e remains to inform us who the Veientine
warrior was who met his death in so tragic a manner, and who lay down
with his wife and dependants in this tomb, and took the last long
sleep without a thought of posterity or the conclusions they might
form regarding him. And the argument of hoary antiquity derived from
this speechless silence of the tomb is still further strengthened by
architectural evidence. The outer wall as seen from the inside is
built of rough uncemented blocks of the earliest polygonal
construction, such as we see in a few of the oldest Cyclopean cities
of Central Italy; and the doorway is formed by the gradual convergence
of stones laid in horizontal courses, instead of being arched by
regular wedges of stone held together. Now, as the perfect arch was
known and constructed in Etruria at a very early period, this
pseudo-vault, which indicates complete ignorance of the principle,
must belong to a very remote age indeed--to the period of the
Cyclopean gateways of Italy and Greece, whose origin is lost in the
mist of a far-off antiquity. There are two limits within which the
date of the tomb may probably be placed. While its style and
decorations are genuinely national and characteristic of the primitive
Etruscan tomb, there can be no doubt that several Egyptian features in
it, such as the sphinx and the lotus, and in some respects the
colouring and physiognomy of the human figures, indicate some
acquaintance with the land of the Nile. Now an inscription has been
found at Karnac which records that Egypt was invaded by a
confederation of Libyans, Etruscans, and other races, and was only
saved after a desperate struggle by the valour of Menephtah I. of the
Nineteenth Dynasty. The allied forces occupied the country for a time,
and took away with them when they departed large spoils, consisting
among other things of bronze knives and armour. This happened in the
fourteenth or fifteenth century before Christ. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that the civilisation of Egypt must at this period have
been spread by commerce or war among the Western nations, and produced
a powerful influence upon the Etruscans. The imitation of Egyptian
models is not so decided in this tomb as it is in the painted tombs of
Tarquinii and other Etruscan cities of later date; and this
circumstance would indicate that it was constructed at the very
commencement of the intercourse of Etruria with Egypt. If we take this
historic fact as