CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

WORSHIPING WITH THE DEAD:

NEW APPROACHES TO THE

ETRUSCAN NECROPOLIS

Stephan Steingräber

INTRODUCTION^1

I

n spite of many excavations, discoveries and research into Etruscan urban areas and
sanctuaries in recent decades, the thousands of necropoleis and tombs in Etruria
still remain our main sources of information about Etruscan culture, art, life and
religion and, of course, particularly burial customs, funeral rites and specifi c aspects
of the Etruscan Afterlife. They often refl ect historical, economic and social changes
too. Without any doubt the Etruscans – more than any other population or culture

• invested a great deal of fi nancial resources and architectural, technical and artistic
  know-how in their cemeteries and tombs, which means, in some way, an investment in
  the Afterlife. Unfortunately we are still missing a complete “handbook” on Etruscan
  tombs and tomb architecture, and many Etruscan necropoleis and tombs – specifi cally
  those of Cerveteri – are not really thoroughly published. Of course, there are different
  kinds of approaches to this extremely complex and interesting topic – more technical-
  architectural, more art historical, more religious, more social, etc. In this modest
  contribution I can touch only briefl y on the most important aspects and, via a quite
  rich and extended bibliography, hope to stimulate further interest and research on
  Etruscan necropoleis and tombs.

HISTORY OF DISCOVERIES AND RESEARCH

The fi rst discoveries of important Etruscan tombs and tomb monuments and resulting
research go back to the Renaissance. In 1507, the huge Tumulo of Montecalvario near
Castellina in Chianti with its four chamber tombs of the late Orientalizing period was
discovered and functioned perhaps as a model for the design of a tomb monument
by Leonardo da Vinci. Particularly rich in discoveries were the second halves of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But even now every year new tombs come to light
in many parts of Etruria both through regular excavations and by the activities of tomb
robbers and casual fi nds. The general and overview publications we owe mostly to non-
Italian archaeologists such as F. Prayon (1975) and J. P. Oleson (1982), but neither of