Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia

The Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia are two major burial sites in Lazio, Italy, containing extensive Etruscan tombs and funerary monuments dating from the early first millennium BCE. The necropolises provide key evidence for Etruscan funerary architecture, painting and social organisation.

At Cerveteri visitors encounter the Banditaccia necropolis with its tumulus graves and chamber tombs laid out in streets and blocks, while Tarquinia is famed for multiple rock-cut tombs with painted walls depicting banquets, processions and mythological scenes. The tomb ensembles are large-scale and spread across cemetery landscapes that can be explored on foot.

The necropolises were used across many centuries during the height of Etruscan civilisation; construction of monumental tombs and the production of funerary painting and grave goods reflect the social status of families and city-states between the first millennium BCE and the Roman incorporation of the region.

Both necropolises lie northwest of Rome in the Lazio region, on the coastal plain and rolling hills between Rome and the Tyrrhenian Sea, within a roughly 50 to 80 km band from the capital.

• Museum collections: Many important Etruscan objects from Cerveteri and Tarquinia are displayed in museums, including Rome's Villa Giulia, which houses finds and contextual material from the necropolises.
• Painted tombs: Tarquinia's painted tombs contain some of the best-preserved examples of Etruscan wall painting, with imagery dating predominantly to the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.

What to See #

• Banditaccia Necropolis (Cerveteri): The Banditaccia necropolis at Cerveteri, an expansive burial ground of tumulus and chamber tombs carved and built from the 9th century BCE onward that illustrate Etruscan funerary architecture.
• Tarquinia painted tombs: The painted funerary chambers of Tarquinia, containing wall paintings depicting banquets, mythological scenes and funerary rites dating mainly to the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.
• Funerary monuments and tomb complexes: Funerary monuments and excavated tomb complexes that together demonstrate regional variations in Etruscan burial practice and social organisation.