Some months ago, I announced that I wanted to visit the necropoli of the Etruscans. This requires driving. The spouse was surprisingly amenable. It turns out that he's generally amenable to driving OUTSIDE of Rome.
And so we did.
We drove to Cerveteri (chur-VET-ur-ee')
It was a nice drive.
Upon entering the site, I made a friend.
The sky threatened a possible shower, but we forged onward.
The earthen mounds - encircled by stone at the base, but with full-on grasses and weeds growing on the tops - of this site are the burial sites of hundreds of Etruscans - the people for whom the region of Tuscany is named, the forerunners of the Romans. Virtually all that we know about them is courtesy of their elaborate burial sites and the objects kept within them.
They were a wealthy people whose language appears to have little to no relationship to Latin or other Indo-European languages. We don't know where they came from. They occupied a sizable territory of the Italian peninsula, mining metals and engaging in trade with both the Greeks and near Eastern peoples. Many of the small towns of Tuscany have a little museum that contains Etruscan artifacts. Rome hosts a very large Etruscan art museum.
The last two kings of very early Rome were Etruscan. I especially appreciate the translation of the name of the last Etruscan king of Rome: Tarquinius Superbus.
Soo-PER-bus = 'arrogant.'
At Cerveteri, you are permitted the opportunity to wander this 'city of the dead,' and enter select tombs.
Depending on the tomb, you may have to walk up or down a modern staircase.
In some cases, the interiors are (allegedly) fitted with motion-detecting sensors that start up an audio-visual presentation.
They were mostly non-functional (questo Italia!), so the quiet afternoon in the country was punctuated only by the occasional sound of another person at the site, or more frequently, chirping birds.
Upon descending into this tomb, we found a multi-chambered space.
And here are the beds dedicated for two people.
I suppose that if you can get a little creeped out by a subterranean labyrinth, then this might not be a sojourn for you.
Some burial sites appeared to not be individual earthen mounds, but instead, a series of mausolea, connected like townhouses.
The triangular 'head-board' of this bed indicates that it is meant for a women (evoking perhaps the roof line of an Etruscan house).
Some tombs have fared better than others. Some have standing water in them.
Of course, the tomb that fascinates visitors the most is the so-called Tomb of the Shields.
All the objects you might need in the afterlife are carved in low relief inside the tomb. You even have a pillow for your bed.
The interior of this tomb was probably intended for a husband and wife.
Clearly, there was quite a bit of imitation of Greek architectural motifs, including the carved decoration of interior columns within a tomb.
Touring Cerveteri only made me want to visit the other well-known Etruscan site, Tarquinia.
But first, the town near Cerveteri...hosts a museum, of course.
En route from our parked car, we chanced upon a procession involving a local holy icon, leading to what appeared to be a small festival.
We entered the museum, and saw a lot of objects that had come from that necropolis.
This is piece of archaic (an older phase) Greek pottery. Etruscans loved Greek everything. They were enthusiastic collectors of Greek pottery, and also made pottery that closely resembles that of ancient Greece.
Lots of hybrid creatures and beasties.
Games were a feature of everyday life. So here are some dice.
Cinerary urns featured the deceased reclining on the 'kline' or couch, as if they were at a banquet.
The banquet featured heavily in tomb art for the Etruscans. They would have seen this activity featured in Greek art.
Etruscan mythology closely resembled Greek mythology, in terms of named deities. The Greek Apollo was 'Apulu.'
Two weeks later, we made it to Tarquinia, where the Etruscan tombs are entirely subterranean and painted in vibrant colors. (Apologies for the quality of these photos, as they were all taken against plexiglass that seals up these tombs and keeps their paint colors as fresh as possible).
Speaking of banquets....
There is a LOT of partying in the afterlife.
Musicians, dancers, revelers...
Perhaps you don't need a door, but you can have one painted.
Athletes, too.
And where would they have seen leopards, who are shown here cavorting above the musicians? Certainly not on the Italian peninsula. Again, their mining of metals prompted their activity in trade with peoples in foreign lands to the south and the east.
While the Etruscans did love all things Greek (which would have included exercising in heroic nudity), they were unique in their appreciation for women's roles in public life. Greek women stayed in the home, and were rarely seen or heard. Society did not endorse their public visibility.
But Etruscan women (shown here, with lighter skin tone to help differentiate their gender), enjoyed very public roles in their society. They kept their names, there were literate, and they socialized with their husbands.
The Greeks thought this was a scandalous scenario!
We could and do still ask why Etruscans were different in their attitudes towards women, but all I have found for justification is the equivalence drawn between wealth and relaxed social mores and greater enhancement of gender equality.
May we all be richer for this.
