These two large Etruscan cemeteries reflect different types of burial practices from the 9th to the 1st century BC, and bear witness to the achievements of Etruscan culture, which over nine centuries developed the earliest urban civilization in the northern Mediterranean. Some of the tombs are monumental, cut in rock and topped by impressive tumuli (burial mounds). Many feature carvings on their walls, others have wall paintings of outstanding quality.

The necropolis near Cerveteri, known as Banditaccia, contains thousands of tombs organized in a city-like plan, with streets, small squares and neighbourhoods. The site contains very different types of tombs: trenches cut in rock; tumuli; and some, also carved in rock, in the shape of huts or houses with a wealth of structural details.  The Banditaccia necropolis, among the largest in antiquity, reproduces the ‘city of the living’. Because there is little surviving written information on the Etruscans, this site provides exceptional testimony of Etruscan domestic architecture from archaic times to the Hellenic period.

The necropolis of Tarquinia, also known as Monterozzi, contains 6,000 graves cut in the rock. It is famous for its 200 painted tombs, the earliest of which date from the 7th century BC. It is one of the most extensive complexes known. These paintings provide the only major testimony of classic artwork of pre-Roman times existing in the Mediterranean basin.

Together, the Etruscan cemeteries at Cerveteri and Tarquinia offer the sole important attestation of this population that created the first urban culture in the western Mediterranean, surviving for around 700 years, from the eighth to the first century BCE in central Italy, extending from northern Latium to Tuscany.

The necropolises have been known for centuries. Michelangelo visited Tarquinia during the Renaissance and a related sketch is held in Florence’s Buonarroti Archives.

Click here to watch a video about the necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia.

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