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{107} Section III. To Marzabotto, Misanello, And Misano. Beyond
Casalecchio the Florence road follows the left of the valley, passing through
well cultivated lands, where even wheel ploughs are seen, and amongst villas
which must be charming in the summer heats. A total of 1 hour 15 minutes' sharp
driving places us at the Borgo del Sasso, a substantial village, with the size
of a hamlet and the houses of a city. Near it is the Cà di Bassi, in the Predio
Cornelli, where six tombs were unearthed. One of them contained the skeleton,
with bronze vases, a clay tazza,
dice, and pebbles (counters?); the other five showed remnants of the pyre,
bronze engraved FIBVLAE, with burnt‑red pots,
on some of which were graffiti,
whilst the SIGLI, or makers' marks, were very
clear. This is known from its owner as the Cornelli find; and in the precipitous face of the
rockwall on the right are several caves: the entrances {108} are of that converging form by which the
Egyptians effected an economy of lintel; and, if they have not been dug, the
sooner it is done the better. Beyond
the Borgo we debouch upon the confluence of the Setta from the southeast with
the Reno from the southwest. The picturesque view of sulphur‑blue water,
in broad, glaring white beds overhung by high banks; of gashed ravine and of
shaggy foothill backed by the true Apennines, is justly admired, even in the
land of rock, ruin,
and ravine. Nor
less singular is the road at this pass, a blending of the highway and the
railway. A deep cutting in the sandstone rock leaves a slice standing as a gardefou upon the tall river cliff; and, under
the off or right side, pedionomitic, quasitroglodytic, abodes, cut, like those of Ariano
(Capitanata), in the molassa,
line the bottom of the scarp. This bend much resembles the place where the
French line from Beyrut to Damascus overlooks the picturesque Wady Hammanah.
Thence we run up and down the left side of the Reno, where the road is built on
arches against inundations, and, after 1 hour 30 minutes ‑‑ which
will stretch to two or three if you ride in a one horse voiture de placc ‑‑ we reach the
little station and village of Marzabotto. It is usually placed at {109} 27 kilometres from Bologna: Dennis
(I, 35, Cities
And Cemeteries and the rest) says fourteen English miles; but I hardly
think that we travelled at the rate of three leagues an hour. Here we find a
decent osteria; and we enjoy all the
civility and cordiality, the good cooking, and the comfortable ingleside, combined with the moderate
charges which characterise such places in the byways of Italy. The
bran‑new Villa, with its single tall tower on the hill overlooking
Marzabotto, belongs to the Aria family, now Counts of the Italian kingdom. The
site has been known to Etruscologists for some years. As early as 1831 a number
of bronze statuettes and other important objects attracted the attention of
Micali (Monument.
Inediti, page
115, plate XVIII). In 1850, again, other antiquities came to light, but they
were readily dispersed. About 1862 systematic research was begun by the father
of the present owner, the late Cav. Pompeo Aria, who died in May, 1874 at the
fine age of eighty five. It is a thousand pities that he had not more sentiment
of archaeology than to build up the old stones in his new house; and that he
did not employ more competent investigators than the rude men who superintended
the works. On the other hand he was fortunate in {110} persuading Count Gozzadini to overlook
part of the excavations; and he wisely printed and published at his own expense
two illustrated brochures by his learned friend. These are entitled Di una antica Necropoli in
Marzabotto and
the rest (20 figures, 1865), and Di ulteriori scoperte and the rest (17 figures, 1870). The two large quartos (Fava e
Garagnani), followed by Renseignements sur une ancienne Nécropole à Marzabotto, 1871 ‑‑ a
brochure for the use of the Anthropological Congress ‑‑ have been
noticed by a host of foreign writers. The Villa contains on the first floor a
fine collection, of which the earlier discoveries are noticed by Count
Gozzadini (page 17, Di
alcuni Sepolcri
and the rest, and pages 9‑17 of the Renseignements); and the townhouse has, we are told,
another. Unfortunately, when Count Aria goes to Rome he takes his keys with
him, and, perhaps, the less a stranger sees of the fattore, fatto rè, Giacomo Benni, a lewd fellow of the baser sort, the better for the temper
of both parties. The
site of this Etruscan city, whose name, unless embalmed in the modern Misanello
and Misano, has utterly perished, requires careful study. Count Gozzadini's
plan is old, and it wants a profile and section of the ground; but there is
nothing better to offer, {111} nor will there be until Cav. Zannoni has
published his valuable volume. A, Misanello. B, The Campuccelliera Tombs. C, Morello Tombs. D, High Street And Road. E, E, Prolongation Of The Ancient City Now
Washed Away By The Reno. M, Misano. x, Cross Street To The East. y, Cross Street To The West. Here
the swift and brawling Reno, flowing from the southwest, forms a loop, with the
long diameter facing to the southeast, and then bends to the north and
northeast. At the most important point it hugs the left bank, a perpendicular
of friable materials, at least 80 feet high; and thus it flows around {112} three sides of the wedge shaped
projection, which measures 700 yards in length by 350 of average breadth. This
area, of 245,000 square yards (= 50∙62 acres), has two distinct levels;
the upper, which sup ports Misanello, is the oldest part of the river site,
backed by the hills forming its bank. The lower (Misano) is a flat ledge, the
raised side of the present river. We
begin by visiting Misanello. Passing through the cour d' honneur and the southern gate of the Villa
Aria, we walk a few yards along a broad gravelled walk, dividing the garden, to
a newly built pillar; and we regret to see that these modern enrichments almost equal in number the old remains.
It records the names of Aria and Gozzadini, with the date MDCCCLX; and it bears on one side UMRUS ‑‑ probably a family name,
which some have hastily connected with the Umbrians ‑‑ and on the
other AKIUS. Both are in Etruscan
characters; they were found upon fragments of tiles, and a third inscription
was yielded by a FIBVLA. Beyond it begin the ruins,
and here we at once enter upon debated ground. Count Gozzadini, followed by
Professor Count J. Conestabile and others, sees a necropolis; the Abbé' G.
Chierici and Cav. Zannoni {113} detect the abodes of the living, not of
the dead. The foundations of the dry walls are water‑rolled pebbles,
varying from 1∙40 metre (=4 feet 7 inches) to two metres in thickness.
Upon these is laid the OPVS QVADRATVM, of dimensions considerably smaller, and seldom exceeding two
courses. The coarse calcareomarly stone ‑‑ according to the guide,
an intelligent gardener ‑‑ is still quarried in the Virgata Valley,
some five or six miles upstream, and we shall find that it is nearly the only
material used. The proprietor is entitled to our gratitude for the precaution
of defending the old walls from Apennine weather by loose tiles; which can
readily be removed on gala days. The numerous waterpipes, tubes hollowed in
cubes of stone, an industry still extending from Trieste to Recoaro, suggest,
as in Palmyra, the utilisation of rain. And now we come upon what appears to be
distinctly the foundation, a house with a COMPLVVIVM and a central cistern. I offer the
following rude sketch, made upon the spot. The central well is fed by pipes,
and the CAVAEDIVM, the patio (Arabic bathah) of modern Iberia, is surrounded by a
corridor, upon which the rooms and bed chambers opened. We can restore the
frontage of the Etruscan house with the aid of a basso‑rilievo {114} in the Museum of Florence. It shows two
figures, the one sitting, the other standing, backed by a doorway and two
flanking windows, the latter of double a, Main Entrance To ATRIVM. b, 5 Steps To CAVAEDIVM Platform. c, The CAVAEDIVM, 15 Feet Square. d, The Cistern (IMPLVVIVM). e‑l, The Rooms. lights, and provided, like the Egyptian,
with a square headed and overhanging lintel, or rather capping of stone: this
feature may be compared with the rod moulded door in Dennis
(I, 233); his sketch, however, has panels recessed one within the other,
perhaps suggesting the idea of a perspective. Of our Etruscan house at Misanello Count
Gozzadini writes (Renseignements, page 8): Un de ces puits s' élève sur l'
ancienne surface de la nécropole par un rectangle de quatre mètres 36' de large (= 14 feet 3∙65
inches), et de 1
mètre 20' (= 3
feet 11 inches) de
haut, bâti en grosses pierres et en moellons à sec. {115} Il y a des degrés (five can still be counted) pour y monter, comme dans les
tombeaux de Castel d' Asso dans l' Étrurie moyenne, peut‑être pour aller
célébrer sur le défunt des silicernes annuels. With this conclusion we simply join
issue. The
wells ‑‑ which, with the two at the Certosa, [footnote 1: in the Certosa
wells the bodies, as has been said, were burnt] number twenty seven ‑‑ have
again given rise to a long debate. We will begin by dividing them into Round bottomed Well. two kinds, the round bottomed, and the
pointed like the AMPHORA. The average depth varies
from 2∙10 metres (= 6 feet 10∙68 inches) to 10∙25 metres {116} (= 33 feet 7∙54 inches). The most
remarkable is seen in section upon the lower or Misano level, cut by the modern
Pistoja road, which took the place of the highway on an upper gradient. It is
well preserved; still fed by drainage, and said to be 16 metres (= 52 feet 5∙92
inches) deep: no corpses were found in it. The orifice varies from 30
centimetres Sharp Bottomed Well. (= 11∙81 inches) to 77, and even
80 (= 30∙31 to 31∙50 inches), abolishing the theory which makes the
mouth too narrow to admit a human being, and suggesting, consequently, that the
walls had been built up around the remains. In all cases there {117} is a revetment of mortarless pebbles,
allowing percolation, whilst the bottom is sunk, to prevent loss, into the
impermeable clay which we remarked at Casalecchio. These
so called puits
funéraires, which would be a unique feature
of Etruria, [footnote 1: this was
asserted by Professor Conestabile at the Congress, but it is by no means the
case, as will presently appear] were found to contain bronze vases and rings, ceramic tablets ‑‑
one inscribed with a single name ‑‑ pottery, and painted urns, with
several strata of bones, chiefly of sheep and goats, pigs and dogs. According
to Professor Count J. Conestabile (Congrès, page 257), but upon what authority I know not, from one to three human bodies
were found in them, sometimes in the raised and doubled position, as shown by
certain tombs of the Stone Age. They were surrounded by pebbles, which also
underlay the head, probably for protection; whilst in the lower part and under
the skeleton there was generally a large urn. Similar constructions have been found
in Savoy and in Transalpine Gaul, especially at Troussepoil, Beaugency, Villeneuve‑le‑Roi,
Triguères, and Gourge. According to M. Quicherat this custom began, not during
Gallic autonomy, but only after the Roman {118} conquest. In Middle Etruria, Dennis (I, 121) at first believed
them to be silos, the sili of Sicily, and the ΣΕΙΡΟΙ or ΣΙΡΟΙ of the Cappadocian and
Thracian Greeks, but he presently had not the smallest doubt of their sepulchral character. I
find it easier to believe either that a similar form was superstitiously used
for the sepulchre and for secular purposes, or that these were simply cisterns
and silos proper, into which skeletons
and other articles have been thrown, perhaps during the sack of the settlement.
If Misanello be a village they cannot be funerary; and, at any rate, the way in
which they are scattered over the lower level (Misano) instead of being
aligned, like all other Etruscan sepulchres, along the main roads, is a strong
argument in disfavour of the sepulchral theory which is now generally waxing
obsolete. We
presently reach a feature even more interesting. Count Gozzadini tells us (Renseignements, page 8): Une tombe, bien plus remarquable
et bien plus grandiose, mesure 10 mètres de longueur sur chaque côté, sans
compter un avant‑corps avec dégrés (five also here visible), lesquels auront servi au même
usage que ceux du puits funéraire, c' est à dire à monter pour célébrer les
silicernes annuels. Il ne reste de cette {119} tombe que le soubassement de tuf, OPERE
QVADRATO, de 1 metre 19' (= 46∙85 inches) de haut, de style Toscane sévère, bien
sculpté, et correspondant à celui de semblables monuments sépulcraux de l'
Étrurie moyenne, et notamment de Vulci, de Caere, de Alsio, et de Tarquinii, qui
cependant en diffèrent par ce qu'ils sont circulaires. [Footnote 1: The italics are
mine.] But
the latter is an essential difference. At first sight I recognised a temple, an
AEDICVLA IN ANTIS, and I was pleased to find
that the same idea had occurred to Cav. Zannoni and to the Abbé G. Chierici. We
cannot forget that a modern author, whose Etruscan vagaries will be alluded to
in a future page, absolutely asserts [footnote 2: what can we make of parallel passages like
these? ‑‑
Nor can I see by what right Mr. Isaac
Taylor declares (page 326) that the FANVM VOLTVMNAE was not a temple. Its identification with the cemetery
of Castel d' Asso or Castellaccio has been questioned by Dennis (I, 239), who shows some
reasons for preferring Viterbo (I, 196) and its church of Santa Maria in
Volturna] the
nonexistence of Etruscan temples, despite the FANVM VOLTVMNAE of {120} Livy (IV, 23, and others), where the
deputies of the Federation met, and the express statement of Servius (at The Aeneid, I, 422) that every city of
Etruria, GENETRIX
ET MATER SVPERSTITIONIS, had its threefold temple ‑‑ outside, not inside,
the walls ‑‑ lodging the Triad, Jove, Juno, and Minerva, whence the
triple shrine of the Roman Capitol (Dennis,
I, 520). The
most careful excavations in this platform failed to produce any trace of human
remains. The following is Cav. Zannoni's rough restoration of this highly
interesting building. The direction of the long walls is from north to south;
and the steps show the entrance. The podium supported four monoliths, truncated
columns, of which some were found with socket holes, probably to hold wooden
pillars. Vitruvius (IV, 7) represents the epistylia to have been wooden; hence
the broader intercolumnations than in the Greek orders, and hence, probably,
the reason why none of the temples are standing. We have remarked that the
system is not yet wholly obsolete at modern Bologna: a house in the Via
Maggiore, close to the two great Leaning Towers, still preserves the old Etruscanism;
but this survival is about to be improved off. {121} The posts supported architrave and
cornice; there was, probably, a tympanum with central light, possibly with
sculptured figures; and a Temple Of Misanello Restored. Profile Of The Base Still Existing. Height Of Base 3 Feet 10∙85 Inches. sloping roof is denoted by the find of
many large tiles and ANTEFIXAE. These civilised ornaments, hiding the ends of the joint tiles,
number 110, {122} suggesting that they were also equally
applied to sacred and profane buildings, sepulchres, or houses. Some are plain;
others are encaustic with human heads in demirelief; and a few are decorated
with graceful palmlets raised and coloured. Prolonging
our walk for a few yards with an easterly bend where the ancient riverbank
slopes to a lower level, we find another modern building inscribed Sorgente Etrusco, from a relic which has been
unwisely removed. Beyond it a bran‑new obelisk ‑‑ single, as usual, for greater disgrace ‑‑
bears the name of Prince Humbert, President of the fifth Anthropological
Congress, and the date of his visit (October 5, 1871). The base shows at the
four angles as many archaic rams' heads, with the profiled eye drawn, after the
Egyptian fashion, as if fronting the spectator. [Footnote 1: My venerable friend
Professor Owen (Journal
Of The Anthropological Institute, page 244, volume IV, number 1, April‑July, 1874)
explains the elongate,
deeply fringed, almond shaped eye aperture of the Egyptian Middle Empire by the
effects of solar glare and sandy khamsín
contracting the winker muscle (ORBICVLARIS PALPEBRARVM). The strong action of this muscle, whose fixed point of
attachment is to the inner side of the orbit rim, a little below its equator,
would draw the line of the eyelids obliquely downwards and inwards. Hence, in
artistic work, the slight exaggeration of the rim of the outer and the dip of
the inner canthus. The law once passed in so hieratic a country would become
unalterable for all time, and it would naturally extend from the human eye to
all eyes.] They
are copied from a colonnette {123} in the Aria collection; and the local
theory is qu' ils
semblent se rapporter au culte de Amon‑ra. Beyond
the obelisk lies the original Etruscan aqueduct of Misanello, said to have been
found 30 metres (?) below the surface. There is a central reservoir of hollowed
stone, and three cut conduits sufficed, as the fourth would have led uphill:
moreover, in the latter direction there is a perennial pond, which may date
from Etruscan days. All are large parallelopipedons of squared tufa. Upon the
slopes headstone shaped boards, marked and numbered, show where the sarcophagi
were exhumed. The graveyard is thus sharply demarked from the town, which lay
upon a higher level. The general aspect at once suggests that Misanello is the ARX or acropolis, probably an older
foundation than Misano. It has its temple, its aqueduct, and its necropolis ‑‑
in fact, all the requisites of its social life. During
the visit of the Congress three tombs, opened for the first time, yielded the
skeletons of a woman, around whose armbone ran a bracelet, and that of a man
armed with a sword. Concerning the general collection we will speak afterwards;
here, however, was made the discovery of the admirable group and the amphora‑bearing
negro preserved in {124} the Aria Museum. The Warrior God, armed
with a casque, whose front suggests the horns of Moses, [footnote 1: 1 Dennis (II, 105) notices a warrior
figure, more than a foot high, whose helmet has a straight cockade on each side, almost like
asses' ears] is offered a ritual PATERA, possibly for libations, by the DIVA POTENS CYPRI, whose raiment, after the old Italic
fashion, decently and decorously descends to her feet. [Footnote 2: Similarly the discoveries
in Cyprus by General di Cesnola and Mr. Lang are remarkable for the modesty and
even respectability of the statuary and the
reliefs, where the reverse might have been expected.] This group is 15 centimetres (= some 6 {125} inches) high, and its evident imitation
and adaptation of Greek art renders it most valuable. The negro is also no mean
work. Professor Count J. Conestabile declares that in it l' imitation du vrai
est absolument obtenue d' une manière magistrale. Near
an ignoble pond rises a tall bronze group of Mars and Venus, a modern
enlargement of that found in the sarcophagus. There are also sundry modern antiquities
scattered about the ground; and a third pool, supplied by a spring from above,
here concludes the VISITANDA. Descending to the plane of
the present bank we reach the second lakelet, an artificial water a few yards
in diameter, also fed from the upper heights. A central pile of old stones
forms a cavern, which can be approached by
a boat or by a bridge with wooden rails, painted to resemble bamboo ‑‑
the whole in most approved cockney style. Here are the sarcophagi {126} removed from Misanello. They are upon
the surface, not sunk in it, as was the invariable custom ‑‑ this
is, perhaps, a necessary evil, in order to display them without the necessity
of digging out a large area of ground. But the tombs have been disposed pellmell,
without any regard for orientation, and, worse still, the pieces have been put
together in the wildest way. Thus the columns belonging to other buildings have
been planted where the pent shaped lid of the sarcophagus positively forbade
such ornamentation. As might have been expected, many a casual visitor has
carried away the impression that we have here the origin of our truncated
columns placed upon gravestones, and thus the Congres (page 225) actually sketches l' ancienne nécropole de
Marzabotto on
the borders of the lake. The effect is something of this kind, and it forcibly
suggests Père La Chaise, with its gravelled walks and trim hedges. Of
the spheroids and lenticular masses I shall speak in another place ‑‑
they at least belong to the
tombs. We
now leave the handsome eastern gates of the park, and proceed southeastward to
the farm {127} buildings of Misano (FVNDVS MISSANVS or MISANVS). Thence the path, bending southwards,
spans vineyards and wheatfields, which were ankle deep in mud after the rainy
morning of the Anthropological visit. Here are three of the old pebble built rain
cisterns, two to the east and one to the west. We
are, doubtless, treading over the burial place of the old city, and the whole podere should be bought by the State and
thoroughly explored. Cav. Zannoni would restore the form as above. It occupied
the isthmus formed by the Reno ‑‑ a site which {128} the Etruscans seem always to have chosen
when possible. The shape was probably polyangular, not square; but the
interior, we shall see, preserves the ritualistic form, oriented towards the
cardinal points. The general style of single arched gateway may be restored
after this fashion, as three The Gateway Restored. layers of bossed stones have been found IN SITV. Bossed And Draughted Stones. The cuneiform system was apparently well
known, and we may believe that the early Romans borrowed it, like the paved
road, from the Etruscans. The {129} flat cuneiform arch (Dennis,
I, 201) is essentially eastern. I found it in the ruined cities of the Haurán,
and traced it through Diocletian's Palace (Spalato), to the Castle of Kirkwall.
The official city had, doubtless, large suburbs extending all around it. A
glance upstream discloses a noble Apennine view, but we forget it in sorrow for
the ravages of the Reno, which is still in the habit of shifting its thalweg. By prolonging the chief lines of
intersecting street and road, we see that a large and important section of the
southern and western enceinte,
possibly half the city, has been eaten away and engulfed in the wild torrent.
The latter, of course, has sunk many yards below the level of the Etruscan
days. The
first remains to the west are pebble foundations of square and oriented cells,
which have provoked abundant discussion. Count Gozzadini (Congrès, page 278), gallantly owning that he
will be glad to find himself in error, denies that they can be huts (casupoli), for a variety of reasons, which, in
my humble opinion, do not appear convincing. He objects to the small size of
some cells, not exceeding 1∙75 metre (= 68∙90 inches) in length, by
1∙50 metre {130} (= 59∙05 inches); but how many a
Hindú hut, Buddhist Vihára (monastery), and the lodgings in Sepoys' Lines are not larger. And again, why should
not the smaller divisions have been compartments? The depth of the foundation,
a few centimetres below the pebble pavement, would not bear stable house walls;
but again, why should these not have been partitions (INTERCAPEDINES)? Three arguments are drawn from the
presence of funerary
wells, but this
use of the silo is not proven. Pieces of
pottery, like those taken from sepulchres, were found both in the cells and in
the wells; but may they not also have been IMBRICES for roofs and other purposes? Finally,
there were no passages from cell to cell. I believe that they have since been
discovered: moreover, the walls are mostly rased to their bases, and would not
show the threshold which, some two feet high, is still preserved in the
abominable town called Bonny (West Africa). Professor
Conestabile hesitates about delivering a definitive opinion. On the other hand,
the Abbé G. Chierici offers the serious objection that in excavations opened to
the extent of 100 square metres, the broken bones of animals appeared in
abundance, whilst those of human beings were utterly or, {131} some say, comparatively, absent. The
remaining objects: a long iron sword [footnote 1: this blade, which is much longer than the
usual bronze weapon, and lacks a crosspiece, together with the iron lance head,
large and willow leaf shaped, were deposited in the Aria Museum, and excited
some discussion. M. Desor refers to the lances which Diodorus Siculus placed in
the hands of the Gauls, and like M. de Mortillet, compares both weapons with
those which had been found at La Tène, on the battlefield of Tiefenau, and
other places. Professor Conestabile replies that similar swords have been
exhumed in central Etruria. Presently a sufficient collection of facts will
enable us to determine how far Etruscan art, original or imitated, may have extended
north of the Alps]
and scabbard, votive arms and legs, idols, an AES RVDE, bronze and iron fragments, tiles and
pottery, broken urns, bits of coloured glass, worked stones and bones, might
have belonged to a settlement of the living as well as to a city of the dead.
The tubes for conducting water, and the little clay windows admitting light
into the roof, denote huts, not tombs: again, the situation as regards the High Street, from north to south, would
suggest that this space was included within the walls. The Abbé notices the
remarkable likeness of the pebble foundations with the prehistoric, bronze
aged, tcrramare, or pile villages of Reggio,
Modem, and other parts of Italy. [Footnote 2: They are described in the Congrès (pages 171‑180). Older writers
held them to be Ustrina, as if the dead were burned
in water. According to the Abbé G. Chierici, the six terramare of Reggio, especially Sanpolo, the
typical specimen which yielded articles of iron, had square and oriented
constructions of pebbles and also funerary wells; they overlie the more ancient, bronze aged pile villages. He
adds an illustration of Castellarano (Congrès, page 285). In Italy the terramara or mariera is considered the third stage of the
protohistoric habitation, preceded by the cavern, and the palafitta, or pile village proper.] Remarking that under the {131} pavement of Etruscan Misano a second
stratum appears at the depth of 0∙70 metre (= 2 feet 4∙59 inches),
and supports passages and houses with walls of clay, still bearing the tubular
impressions of rushes, and wanting the bricks, the tiles, and the pottery so
common in the more civilised successor, he would detect a still older
settlement; in fact, the first colony of settled Etruscans who established
themselves on the champ
rase before
walled villages were invented. From
the pebble cells, a few paces to the east lead us across a hollow; it was
intended as a cutting for the railway, which now runs in the Galleria di
Misano, a tunnel below. Here we find a truly magnificent remnant of the High Street, trending from north to
south, and probably meeting its eastern and western intersector in the space
beneath which the Reno at present rolls. Seeing this fragment, we can easily
understand that the Romans borrowed their paved roads, like their monuments,
from the Etruscans. These were the PLATEAE, CARDINALIS, and {133} DECVMANA, which divided the city into quarters
and regions, and which led to the PORTAE DECVMANAE, where the 10th Cohorts camped. A length of 300 (380?)
metres has been opened, but of this only some 120 feet remain for inspection.
The breadth of the thoroughfare is 14 metres, and the largest slabs, which are
mixed with pebbles, exceed a square yard. The pavement shows no ruts, as if the
BIGA were confined to the outside
of the enceinte ‑‑ still the
rule in many Dalmatian cities. The broad central line is flanked by CREPIDINES, pathways on either side,
the conveniences so common in Roman High Streets; and suggesting, as at Salona and Damascus, triple gateways to
the north and south; perhaps to the east and west. The deep flank drains have
orifices to gather the rainwater; and the middle is scientifically bombé. The two bands of large, square,
detached blocks which, disposed at regular intervals, run across the road, and
determine the trottoirs, are usually explained as
the CIPPI used for mounting horses
when stirrups were unknown; and others remark that the spaces allowed the
passage of carriage wheels ‑‑ where no ruts are to be found. I
would look upon them as the SVCCEDANEA for bridges in muddy weather, {134} resembling on a grand scale those of
ancient Pompeii, and the modern cities of the nearer east. The same kind of unbuilded, unarched bridges are still remarked by
visitors to Albanian Skodra. From
this noble PLATEA
CARDINALIS, or Grande Rue, a single line of secondary
thoroughfare sets off at a right angle to the west; only a few feet now remain
unburied. The fragment is ten feet broad, and in the middle appears a flag
covered conduit, [footnote
1: I cannot be quite sure of this feature] like those now existing in all the
older Venetoistrian towns, Muggia and Capodistria, for instance. The modern
fashion came from the Sea Cybele, and it extended south as far as Albania. The eastern cross
street, of the same dimensions as the High Street (14 metres), which led south
to the Morello tombs, and which, prolonged, would intersect the main line in
the Reno bed, has been reinterred. I am not aware that any of the VICI, or smaller thoroughfares, have yet
been uncovered. And
here I would utterly reject the theory of Count Gozzadini (Renseignements, page 7): Ce ne pourraient être non plus les
rues d' une ville trèsantique, les deux grandes espaces, ou avenues, de 14 mètres
de largeur, qui semblent couper la nécropole {135} dans la direction des points cardinaux; car
on ne peut pas supposer qu' une ville, aussi ancienne que celle‑ci, eût
des rues aussi spacieuses et aussi bien alignées. De telles avenues seraient au
contraire fort propres à faire des grandes divisions dans la nécropole, et à y
donner accès; comme cela a lieu dans les champs cimetèriaux actuels. The state of the arts at Misano
disproves this conclusion. From
the High Street, a hundred yards to the north with easting, leads to the
cemetery of Misano, which lying, of course, outside, defined the limits of the enceinte. Excavations are continued, but economy
sometimes reduces the number of hands to two. The sarcophagi are placed upon
the surface, so as to be in sight, and we can only hope that they will remain IN SITV. This Misano cemetery, as it is now
called, shows a great variety of shapes and sizes; single and double, large
square and small square, long broad and long narrow. The lids fit into rims
sunk in the border of the caisson; they are pent shaped, with a shallow
elevation; none of them have columns, while spheres and disks of sandstone,
some of very large size, are everywhere exhumed. At
the end of the visit we descended the path {136} down the stiff earth cliff to the
northeast, and followed the leat
taken from the Reno on the southeast of the buried city. This Canale del Molino formerly turned the wheel of
a dwarf powder manufactory; the latter has been closed after sundry explosions,
some of which lodged human arms and legs upon the poplar trees of the adjacent
avenue. Close below the belvedere of the Aria farm houses, other monuments
(Campuccelliera) have been found, proving that the line of sepulchres was
prolonged to the northeast; and although the now sunken Reno is separated from
the tall bank by an alluvial flat, over which the railroad runs, we can see by
the water lines, by the erosion, and by the dilapidation of the tombs, that the
stream once swung near, and that even here there has been a considerable amount
of destruction. |
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Etruscan Bologna, A Study Part I. The Works Of Man.
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