Headless effigies of Ancient Etruscans recline on sarcophagus lids, now laid along a low Piazza wall in Tuscania, Lazio, Italy. Tuscania’s old town rises behind. Tuscania was formerly the Ancient Etruscan city of Tuscana. It lies about 80 km (50 miles) north-west of Rome.
Tuscania, Lazio, Italy: headless effigy reclining on a sarcophagus lid. On the low western wall of the Piazza Franco Basile, with the western part of Tuscania’s old town rising in the background. Tuscania was formerly the Ancient Etruscan city of Tuscana. It lies about 80 km (50 miles) north west of Rome. The effigy represents one of the inhabitants of Tuscana whose remains were laid to rest, from the 7th or 8th centuries BC onwards, in stone sarcophagi in vast necropoli or cemeteries in and around the settlement. From the late-1800s, many of these effigies, sculpted on the lids of their tomb chests, were re-used as distinctive urban furniture and public art in the streets of this picturesque small town. Today, many more priceless artefacts discovered in the necropoli are also displayed in the town’s museum, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Tuscania, housed in the cloisters of a former Franciscan convent attached to the church of Santa Maria del Riposo.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Piazza Franco Basile, Tuscania, Lazio, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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