Etruscan Dancers

Etruscan Dancers

The Etruscan civilization flourished in Central Italy from the 8th to 3rd century BC and one of their greatest legacies is the underground painted tombs found in many of most important towns as Tarquinia, Cerveteri and Volterra.
This civilization was crushed, absorbed and eliminated almost without traces by the conquering Romans and these paintings are a glimpse to the lost world of the Etruscans.
The weren’t seen by anyone except at the burial ceremony and the paintings on the walls, often vivid coloured, show that these people believed in an after-life, comforting and helping the deceased on their journey to that new and unknown world.
They frequently capture scenes connected on the joy of living as banquets with musicians and dancers.
The English writer and poet D.H.Lawrence wrote in “ Etruscan Places” :
“ It must have been a wonderful world,that old world where everything appeared alive and shining in the dusk of contact with all things,not merely as an isolated individual thing played upon by daylight…”.
The cosmic vitality.