- Marjatta Nielsen –
THE INGHIRAMI TOMB AND THE ATISAn exception to this disappointing situation is the so-called Inghirami tomb, discovered
by the brothers Iacopo and Lodovico Inghirami in the Ulimeto necropolis just outside
Volterra in 1861.^13 They took pride in keeping everything in its proper place to show
to visitors. Now the relief scenes of the chests were at the centre of scholarly interest,
and a list was written of their place in the tomb. Yet, the many fragments and arbitrary
combinations of lids and chests make one suspect a more chaotic situation at the discovery.
In spite of the high artistic standards of the ash-chests, the inscriptions are few. These
tell us, however, that the family in question was called Ati. As a family name it is only
known from this tomb, but it is homonymous with the Etruscan word for “mother,” ati.
However, from the Volterran acropolis there are some dedicatory inscriptions to Papa
(grandfather) and Atia[l] (“Mother’s) – obviously ancestral deities who were venerated
there.^14 It is tempting to guess that the Atis claimed a connection with the city’s mother
goddess.
From the Inghirami tomb there are no Latin inscriptions, although a number of lids
are from the late period when Latin was written in Volterra. In Latin the name would
have taken the form Atius/Attius. Persons with that name were known since the second
century bc and onwards, especially in the Volscian area and at Rome, but not in Etruria.
The most prominent members were Caesar’s wife and Augustus’ mother. We cannot be
sure of any connection, since names of quite different origins may have resulted in the
same form in Latin.
The original placing of the chests was maintained when the tomb was reconstructed
in the garden of the Archaeological Museum in Florence in 1899–1902. There are some
discrepancies as to the lids and fragments, but yet the tomb is still the one that gives the
best impression of the whole (Fig. 9.2). The underground space is roughly hewn in the
rock, but the reclining lid fi gures turn the room into a banquet hall for an eternal family
feast. However, the space is not square, as a house, but rounded, with a large bench for the
Figure 9.2 The Inghirami Tomb, from Volterra, reconstructed in the garden of the Archaeological
Museum in Florence. (Photo Scala).