BY THE ARCHAEOLOGIST EDITOR GROUP

A painted chamber tomb with a travertine block structure and a double-sloping roof has been discovered in a recently developed urban area of Pontecagnano (Salerno, Italy), where more than 10,000 burials dating between the Iron Age and the Imperial Roman period have already been discovered.

The find was announced by Salerno and Avellino's Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio, which considers it to be "of great value."

A narrow travertine bench has a steep stairway built into it that leads to the grave. In harmony with the other ornamental elements, a scene showing the return of the warrior is painted on the back wall. Festoons and pomegranates are painted on the side walls. The tomb's entrance, which is similarly decorated, stands out.

The Superintendency notes that although the person buried in the tomb had no burial goods, some of its gold foil crown's remnants have survived. The only method of dating used at the moment is iconographic comparisons, which place the deceased among the Italic elites of the late 4th century BC.

T. 10043, the number given to the recently discovered tomb, is one of a relatively limited number of painted graves out of more than ten thousand total tombs.

There are actually only four, and one of them was discovered in the same location and is now housed in the National Archaeological Museum "The Etruscans of the Border" in Pontecagnano, where objects from the ancient Etruscan-Campanian site close to the city are gathered.