Words or names in Old Italic, the Etruscan language and script, cut into a lintel over the entrance to a burial chamber at the Crocifisso del Tufo, the northern necropolis of the ancient Etruscan city of Velzna or Velusna at Orvieto, Umbria, Italy. Etruscan citizens were interred here from the 8th century to the 3rd century BC. The Crocifisso del Tufo was discovered and excavated more than 2,000 years later, in the 19th century.
Orvieto, Umbria, Italy: the Crocifisso del Tufo, excavated remains of the northern necropolis of the ancient Etruscan city of Velzna or Velusna, features burial chambers with the names of tomb owners or heads of families in Old Italic, the Etruscan language and script, cut into the lintels over their entrances. Old Italic is among several now-extinct alphabet systems used in ancient times on the Italian peninsular for both Indo-European languages and non-Indo-European languages such as ancient Etruscan. They derive from a Greek alphabet used at Ischia and Cumae in the Bay of Naples in the 8th century BC. The earliest Etruscan example is a tablet dating from about 700 BC. At Orvieto, citizens of Velzna or Velusna were interred in their northern necropolis from the 8th century to the 3rd century BC. The Crocifisso del Tufo was discovered and excavated more than 2,000 years later, during the 19th century.
Size: 4288px × 2848px
Location: Northern Etruscan necropolis, Orvieto, Umbria, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1800s, 19th, alphabet, ancient, archaeology, bc, bce, burial, carved, cemetery, century, characters, citizens, city, crocifisso, cut, , dead, death, del, discovered, entrance, etruria, etrurian, etruscan, excavated, extinct, family, graveyard, ground, incised, inscribed, inscription, interment, interred, italian, italic, italy, kerr, language, letters, lintel, necropolis, northern, orvieto, pre-roman, rock, script, terence, tomb, tufa, tuff, tufo, umbria, umbrian, velusna, velzna, writing, written
