The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Marjatta Nielsen –

Figure 9.1 The Tomb of the Velimna/Volumnius family, Perugia. Late third century bc.

S. J. Ainsley’s drawing from 1843, The British Museum, Department of Prints and

Drawings, cat. LB 62. [From Haynes 2000, 380.]

material, we can see a clear break after these disasters. The pompous reconstruction of
Augusta Perusia would then attract newcomers, and perhaps even descendants of the old
families, such as the Volumnii.

ACCEPTANCE OF COGNATIC KIN

The next step in widening the circle of persons admitted to Etruscan family tombs was
that also married daughters were accepted, in spite of the fact that they ought to be
buried in their husband’s family tomb. Perhaps a daughter had returned to her own
family as a widow or even a divorcee. There may also have been changes in the very notion
of marriage: as in Rome more or less at the same time, the wife began to maintain close
links with her family of origin (matrimonium sine manu).
Especially in the countryside in Northern Etruria we meet even wider acceptance of
cognatic kin in otherwise agnatic tombs: not only a married daughter but also her sons,
even husband or his nearest kin may have been buried in her family tomb. This may have
been the result of almost systematic marriage alliances between certain families in the
rural areas, so “his or her kin” were almost the same; further, the husband’s family tomb
may have been fully occupied.

THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE FAMILY TOMBS

In the Chiusine area the development went even further. When the back chamber of
fi ne, old family tombs was fi lled up with magnifi cent chests or sarcophagi, smaller side
chambers and several one-person niches, loculi, could be added along the long corridor
leading down to the tomb. Such niches often contained small-sized terracotta chests, still
decorated with reliefs and reclining lid fi gures, but these were not modeled individually,
but cast in moulds, and they are counted in the thousands. An even cheaper alternative
was a bell-shaped clay urn. Also small-sized, simple travertine chests were very numerous.