om Dennis.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Section of the Tomb of the Seats and Shields,
Cervetri. (From Dennis.)]

Rocktombs of Etruria.

The rock-hewn tombs of Etruria scarcely come under the category of
catacombs, in the usual sense, being rather independent family
burial-places, grouped together in a necropolis. They are, however, far
too remarkable to be altogether passed over. These sepulchres are
usually hollowed out of the face of low cliffs on the side of a hill.
They often rise tier above tier, and are sometimes all on the same level
"facing each other as in streets, and branching off laterally into
smaller lanes or alleys"; and occasionally forming "a spacious square or
piazza surrounded by tombs instead of houses" (Dennis, _Cities and
Cemeteries of Etruria_, ii. 31). The construction of the tombs commonly
keeps up the same analogy between the cities of the living and those of
the dead. Their plan is for the most part that of a house, with a door
of entrance and passage leading into a central chamber or _atrium_, with
others of smaller size opening from it, each having a stone-hewn bench
or _triclinium_ on three of its sides, on which the dead, frequently a
pair of corpses side by side, were laid as if at a banquet. These
benches are often hewn in the form of couches with pillows at one end,
and the legs carved in relief. The ceilings have the representation of
beams and rafters cut in the rock. In some instances arm-chairs, carved
out of the living rock, stand between the doors of the chambers, and the
walls above are decorated with the semblance of suspended shields. The
walls are often covered with paintings in a very simple archaic style,
in red and black. As a typical example of the Etruscan tombs we give the
plan and section (figs. 23, 24) of the _Grotta detta Sedia_ at Cervetri
from Dennis (pp. 32, 35). The tombs in some instances form subterranean
groups more analogous to the general idea of a catacomb. Of this nature
is the very remarkable cemetery at Poggio Gaiella, near Chiusi, the
ancient Clusium, of a portion of the principal storey of which the
woodcut (fig. 25) is a plan. The most remarkable of these sepulchral
chambers is a large circular hall about 25 ft. in diameter, supported by
a huge cylindrical pillar hewn from the rock. Opening out of this and
the other chambers, and connecting them together, are a series of low
winding passages or _cuniculi_, just large enough for a man to creep
thr