Archaeologists carrying out emergency conservation work at an Etruscan necropolis in Italy have uncovered carved stone thrones, painted decoration and an almost intact decorated jar. The discoveries were made at Monte Abatone in Cerveteri, one of the principal burial grounds of the ancient city of Caere, about 35 kilometres northwest of Rome. The work was commissioned after several tombs at the site had collapsed and become unstable.

Teams from the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for Southern Etruria cleared blocked entrances and removed deposits that had accumulated inside the affected structures before documenting and conserving them. In the process they found a group of previously unrecorded burial chambers, each with distinct features. One retains a large part of its original vaulted ceiling, another has funerary furnishings including thrones carved directly into the living rock, and a third still shows traces of red paint on its walls.

The finest object to survive is a large stamnoid vessel, shaped like a Greek stamnos, engraved with animal figures and decorated in places with red paint. It escaped the attention of looters even though the investigation showed that all the tombs in the project had been plundered at some point in the past. The jar will be cleaned and restored before going on public display, and the authorities have not yet identified the animals in its decoration or given a precise date for the vessel.

Monte Abatone was part of the extensive funerary landscape surrounding Caere, one of the most important cities of Etruscan civilisation, and its burial grounds are said to hold thousands of tombs. The Superintendency announced the findings on 3 November, and the discoveries add fresh evidence of how funerary architecture was used to express identity and status in the burial landscape of the ancient city. The tombs have now been documented and secured against further damage.