The Golini Tombs are two 4th-century BC, Etruscan tombs discovered close to the hamlet of Porano (also described as Poggio Roccolo near Settecamini), near Orvieto, Italy.Heurgon, J. (1974) "Un Legatus à Volsinii. À propos des inscriptions de la tombe Golini I" Mélanges de l'École française de Rome 86-2 p. 708 The adjacent tombs were discovered in 1863 by Domenico Golini (from whom the name of the tombs derives). Originally the tombs were called "Tomb of the two chariots"Tomba delle Due Bighe (the so-called Golini I tomb) and "Tomba dei Velii" (Golini II).
Description The two tombs are frescoed with scenes accompanied by inscriptions in the Etruscan language which probably represent the deceased and his arrival in the underworld and his welcome into the afterlife with a banquet prepared in his honor. The original frescoes are preserved in the archaeological museum in Orvieto, and visible in an installation that faithfully reproduces the structure of the funerary chambers.
Danish archeologist Frederik Poulsen described the site in 1922:
Notes on translations of inscriptions In the first passage, the French scholar Jacques Heurgon takes the second word, , to be equivalent to Latin legatus in the sense of "ambassador (to Rome)." Toward the end of the same passage, he analyses as "to (-e) those people (-tri-n-) (living along the) Tiber," noting that was an ancient Etruscan term for that river, though it could theoretically also apply to Rome itself. The former is more likely, since means "water." So the sentence might be read: "And he was given () (authority over) water (rights) among the people of the (upper?) Tiber" remaining untranslated—it is generally translated as 'star' in the bilingual Pyrgi Tablets, but it is not clear how that meaning would fit in this context.Heurgon, J. (1974) "Un Legatus à Volsinii. À propos des inscriptions de la tombe Golini I" Mélanges de l'École française de Rome 86-2 pp. 707-721
References
Bibliography Heurgon, J. (1974) "Un Legatus à Volsinii. À propos des inscriptions de la tombe Golini I" Mélanges de l'École française de Rome 86-2 pp. 707–721 https://www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_0223-5102_1974_num_86_2_986 Della Fina, Giuseppe M. (2011) "La nuova Italia e i beni archeologici : il caso della scoperta delle tombe Golini I e II." in Annali della Fondazione per il Museo "Claudio Faina" XVIII. Orvieto: Quasar. 2011 Pizzirani, C. (2015) "Verso una nuova lettura ermeneutica della tomba Golini I e della pittura funeraria orvietana" ("Towards a new hermeneutic reading of the Golini I tomb and of Orvieto funerary painting") Studi Etruschi
External links Museum of Fine Art Boston: Facsimile of painting on back wall, Tomba Golini