Tanella Angori

La tanella Angori, which is part of the MAEC Park, is an Etruscan tomb (2nd century BC). It takes its name from the Angori family, owners of the land on which it was discovered. It is located not far from the Tanella di Pitagora. The tomb was brought to light in 1951; unfortunately, only part of the circular base and a few blocks of the structure have been preserved.

From the area of the tomb comes a cippus with a barely legible Etruscan inscription and another inscription on sandstone mentioning the gens of the Cusu, also present in the Tabula Cortonensis, probable owners of the tomb. Both inscriptions are currently displayed at the MAEC Museum.

The tanelle are typical Hellenistic funerary architectures, shaped like small tumuli and entirely built in local sandstone masonry. They contain only a single central chamber, along the sides of which are niches where cinerary urns were placed, since from this period cremation burial came back into use.

The interior, in the shape of a Greek cross, still preserves a stone-paved floor. The door to the chamber is located in the inner part of the vestibule, and there must certainly have been loculi for burial. Probably there was an earthen covering recalling the shape of the archaic tumuli of the Sodo,to which the tomb is inspired, both architecturally and ideologically.
Outside, the lower part of the circular base, with a diameter of 10.35 m, is preserved; it was made of blocks of sandstone and some blocks of the crowning.

During the excavations of the tomb, a series of Villanovan cinerary urns were also found, evidence of the existence of an earlier necropolis covered by the construction of the Hellenistic funerary monument.