A 2,500-year-old tomb with vibrant red wall paintings has been unearthed at the ancient Tarquinia necropolis in Italy, the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the province of Viterbo and for Southern Etruria announced on February 6.
Located about 45 miles northwest of Rome, the necropolis was started by the Etruscans, who lived in the region from the 8th to 3rd century BCE and had a great deal of influence on the ancient Greeks and Romans before being conquered and assimilated by the Romans.
At the ancient site in Tarquinia, about 6,500 tombs have been identified and classified, roughly 200 of them containing painted decorations. Even fewer contain figurative imagery on their walls.
Colorful wall paintings with a variety of scenes, including men and women dancing alongside a flautist, a woman next to two men, and a metal workshop were found in tomb number 6438. The paintings are even more notable, since the tomb was likely looted, as indicated by missing inscriptions, human remains, and grave goods.
“The inclusion of a unique scene of smithy in the painted decoration of one wall allows us to have a glimpse of the economic sources of the wealth of this family, which was evidently involved in metal management business,” Daniele Federico Maras, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Florence, who led the team of archaeologists that excavated the tomb, told Live Science.
Adding that music and dance scenes “have been interpreted by scholars as referring to the ceremonies occurring at the funeral of the members of the family.”
The tomb was found in 2022 and has since undergone excavation and examination. It sits below another tomb that has already collapsed. Analysis is still ongoing, however, as archaeologists plan to further examine the paintings with multispectral imaging technologies to determine which colors have been lost or faded.
