Archaeologists opened a 2,600-year-old Etruscan tomb and found something surprising: four intact corpses
Imagine moving a huge slab of stone and discovering that time stopped behind it 2,600 years ago: an intact Etruscan burial chamber, just as they left it when they sealed it. The scene seems straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, but no: it happened in Lazio, about 70 kilometers northwest of Rome and behind is the archeology team It was that of the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project, Baylor University in Texas and the Italian authorities. The discovery. The tomb is located in the necropolis of San Giuliano in the Marturanum park and what is truly striking is not that it is Etruscan, but that it is the only one in the area that has not been looted. In a region historically plagued by looters, finding a virgin funerary context is simply a statistical anomaly. The unboxing of the grave goods. In the tomb were the remains of four individuals arranged in carved stone funerary beds and their preliminary analysis suggests that the buried people could be two couples. In addition, there is an entire funerary inventory that, due to its richness and variety, suggests individuals of high social status, although anthropological and isotopic analyzes have not yet confirmed their rank. Thus, more than 100 funerary objects appeared almost intact, with an exceptional state of conservation: 74 ceramic vessels, iron weapons, bronze objects, silver hair reels or a bronze fibula still with remains of tissue attached. Of all these pieces, the discovery of a vase located at the entrance to the tombwhich was possibly part of the funerary rite prior to sealing. Why is it important. Beyond the state of conservation, Dr. Bárbara Barbaro, director of archeology at the Soprintendenza, synthesized in a statement: “it gives us a complete vision of life through the prism of the funerary ritual”, something practically impossible from a looted tomb. A kind of time capsule through which to learn about the life, death and funeral rituals of the time. Thus, based on the skeletons, the scientific team can analyze through DNA tests the link between individuals, the remains of tissues and objects help to understand habits and fashions of the time and, in addition, San Giuliano is a clear example of how the Etruscans transformed a rocky landscape into monumental architecture. Context. It is a sealed cave chamber tomb dated to the end of the 7th century BC, in the final phase of the Orientalizing periodone of the most flourishing phases of the Etruscan civilization. Since 2016, the research team has documented There were more than 600 Etruscan tombs in the area, but all the previous ones had been looted. In fact, the rest was plundered since the Roman occupation in the 3rd century BC. On an architectural level, these tombs have been carved directly into the rockin the shape of a small house with a gable roof, a characteristic design of Etruscan funerary architecture. Pending subjects. The field investigation has already concluded, but remains pending the essential to understand everything: the study and analysis of archaeological data. Thus, the genetic and isotopic analyzes of the bone remains will be decisive in knowing the origin, diet and family ties between the buried people. The trousseau found could also shed light on the patterns of production and circulation of objects in Etruria at the time, as well as on the fine chronology of funerary habits and customs. In Xataka | Solving the mysterious origin of the Etruscans: what we know about the people with the most unknowns in Europe In Xataka | A cargo sunk in a Swiss lake 2,000 years ago confirms it: the Roman legions did not deprive themselves of anything Cover | Tomba dei Rilievi, Alessandro Antonelli
