Site · Italy
Tarquinia necropolis
Etruscan, Villanovan, 700–200 BCE
Tarquinia was one of the leading cities of Etruria and its painted chamber tombs, from the Tomb of the Bulls (about 540 BCE) to the Tomb of the Leopards and the Hellenistic Tomb of the Shields, are the largest surviving body of pre-Roman painting in the Mediterranean. The city on the neighbouring plateau was a Villanovan settlement from the ninth century BCE and fell under Rome in the third.
| Country | Italy |
|---|---|
| Dates | 700–200 BCE |
| Status | Archaeological Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site (Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, 2004) |
| Managed by | Parco Archeologico di Cerveteri e Tarquinia (Ministero della Cultura) |
| Access | The Monterozzi necropolis and the National Etruscan Museum in Palazzo Vitelleschi are open Tuesday to Sunday; about twenty painted tombs are viewed through glass doors. |
| Coordinates | 42.25, 11.771 (public site) |
What was found
Some 6,000 tombs are known on the Monterozzi ridge, of which about 200 are painted; excavations recovered bucchero, Greek painted vases, bronze mirrors, jewellery and the Villanovan biconical urns of the earlier cemetery, with the winged horses relief from the Ara della Regina temple in the museum.
Rules
Nothing may be collected; Italy's Code of Cultural Heritage (Legislative Decree 42/2004) makes archaeological finds state property and prohibits unauthorised excavation and export, and Italy has a CPIA agreement with the United States since 2001. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Tarquinia necropolis" (Site). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/sites/tarquinia-necropolis. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-tarquinia-necropolis,
title = {Tarquinia necropolis},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/sites/tarquinia-necropolis}},
year = {2026},
note = {Site article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.