Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/320

 288 ETRUSCAN ARCHITECTURE Part I. 172. Section of a Tomb at C»re. !No scale. though none are found in Italy at all equal to those of Greece in dimensions or beauty of construction. Woodcut No. 173 is a perspective view of the principal chamber in the Keo-ulini Galeassi tomb, showing the position of the furniture found in it when first opened, consisting of biers or bedsteads, shields, arrows and vessels of various sorts. A number of vases are hung in a cui-ious recess in the roof, the form of which would be inexplicable but for the utensils found in it. With this clue to its meaning we can scarcely doubt that it rejjresents a place for hanging such vessels in the houses of the living. All the treasures found in this tomb are in the oldest style of Etruscan art, and are so similar to the bronzes and ornaments brought l)y Layard from Assyria as to lead to the l^elief that they had a common origin. The tomb with its contents probably dates from the 9th or 10th cen- tury before the Christian era. The largest tomb hither- to discovered in Etruria is now known as the Cocii- mella, in the necropolis at Vulci. It is rather more than 240 ft. in diameter, and originally could not have been less than 115 or 120 ft. in height, though now it only rises to 50 ft. Near its centre are the remains of two solid tow- ers, one circular, the other square, neither of them actually central, nor are they placed in such a way tliat we can imderstand how they can have formed a part of any symmetrical design. A plan and a view of the present appearance of this monument are given in Woodcuts 174 and 175. This tnmulus, with its principal remaining features thus standing on one si«le of the centre, may possibly assist us to understand the curious descri])tion found in Pliny' of the tomb of Porsenna. This 173. A'icw (jt priiicipal Ohaiiiber in the Keguliui Galle- assi Tomb. » riin. "Hist." xxxvi. lo.