Sepulchral architecture as illustrated by the rock façades of Central Etruria

Abstract

The name Central Etruria is applied in this article to the region which is, roughly speaking, bounded by the river Mignone on the south, by the Ciminian Hills and the Plain of Viterbo on the east, by the Lake of Bolsena and the River Fiora on the north, and by the Roman Maremma on the west (fig. 1). Even now it is sparsely populated and covered with scrub; and the peculiar conformation of the ground has from the earliest times imposed on its scattered inhabitants special conditions of choice both for the position of their cities and for the type of their sepulchres.The present aspect of this vast region is very strange. It may be compared to the Roman Campagna, but to a Campagna the monotonous desolation of which is relieved by frequent ravines, carving the landscape into fantastic and romantic pictures.