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Princely mounds -
The “Doganaccia” necropolis
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Written by Administrator
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Saturday, 13 March 2010 17:07 |
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The first of the two big princely tombs of the "Doganaccia" was explored in 1928. The "King's" mound, with the diameter of over 35 meters long, incorporates a single burial chamber and a wide entrance. At the end of the excavations a heavy restoration was carried out to consolidate and rebuild the funerary architecture, with the added parts highlighted (brick and cement integrations).
 The base of the building was dug into the rock and was originally covered with limestone blocks: of these, only one is preserved in front of the tomb's entrance. The mound contains a single rectangular burial chamber. The room is half-built, partially excavated in the rock and partially put up in blocks of stone. The vault shows an ogival profile, saving a gap at the top closed by stone slabs. This opening is typical of the princely tombs in Tarquinia. The chamber is preceded by a large rectangular hall ("piazzaletto"), delimited by solid walls, left in view and therefore practicable with the tomb closed, intended to accommodate ceremonies and representations. At the "Doganaccia" we are facing significant funerary buildings, raised under the influence of architectural experiences coming from Cyprus: Eastern workers create for the Tarquinian aristocracy an original funerary model, bended however to local requirements. The tomb entrance is facing west/north-west where, according to the Etruscan religion, the underworld gods lived in a sacred heaven. Outside the entrance, the old excavations have revealed a tunnel for the drainage of rainwater. The burial equipment recovered during the excavations, already plundered and ravaged by illegal diggers, does not allow to evaluate the effective richness of the tomb. Among the finds stands out an inscription painted on the bottom of a wine vessel bearing the name of an Greek-Etruscan (Rutile Hipucrates), an element that refers to the period of Demarato of Corinth, a wealthy Greek merchant that moved to Tarquinia in the mid-7th century BC. Married to a local noblewoman, Tanaquilla, Demarato was considered the father of the king of Rome, Tarquinio Prisco. The discovery of the inscription, and the memory in the ancient sources of the contemporary figure of Demarato, are a testimony of the extraordinary openness towards foreign people in the metropolis of Tarquinia. The impressiveness of the funerary monument and the richness of the tomb equipments suggest that the "King's" mound contained an important aristocratic burial, to be identified within a powerful family who held important charges in the 7th century BC Tarquinia.
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Last Updated on Friday, 01 October 2010 21:22 |