Tomb of the Augurs

Frescoes

There are generally four different surviving ceiling patterns from tombs created in the 5th-6th century BCE found in Tarquinia. Three of these are undoubtedly reminiscent of common textile patterns found across Italy around this time. The ceiling from the Tomb of the Augurs falls into this category, and has been assigned to that of a Four Dot Rosettes pattern. The red and blue textile pattern is split down the middle by a thick red line, outlined by two thin ones on either side. Scholars have interpreted that the ceiling pattern is meant to symbolize a fabric tent, to give shelter to the funerary proceedings regarding the deceased. Additionally, the tent is used as a method of breaking up space and creating separate areas in which the frescoes take place, presumably far away from where the false door is intended to be.

The frescoes on the entrance wall are unfortunately almost entirely chipped away, yet scholars have still made efforts to hypothesize on what they might have depicted. The most commonly accepted one is that of it being acroamatic scenes in respect to the deceased. Scholars have interpreted that Acroamata, in ancient Rome, likely related to activities regarding safeguarded oral traditions, whether it be singing, reading, or performing in any other vocal manner.

On the center of the rear wall a painted door is placed. This has been interpreted by scholars as a symbolic door or portal to the Underworld that acts as a barrier between the kingdom of the living and of the dead, being a common motif found in Greco-Roman antiquity, which has been described as a "false door" throughout scholarship. This motif has been viewed as a method of safe transition from the over to the underworld. …