On a cold and windy day

So it seems that this week was "Etruscan Week" here at the Centro. Don't worry if you don't know anything about the Etruscans, because though scholars like to say they do, they really don't. So in all honesty, they're kind of a mystery. We can't even read their language besides names- not very exciting. They are important though, because while they weren't Roman predecessors, they did have quite a big impact on Roman culture.

I won't get into that though, because I'm sure my fanatic readers are not clamoring for Etruscan history. On the contrary, I know all they want to see are pictures. Well, I can oblige somewhat...

Happy? This is the sign that directed our lovely bus driver, Fabio (yes FABIO), where to park our gigantic tour bus.

I have to add that I was astounded that the bus didn't just tip over. The place where we were was pretty much straight hill. I suppose the engineering behind tour buses is greatly under-appreciated. But I digress...

Our field visit was to the city of Tarquinia and Cerveteri, which are both to the north in Tuscany. (Also, Grandpa, I WAS right, Rome is pretty much in the middle of Italy, Florence is a few hours to the north). My very first project in archaeology was a pitch presentation on Tarquinia. We had to pick a site and then explain why we wanted to excavate it, how it would be funded, who our staff would be, and all that good stuff. It felt almost full circle for me to visit the place where it kinda all began for me!

Tarquinia is the first place we visited. It's really well-known for it's painted tombs which lie underneath the ground. The place was so reminiscent of the Shire from Lord of the Rings! Rolling green hills, little hut things that denoted where you could walk down the stairs to a tomb, and just an air of a place that had been kind of forgotten. I would have loved it even more if it hadn't been so damn windy! I read somewhere the other day that wind makes people feel like they're getting yelled at for something they didn't do. Totally agree.

Anyway...I don't have any shots of the tombs (unfortunately) because they're

kept behind glass in a climate-controlled environment for preservation (hooray!). I tried to take some, but the glare from the flash was too much and I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. To see the tomb, you basically walk into the hut thing and down the narrow stairs...

The Shire (?)

Tomb Entrance

When you get to the bottom, there's a door with a window. You press the button to the right of the door, which turns the light on in the tomb so you can see it. Pretty ingenious, or at least I thought so. As for the tomb paintings, they weren't so much impressive because of their skill as because they're REALLY old (6th century BCE). You can google it to see some good pictures, but basically it consists of a chamber cut from rock below the surface. On the elaborately painted tombs the wall is carved very smooth so the paint goes on better. Reds, browns, and "earthy" colors are quite common because the were cheap to make. Greens and blues are indicators of wealth because they require a chemical reaction with copper (which is not that common).

The tomb paintings are pretty varied in theme, but there is a lot of banqueting and feasting (I mean, why not, that's what I'd want to be doing in the afterlife). Our assignment for the day was to pick a partner and go investigate some tombs, all while considering basic questions like: how does the person reflect their social status? why are certain elements emphasized? what other cultural influences are there? Then we had to pick a tomb and detail each wall and then come to some conclusions about the person/family that it belonged too. The tomb my partner and I picked was a chamber tomb, meaning that it wasn't just one room; there were some stairs leading down from the main place, and another off room of the main one. It was interesting because it was probably carved in an earlier era when chamber tombs were fashionable, and then painted when it was expanded for more family members.

Fun, I know.

The next stop was Cerveteri, or Caere, as it was known in ancient times. This is where the day got reallllyy fun.

I guess we did end up finding the Shire after all! If the Shire was kind of creepy and muddy, that is. Cerveteri is known for its enormous necropolis that is also Etruscan. Obviously here the tombs are raised and not underground. The fashion here was to not only rooms, but to carve "beds" in the rooms as well. There are also some tombs that are underground and carved out like the ones above ground, but it seems that this was the fashion that came and went.

The rock is pretty awful though, in terms of carving and making things. It's tufa, which is cruddy volcanic rock that crumbles pretty easily, so it can't hold detail that well in sculpture. I have to say though, the crappiness of the rock doesn't dim how incredible it is that these structures were carved more than 2,000 years ago. Anyway, the cool thing about this place is that you pretty much have free rein to climb on anything or enter whatever you want (though I would advise against going into the lower tombs, since they're flooded and gross). As a group of classics majors, you can imagine that visions of Indiana Jones immediately flooded our heads..

Usually the tombs have three rooms, two smaller ones of to either side of the entrance and then a large room in the middle (family tombs, most likely). There are the beds I was talking about, where the person would be placed with various things beside them, quality and quantity being based on their wealth and status. Of course, the people and the goods are no longer there today, but I have to say there is something a little unnerving about walking into somebody's tomb. ESPECIALLY when you decide to lay on the bed for a photo op.

It was weird. Just to lay on someone's deathbed (literally) and look at the ceiling, which they actually never saw, and then to think about that and the person who the bed belonged to, all while hoping that the person taking the picture will hurry up so you can get up...what a roller coaster. But it had to be done, right?

You can't tell from the pictures, but the place is a maze, even a multi layered maze because in some parts you have to climb stairs to get into the tombs. Since everything looks the same, it's really easy to get turned around. That's all we needed, to get lost in a literal city of the dead. Luckily, it's not that big, so after a few dead ends and turnarounds, we made it out, very muddy thanks to the rain, but at least we weren't stuck in the mud in the tombs.

It was a really long day, but definitely one of my favorites so far. The Etruscans are pretty much all overlooked thanks to the Romans, but their culture was pretty interesting. Also, they really liked fat. Being fat, looking fat...the Romans used to make fun of them because of it. Guess they liked the wine too much! Though the Romans aren't really one to talk...