The Etruscan city of Cerveteri was located not very far from the coast, up on a volcanic hill, isolated by two rivers. It was the most important centre of the Southern Etruria among the VII and VI centuries B.C., becoming the nerve centre of the commercial traffics, the artistic and cultural performances, and also opened to merchants and foreign artists.
Nowadays the notoriety of Cerveteri is linked to the great monumental necropolis of the Banditaccia (which is a place affiliated to the UNESCO and Heritage of Humanity) showing all its extraordinary importance with its testimonial funeral architecture, inserted in a context that transforms it into a real "city of dead".
The tombs were dug or built within blocks of volcanic rock and its interior resembled real houses presenting a corridor with different rooms on both sides, leading into other spaces containing two or more rooms. We also find funeral beds dug into the rock, similar to a convex nest for women, and others containing a low cushion shape for men. Others look like thrones or simple benches.
Mound sepulchres characterize the ceretanian necropolis: formed by a great round base with modelled frames holding a heap of ground, whilst in their inside there are two or more tombs dug.
The excavations brought to the light innumerable bits and pieces related to their funeral rituals mainly constituted by ceramics, ornaments together with small sculptures in terracotta, urns and sarcophaguses. Unfortunately, there are few evidences concerning to funeral paints.
Cerveteri - Banditaccia's Etruscan necropolis
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