Findings: the grave goods of the Etruscan princesses of Chiusi

The discovery is one to leave one breathless because the recovery is among the most important in recent times concerning the ancient Etruscans: furnishings and pottery, four bronze mirrors, one of which depicts the ancient deification of Rome and the she-wolf suckling only Romulus, a balsam jar still containing organic traces of the perfume used in antiquity, a bone comb, bronze and terracotta vases commonly used by Etruscan women during banquets and symposia were found during an investigation that led to the recovery of eight Etruscan lithic urns and two sarcophagi, with the corresponding grave goods from the Hellenistic period of the 3rd century BC.C..

I reperti etruschi sequestrati dal reparto per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale dei Carabinieri in alcuni scavi illegali a Città della Pieve (PG)

An operation that came about thanks to a complex investigation carried out by the Carabinieri of the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (Cultural Heritage Protection Unit), coordinated by the Perugia Public Prosecutor's Office, which led to the seizure of these numerous artefacts in perfect condition and deemed to be of 'exceptional historical and artistic value'. And also monetary value: the 'booty' recovered would in fact be worth at least 8 million euro. The urns, all intact, are made of white Umbrian travertine, partly decorated with high-reliefs depicting scenes of battles, hunting and with friezes, some of which retain polychrome pigments and gold-leaf coverings, others depicting the myth of Achilles and Troilus. Of the two sarcophagi, one is currently represented by the cover only and the other complete with the skeleton of the deceased.

According to the first reconstructions by the archaeologists of the Ministry of Culture, all the goods were part of a single funerary context, a hypogeum tomb attributable to an important local family, the 'Pulfna'. The recovery is the result of an investigation that began last April, after a communication from the Carabinieri of the Tpc reporting a possible illegal excavation in the area between Chiusi and Città della Pieve, and which started from the acquisition of photographs circulating on the illicit art market. Thanks to the collaboration of a professor from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, the origin of the artefacts was hypothesised to be an Etruscan necropolis, probably in the Chiusi area.

I reperti etruschi sequestrati dal reparto per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale dei Carabinieri in alcuni scavi illegali a Città della Pieve (PG)

A trail that led to an old fortuitous discovery, already reported in 2015 in Città della Pieve: a farmer, while ploughing the land, had come across an Etruscan hypogeum containing four funerary urns and two sarcophagi attributable to the gens Pulfna, precisely the same patronymic found on some of the urns depicted in the intercepted photographs. However, while the Pulfna hypogeum discovered in 2015 consisted of male burials, the images found by investigators depicted mainly Etruscan princesses. The investigations were therefore concentrated on the area surrounding the first discovery. And they led in the direction of a local entrepreneur, the owner of a company also capable of carrying out earth-moving work, who owned, among other things, land adjacent to that where the hypogeum had been discovered in 2015. Telephone tapping, tailing and observation, including with the use of a drone, were therefore initiated. Which led to the identification of two possible perpetrators, against whom proceedings are now being taken for the crimes of theft and receiving stolen cultural property.