Via dei Sepolcri
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Via dei Sepolcri

Leaving the village, we go back in time again, to the 7th century BC, the golden age for Etruscan culture and Vetulonia. By following the directions along the “Via dei Sepolcri”, we discover the monumental tombs of the largest Etruscan families of Vatluna, princes’ lines from the Orientalising Age (7th century BC) that left memories of their power in these huge family tombs. The route starts at the Tomba del Belvedere and ends with the Tomba della Fibula d’oro, along a dirt track that is a pleasure to walk along. Don't miss a visit to the most imposing of the tombs, Tomba della Pietrera and the Diavolino II, with their long entrance corridor (dromos) and large stone chambers that welcomed the dead and their wealthy trousseau, including gold jewellery and Greek urns. A pillar stood in the centre of the chamber, silently guarding the bodies and supporting the roof, which in both tombs is made of a surprising, innovative false stone vault (tholos).

The Pietrera tomb, whose name comes from its use for centuries as a stone quarry by the local peasants, was constructed in the second half of the 7th century BC and was completely rebuilt after collapsing, over the ruins of the previous one, at the end of the same century. In addition to the funeral trousseaux (found in the Florence National Archaeological Museum) inside the chambers and the dromos, fragments of eight stone statues were recovered, all portraying males and females, perhaps the deceased’s ancestors, in the funeral lament. Together with a few other findings in Etruria, these are the largest example of large-scaled Etruscan statues from the Orientalising Era (Florence National Archaeological Museum). 

The Tomba del Diavolino II (the nearby Tomba del Diavolino I fu was dismantled at the end of the nineteenth century and rebuilt in the garden of the Florence National Archaeological Museum) was built at the same time as that of the Pietrera (7th century BC), also destined to welcome the dead of an aristocratic family, interred and laid out on beds inside the chambers with turned, shaped stone legs, of which some examples have been found.  The funeral chamber roof, of which only the bottom part remains, has been integrated during restoration, to provide visitors with the perception of the original spaces, light and atmosphere; the central pillar, of which only the stone base remains, has also been reconstructed .