Etruscans and the His and Hers Afterlife

This undisturbed tomb of Etruscan royalty was unearthed this summer near Tarquinia in Italy. Accounts of the find have made much of the riot of pottery found on the floor, the remains of the funeral feast.

Some of the dishes still contained food; analysis of this should give us our best look yet at Etruscan feasting.

But what interested me about the tomb was its structure: Side by side benches for the husband and wife.

This fits with a pattern of Etruscan burial practices, which emphasize like no others I know of the eternal bond of marriage. The famous Cerveti sarcophagus is one of several that shows a happy couple reclining on a couch together.

Moving into the classical period, we get these wonderful works of marriage art; these two are now in the MFA in Boston.

I have to think that these unique works are telling us something important about Etruscan society. Yes, marriage is universal, and, yes, in every society there are loving couples and couples who hate each other. But societies vary a great deal in how they think about marriage, and how much emphasis they put on it. Looking at these sarcophagi, I have to think that the Etruscans were one of those peoples who made married love the emotional center of life. Like the Puritans, Victorians, and us, they must have put a happy marriage at the top of their lists of life's blessings and built up a huge lore about how couples can solve their problems, rekindle the spark, and find happiness together. Why else would they have wanted to spend eternity in each other's arms?