To: SunkenCiv

VERY cool!


15 posted on 08/13/2007 9:58:07 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: Fred Nerks

:’)


16 posted on 08/13/2007 9:59:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Saturday, August 11, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: blam

A relative of Napoleon’s (or maybe it was Napoleon III’s relative) got the license to excavate one of the then-recently discovered Etruscan sites. He found so much intact Etruscan pottery that he thought he’d never be able to sell it all at a good price.

So he had at least half of the pottery smashed to bits, to keep the market price for “his” antiquities high.

That’s today’s history moment.


17 posted on 08/13/2007 10:06:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Saturday, August 11, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: BenLurkin
Thanks, and thanks to Blam. I'm sure there are plenty more of these around, untouched, but most will alas be from the same general era. The biggest and richest burials were a couple centuries earlier, and drew a lot of attention back then. :')
Clusium
LoveToKnow 1911 Online Encyclopedia
It was according to Roman tradition one of the oldest cities of Etruria and indeed of all Italy, and, if Camars (the original name of the town, according to Livy) is rightly connected with the Camertes Umbri, its foundation would go back to pre-Etruscan times... The chief interest of the place lies in its extensive necropolis, which surrounds the city on all sides... The most remarkable group of tombs is, however, that of Poggio Gaiella, 3 m. to the N., where the hill is honeycombed with chambers in three storeys (now, however, much ruined and inaccessible), partly connected by a system of passages, and supported at the base by a stone wall which forms a circle and not a squarea fact which renders impossible its identification with the tomb of Porsena, the description of which Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 91) has copied from Varro... A conception of the size of the whole necropolis may be gathered from the fact that nearly three thousand Etruscan inscriptions have come to light from Clusium and its district alone, while the part of Etruria north of it as far as the Arno has produced barely five hundred. Among the later tombs bilingual inscriptions are by no means rare, and both Etruscan and Latin inscriptions are often found in the same cemeteries, showing that the use of the Etruscan language only died out gradually.
Dig Like a Surgeon
by Anna Maria Esposito
Photographs by Giovanni Lattanzi
February 22, 1999
Burial G was one of a small group, probably belonging to members of a single family, atop the hill of Casa Nocera, outside the modern town of Casale Marittimo. In the center we found the earliest sepulchre, dating from the eighth century B.C., that of the clan's progenitor, who was cremated and buried in a chest made of stone slabs. Within the chest was a large terra-cotta vessel known as a dolium, covered with an embossed bronze shield. Inside the dolium was a bronze cinerary urn containing the burnt bones wrapped in a linen cloth; silver items including a bowl and dragon fibula (garment pin); and small objects of ivory and amber. Outside the dolium were a banquet service consisting of a small bronze and iron table, ribbed bronze phialai (libation bowls), and other vessels; an ax, lance, helmet, and scepter; and the iron fittings of a two-wheeled chariot.

18 posted on 08/13/2007 10:17:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Saturday, August 11, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: A knight without armor

????????????????????????????????????????????????

Are you serious????


19 posted on 08/14/2007 6:18:23 AM PDT by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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To: Stallone

Germans aren;t Huns and I like German women. Also Italian women, Irish women, Scandinavian women, English women, American women, and most women in general - just the live ones though.


20 posted on 08/14/2007 6:20:18 AM PDT by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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