Emergency Repairs at an Etruscan Cemetery in Italy Uncover Carved Thrones, Painted Walls and a Nearly Intact Jar

Archaeologists called in to stabilize collapsing tombs at an Etruscan cemetery in Italy have uncovered carved stone thrones, red-painted walls and a nearly complete decorated jar. The work took place at Monte Abatone, a burial ground of the ancient city of Caere, in present-day Cerveteri, about 35 kilometers northwest of Rome. The Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for Southern Etruria (SABAP Etruria Meridionale) shared the finds, and Archaeology News Online Magazine reported them on 8 November 2026.

Why the team went in

This was not a planned excavation. Several tombs at Monte Abatone had become unstable, so archaeologists went in to study them, record them and make them safe. Crews cleared the entrances and removed soil and rubble from the burial rooms. The cemetery belongs to Caere, whose burial grounds are said to hold thousands of tombs.

The tombs are chambers cut into soft volcanic tufa. According to the report, each room looked different from the others.

Thrones, a vaulted ceiling and red walls

One chamber contains carved stone thrones and other furniture cut from the rock itself. Another keeps a good part of its original vaulted ceiling. A third has wide patches of red paint on its walls, which gives a sense of how these rooms looked when people used them. The photo at the top of this post shows that red paint at Monte Abatone.

A jar the looters missed

The team also found a large, nearly complete jar shaped like a stamnos, a type of storage vessel. Animals are cut into its surface, and some details carry red paint. It came from a tomb that thieves had looted in the past. The looters missed it, along with some other objects. The report says the team judged it an exceptional piece even before cleaning.

What is still unknown

The report gives no date for the finds and no measurements for the jar, the thrones or the chambers. It also does not say how many tombs the team stabilized. Researchers will work out the age and place of manufacture of the objects after conservation. No peer-reviewed publication has been cited, so the details above come from the superintendency’s announcement as relayed by the magazine.

Sources: SABAP Etruria Meridionale (via Archaeology News Online Magazine, 8 November 2026). Image: red paint on the walls of an Etruscan burial chamber at Monte Abatone. Credit: SABAP Etruria Meridionale.