Scientific Tomb-Robbing

In the scrubby, rolling country northwest of Rome lies rich archaeological pay dirt, but the worthwhile pockets are as hard to hit as producing oil wells. Some of the underground tombs left by the Etruscans who lived there 2,500 years, ago still contain priceless art treasures, while others, robbed centuries ago, are not worth the trouble and expense. When a modern, authorized graverobber (archaeologist) finds a tomb and digs laboriously into it, he often finds only dust and broken crockery. Last week Amateur Archaeologist Carlo Lerici was proving that modern scientific techniques can take the gamble and much of the secret out of Etruscan tomb-hunting.

Green & White. Handsome, grey-haired Carlo Lerici, who says "grave-robbing is the second oldest profession in the world," is an engineer whose family owns a steel mill in Milan. When he became interested in Etruscan tombs, one of his first steps was to get copies of a photographic air survey that Britain's Royal Air Force made of southern Etruria during World War II. Studied carefully, the photos often show hundreds of shadowy circles. These are Etruscan tombs, which affect slightly the fertility of the soil and therefore the darkness of the chlorophyll in green plants growing on the surface. When air photos are taken after a light snowfall, the tombs often show up as snowy patches surrounded by dark ground where the snow has melted.

Guided by the air photos to a tomb area near Cerveteri (the ancient Etruscan Caere), Lerici trotted out another scientific trick. From the ground the tombs are invisible, but he found that sensitive photometers could detect the slight differences of color between grass growing over a tomb and ordinary grass.

Look, Then Dig. Next step was to drive metal stakes in the ground about 15 ft. apart, send a weak electric current between them, and measure in this way the electrical resistance of the soil. Since the air space of a tomb raises the resistance and the filled-in earth at its entrance lowers the resistance, a few readings often tell the diggers exactly where to dig.

Such scientific gear still does not answer the No. 1 question: Is there anything in the tomb? So Lerici pulls another technical trick. With a gasoline-powered drill he drills a 3-in. hole through the earth and the roof of the tomb and inserts an aluminum tube. Inside the tube is a 16-mm. camera with an electronic flash. Starting at compass north and looking all around, it takes twelve or more pictures of the tomb's interior, showing whether it has been looted or whether it still contains articles worth digging for.

So far, Lerici's new techniques have located 60 tombs, twelve of which were opened. They contained about 100 museum-worthy objects, including jars of a whitish powder believed to be 2,500-year-old flour. Most interesting find was a decorated vase, probably imported from Greece in the 7th century B.C. In the next three months Lerici intends to photograph the interiors of 300 more tombs and hopes to find at least 1,000 more museum pieces.

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