Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/318

 286 ETRUSCAN AUCHITECTURE. Tart I. Tumuli. The simplest, and therefore perhaps the earliest, monument which can be erected over the graves of the dead, by a people who rever- ence their departed relatives, is a mound of earth or a cairn of stones, and such seems to have been the form adopted by the Turanian or Tartar races of mankind from the earliest days to the present hour. It is scarcely necessary to remark how universal such monuments were among the ruder tribes of Northern Europe, The Etruscans improved upon this by surrounding the base with ^ jyodiuin., or supjiorting wall of masonry. This not only defined its limits and gave it dignity, but enabled entrances to be made in it, and otherwise converted it from a mere hillock into a monumental structure. It is usually sui)posed that this basement was an invariable part of all Etruscan tumuli, and when it is not found it is assumed that it has been removed, or that it is buried in the rubbish of the mound. No doubt such a stone basement may easily have been removed by the peasantry, or buried, but it is by no means clear that this Avas invariably the case. It seems that the enclosure was frequently a circle of stones or monu mental steles, in the centre of which the tumulus stood. The monu- ments have hitherto been so carelessly examined and restored, that it is difficult to arrive at anything like certainty with regard to the details of their structure. Nor can we draw any certain conclusion from a comparison with other tumuli of cognate races. The description by Herodotus of the tomb of Alyattes at Sardis (Woodcut No. 113), those described by Pausanias as existing in the Peloponnesus, and the appearance of those at Myceme and Orchomenos, might be inter- preted either way; but those at Smyrna (Woodcut No. Ill), and a great number at least of those in Etruria, have a structural circle of stone as a supporting base to the mound. These tumuli are found existing in immense numbers in every necropolis of the Etruscans. A large space was generally set apart for the purpose outside the walls of all their great cities. In these cemeteries the tumuli are arranged in rows, like houses in streets. Even now we can count them by hundreds, and in the neighborhood of the largest cities — at Vulci, for instance — almost by thousands. Most of them are now worn down by the effect of time to nearly the level of the ground, though some of the larger ones still retain an imposing appearance. Nearly all have been rifled at some early period, though the treasures still discovered almost daily in some places show how vast their extent Avas, and how much even now remains to be done before this vast mine of antiquity can be said to be exhausted. One of the most remarkable among those that have been opened in modern times is at Cervetere, the ancient Caere, known as the Regulini Galeassi tomb, from the names of its discoverers.