A Family of Tuscania

In the rich Etruscan country north of Rome, archaeologists and grave robbers bitterly compete in the search for ancient tombs. But sometimes the grave robber unwittingly becomes the archaeologist's ally. Such a case came to light last week when Rome's Villa Giulia, Italy's main museum of Etruscan artifacts, told the story behind some superb statues it had put on display.

The statues were from a family tomb located near the town of Tuscania. One day last May, a farmer, wandering over the hills outside Tuscania, noticed a hole on top of one of the hills revealing a tomb that was unknown until some robbers broke into it. The robbers had evidently left disappointed: there was no loose gold or small art objects that could be sold to tourists. The farmer told the police, who notified authorities in Rome, who in turn notified the Villa Giulia. Next day two archaeologists climbed the hill, squeezed through the narrow hole that the robbers had dug, emerged minutes later bursting with excitement. Scattered about inside lay 18 terra cotta figures, each representing a member of a family that had been buried there probably between 200 and 100 B.C. They formed the largest cache of Etruscan funerary statues ever found in such good condition at one time.

The head of the clan was apparently an elderly farmer or trader; his sculpted face is creased with wrinkles, his lips slightly parted as if he were about to speak. A smirking, sharp-nosed woman may have been the farmer's wife, but whatever her identity, she had an extravagant taste for finery. She wears two sculpted necklaces, bracelets on both arms, large round earrings, rings on both index fingers, another on the fourth finger of the left hand, and a second thick band on the left index finger just above the first joint. All the other figures are of young men and women, whose funerary statues may have been made years before their deaths.

Some of the young people are delicate and handsome; others, done by less gifted artists, are flat and static. The most unusual figure is of a youth lying on his back. The lines of this statue are softer and more classical than those of the others, but all the statues give new evidence of the closeness of Etruscan to Roman art. Says Professor Mario Moretti, regent of the Villa Giulia: "It's very hard to say at this point where Etruscan art ends and Roman Republican art begins."

The buried family certainly hewed to Etruscan tradition. Their statues show them dozing or talking or sitting-exactly as they might have been caught in life. And in nearly all the figures, one leg is carefully crossed under the other. It was a poignant bid for immortality, this ancient superstition. For the Etruscans believed that since in life the feet are in motion and are therefore often visible only one at a time, to show both feet at once was to suggest death, final and eternal.

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