tomb 3697
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Overview
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Overview
Tomb 3697 (Tomba 3697, "grave 3697") is a painted Etruscan chamber tomb in the Monterozzi necropolis near Tarquinia, in Italy. It was discovered in 1960 and dates from about 400 BC.
The tomb is a small chamber with a low bench running around its walls. Its paintings are not well preserved.
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Article
tomb 3697
It was once painted over its whole surface, but damp has caused the plaster to come away from the walls in many places.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
The chamber is small and has a low bench along all its sides. It was once painted over its whole surface, but damp has caused the plaster to come away from the walls in many places. Only the back wall still carries traces of decoration, in the form of the remains of a banquet scene.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb lies in the Monterozzi necropolis at Tarquinia, a burial ground that is known for its painted chamber tombs. The tomb is classed as a chambered cairn.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
Rock-cut and chambered tombs of many periods are found in Italy. In Sardinia, for example, the domus de janas (Sardinian for "houses of the fairies", or alternatively "houses of witches") are pre-Nuragic rock-cut chamber tombs with several chambers quarried out in a layout that resembles a house. The names are folklore, since later people imagined the small carved rooms as dwellings of fairies or witches. They were built mostly between 3400 and 2700 BCE, long before the Etruscan painted tombs of Tarquinia, and belong to a different culture.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Domus de janas of Sardinia
Domus de janas, Sardinian for "houses of the fairies" or, alternatively, "houses of witches", are a type of pre-Nuragic rock-cut chamber tomb found in Sardinia. The names are folklore: later people imagined the small carved rooms as dwellings of fairies or witches. In fact they are tombs, with several chambers quarried out by the people of the San Ciriaco through Ozieri cultures and later groups, in a layout that resembles a house.
They were built mostly between 3400 and 2700 BCE, and so date to the Late Neolithic, the Chalcolithic and the early Bronze Age, including the Bell Beaker period. At Anghelu Ruju near Alghero a necropolis of them has 38 tombs. Other large sites are Montessu near Villaperuccio and Sant'Andrea Priu at Bonorva. Many more are found throughout the island, with the exception of Gallura, where the dead were usually buried in megalithic circles such as those of Li Muri.
The internal chambers vary in shape, from that of a rounded hut with a conical or triangular ceiling. The walls are often decorated with reliefs or etchings of spirals, zig-zags and bull's horns, and some neolithic murals are arguably the oldest known examples of egg tempera painting. Carved or painted false doors appear in about 20 tombs, mostly in the north-west, among them some at Anghelu Ruju, which are datable to between about 3200 and 1600 BCE; the earliest predate false doors in Egyptian tombs.
The Atlas sometimes files these tombs as chambered cairns, but they are the same Sardinian type, and this article applies to them.
When visiting, look for carving on the ceilings and walls, and note that tombs were reused over many centuries.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Domus de janas, Wikipedia: Nuragic civilization, Wikipedia: Nuraghe · CC BY-SA 4.0
Where it stands
Italy
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 42°15′03″ N, 11°46′09″ EFor a GPS or map app: 42.25084, 11.76914
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Chambered cairnTomba 1999
Tomb of Orcus
Tomb of the Augurs- Hypogeum (rock-cut)Tomba Lattanzi, Norchia
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Cima tumulus
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Le Pestarole
- Hypogeum (rock-cut)Grotta di Riello
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Tumulus of Montetosto
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q117818729wikidata.org
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tomba 3697" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Tomba 3697CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q117818729CC0