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X.—On the discovery of Sepulchral Remains at Veii and Præneste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

Last winter, while at Rome, some sketches in the album of Padre Garrucci, of the Collegio Romano, made me acquainted with the discovery of certain archaic tombs at Palestrina, the ancient Præneste, which appeared to me to be of a very remarkable class.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1867

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References

page 187 note a Dissertazioni Archeologiche, di R. Garrucci, p. 154. Roma, 1864.

page 189 note a See Simony, Die Alterthümer vom Hallstütter Salzberg. Vienna, 1851.

page 189 note b Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit, von Dr. L. Lindenschmit. Band ii. Heft i. pl. 5.

page 189 note c Archæologia, vol. XXXVI. pl. xxvii. Horæ Ferales, p. 233, pl. xxxiv.

page 189 note d Archæologia, vol. XXXVI. pl. xxvi. Horæ Ferales, pl. xxxiii.

page 190 note a Museums of Treves, Mayenoe, Berlin, Munich, and Berne. Lindenschmit, Alterthümer, Band i. Heft. 2, pl. 3; Heft. 4, pl. 3; Heft. 7, pl. 3; Heft. 9, pl. 9. Band ii. Heft. 2, pl. 1, 2.

page 190 note b Dissertazioni Aroheologiche, vol. i. p. 148. Roma, 1864.

page 190 note c Ib. pl. xii.

page 191 note a These tufo cists, or sarcophagi, are in themselves remarkable. They consist of rough blocks of tufo, coarsely chiselled, and measuring about nine palms in length, by six in width and depth. These were hollowed out to receive the body, and a covering, generally of one slab of the same stone, but sometimes of two pieces laid together, was placed over it. The few that occurred of peperino, being a finer material, were carefully squared and worked. Padre Garrucci is disposed to attribute these tombs to about the fifth century u. c.—W. M. W.

page 194 note a See Plate III. fig. 2 for an illustration of a balsamario taken from a very perfect example in the Barberini Collection.

page 197 note a Compare Iliad, xi. 633, for these bird forms.

page 197 note b Canina, Etruria Marittima, pl. lviii. fig. 1, 2.

page 197 note c Compare Herodotus, iv. c. 162.

page 199 note a An iron dagger was also found in the Regolini-Galassi tomb at Cervetri. Monumenti de Cære Antica, by Cav. L. Grifi, Roma, 1841, pl. v. fig. 3.

page 199 note b These small hemispherical objects are called pessuli by Braun (Bull. Inst. 1865, p. 217), and calculi, or latrunculi, by Minervini (Bull. Arch. Napol. 1853, p. 192, tav. viii. f. 5–6), who has published three of stone, and of different colours, found in a tomb at Cumæ.

page 200 note a Garrucci, Dissertaz. Arch. pl. xii.

page 200 note b II.

page 200 note c Compare the account given by Herodotus of similar Grecian works of a far later period, as the copper or bronze bowl—κρητῆρα χάλκɛον—sent by the Lacedæmonians to Crœsus. (Clio. 70.) He describes it as covered with a variety of figures on the outside—ζωδίων τɛ ἔξωθɛν. On such a vast surface engraving would be lost, so we may conceive the ornamentation was in embossed or repoussé work, as is the case with this Præneste vessel. Again, Herodotus describes the votive bowl of the Samians as fashioned like an Argolic bowl, with projecting griffin's heads around it—γρυπῶν κɛφαλαὶ πρόκροςςοι. (Melp. 152.) Now these may have been a number of the very same projecting handles (protomf) in some similar zoomorphic fashion. Compare the bowl in the Vatican Museum from the great Regolini-Galassi tomb at Cære, in Etruria Marittima, pl. 57. The Grecian taste in such forms is further exemplified in the mention of the house of Scylas, round which were griffins and sphinxes of white marble. (Melp. 79.)—W. M. W.

page 201 note a Canina, Etruria Marittima, pl. lviii. figs. 1 2.

page 202 note b It should be mentioned that the tomb at Cervetri contained merely this beautiful work of art, and three small terra-cotta figures of the most archaic form and workmanship. These represent females in a crouching form, and clad in an ample kind of cloak, chequered like a plaid. On the shoulders are brooches, resembling that before us in shape, but without the raised ornamental work. The Cervetri fibula, now in the possession of Sig. Castellani, is of electrum, rather than gold, coated over lead. This branch of the goldsmiths' art was well known to the Greeks. Compare Odyssey, vi. 232. A fibula of the same form is in the Blacas Collection, stated to have been found in the Campagna of Rome.—W. M. W.

page 204 note a Both these ivory carvings are fractured at either end, and would seem to have formed part of Some article of ornament or furniture, which was totally destroyed by the stones. A similar design occurs on the ornamentation of a bronze tripod of a later period, found in a tomb at Vulci (Etruria Maritt. pl. cxii. figs. 1, 6, 7). It would seem that the early design in ivory, possibly foreign, had become traditional in the country.—W. M. W.

page 205 note a Etruria Marittima, pl. liv. figs. 4, 5.

page 206 note a Canina, Etruria Marittima.