Wildflowers bumped against my legs as I walked down the hill from the rocky Pitigliano Castle to the Tuscan valley below. At the foot of this hill, I crossed a fast-flowing stream and started walking on a small trail that led downwards. Suddenly I was in a closed room.
I found myself in a trench surrounded by huge blocks of tuff made of volcanic ash and about 25 meters high.
I was scared and I wasn’t the only one out there who was freaked out by such a cave. These subterranean trails have been associated with the lore of demons and gods for centuries.
“When we were kids, nobody went there,” said Elena Ronca, a hiking guide who leads tours in this area of Tuscany and grew up here for 12 years.
That’s because there wasn’t much information about the trails, nor much about the Etruscan civilization that built them.
Humans of this ancient period left no maps or written records and many of these tracts were uninhabited and overgrown with wild bushes.
But in the past few decades, archaeological discoveries in ancient tombs in central Italy and Corsica have revealed more about the Etruscans and their mysterious caves that are said to separate the land of the living from the underworld. Let’s connect.
If they are interpreted in simple terms, they were the walled passages used to reach the mountains and river banks.
Although they are found in various regions of central Italy. (where the Etruscan civilization flourished from 900 BC to 700 AD and was later absorbed into the Roman Empire.)
These caves are called ‘VQ’ in the local language.
These caves, found in Pitigliano, Sorano and Savannah in southern Tuscany, are the oldest and still in their original state.
“It’s amazing that these caves are still in their original state, the people of this Etruscan civilization knew what they were doing,” Ronka says.
Every cave I visited during my travels in this area was different from the others. Some were narrow, with walls not much higher than mine and with small steps in them.’
while others had turned into lush forests of fern and moss with high walls and paths wide enough for residential roads to accommodate a vehicle or two.
Ronca explains that the cave was originally carved to a depth of only a few feet using a rock-cutting technique. It was a technique first used in ancient Egypt that involved drilling a hole in the tuff, inserting a piece of wood, and then filling the hole with water.
He said that he would put wood in it and the wet wood would swell and break the tuff, he would do this again and again to deepen and lengthen the road to the size he wanted. This procedure is not easy and simple.
Over the centuries, the caves were modified by various kings and empires to suit their needs, including the Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Franks.
In this route steps were made from an unknown point and ditches were deepened but provision was also made for the drainage of rain water existing in the original state. But on the way I passed I saw the waterfall on the rock through this system to prevent erosion and drain the rainwater.
“The Etruscans were very good engineers because they demarcated some of the membranes and drained the marshy areas to make them arable,” Ronka says.
During my journey I passed by slanting pits with rock monuments that appeared to have been carved by human hands.
These were Etruscan cemeteries where individuals were dug deep for their graves and gold, food and clothing were placed with their bodies for the afterlife.
Unfortunately, the Etruscan tombs in the area had long been excavated and looted.
An English writer, DH Lawrence, after visiting Tuscany in 1920, wrote about the area that ‘we must go to see the tombs or the museums where the objects taken from these tombs are kept.’
But historians like Luca Najrotti, who is also an archaeologist working with the Italian government, managed to unearth some pottery and paintings from the period. These artifacts may provide answers to these caves and some of our questions.
He says, ‘Most of the Etruscan tombs have been looted since ancient times, but the thieves used to take only gold from these tombs.’
“So it’s very interesting for archaeologists because you can still find pots and other things from that period in these graves, which is really important for historical research,” he adds.
The traditional paintings from Etruscan tombs are not found in the area of Pettigliani because the paint doesn’t stick to the rock, but after examining the famous paintings from the cemetery below Tragnia, Najrotti says that this cave is from this period. It was the passageway for the funeral processions of famous people.
Some historians believe that it is also possible that the Etruscans believed that there was life after death and that the cave was a passageway to that life.
“The Etruscans regarded trees and rivers as gods, and for them the most important gods lived underground,” Ronka says. So perhaps digging caves out of rocks is a way for them to communicate with these gods, but we cannot say anything for sure about this.
Interestingly, the artifacts found during this period show that men and women were equal in this period and it was different from the Roman period.
Sculptures and paintings of this period depict women not only being invited to public gatherings and events, but actively participating in them.
Writings from this period show that women were given a share of property and used their mother’s name alongside their name, whereas in the Roman period women used their father’s or husband’s name alongside their own.
And the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, found in an Etruscan cemetery in Sarotri, Italy, shows that men and women were equal in that era.
Ronca says that ‘Roman women used to be only the mother of the family, they only had authority and power in the home, whereas in the Etruscan period women were almost equal to men, they could head a family. , she could rule a town.’
For both Naruto and Ronca, the most interesting theory suggested by artifacts and archeology is that the Etruscans had much less impact on the environment than the Romans, while the Romans often eroded lands, diverted rivers, and Used to cut rocks.
For example, his ‘V-cave’ had less impact on the environment and was made from materials found in the area itself. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the Etruscans believed that some natural things (trees and rivers) were gods and that this was man’s relationship with nature.
He says, “While the Roman attitude towards the environment was more aggressive and they made more profound changes in the location of the earth.”
“If you look at the signs of people from the Etruscan civilization, they made a very small impact on the environment, maybe we can learn something from them,” says Nijruti.
As my trip down the mountain ended I reached the city of Savannah, a former Etruscan city that was built a long time ago. I wondered why I knew so little about the Etruscan civilization and their fascinating caves, while I knew so much about the Roman period.
According to Ronca, I shouldn’t feel bad about this because not only Italians but also Europeans and Americans don’t know anything about it.
“Etruscans are still not taught in schools, they are really undervalued,” he says.
But that’s changing now, Ronca says. In the last eight to five years, especially during the Covid lockdown, when Italians spent more time getting to know their region, these ‘VQs’ and their Cemeteries grew in popularity.
“Until ten years ago, I had to forcefully call people here to show them the cave,” says Ronka.
Maybe soon these caves will be as popular and popular as other Roman historical sites, but if that happens, Ronca hopes we will do everything we can to preserve it.
“These caves (VQ) are something unique, we cannot recreate them, once they are gone, they are gone forever,” says Ronka.
