Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-16

again Quit forward on tie original line.
Thus this little portion ot eNcayated
street has a neat and symmetrical APP
/ pearance. The four best preserved tomOs
1 lie on the north side OF the road, and are
| pretty much of the same aneral size,
/ though each has a ditfsren ARRANGEMENT
! OF architecture. They are separated from
| each other by about a foot ard malt:
they are all built OF alternate layers OF
brick and lime, and covered with stucco,
while some OF the pillars and pilas' ers
are of tudstone, with COrintbian or Ionic
capitals. Some OF The tombs have vault
beneath. and all are provided with inches
| for the reception of the cinerary urns.
| They very much remind one OF the little
chapels In a modern Catholic cemetery.
such as the Naples Campo Santo. The first
/ tomb eXcavated, being the one nearest to
POmpeiI on the north side oil the road. is
covered with rude inscriptions painted in
red, one of which is notable; il is an
advertisement apprising the passers-by
that a runaway horse has been found of
such size and color, and that the owner
may have it by applying 10 a smith from
NOcera. at the bridge over the Sarno, tow
ard stabia. In tact. such Inscriptions are
found on all the tonbs, which have evil
IDENTIFY served as public newspaper on
the tnlckly frequenied road. There are
besides many eraphites. One person has
mem Der" beneath. In one the letter ' lie
very interesting from the fact that it is
marked with dot in the fork OF the V,
which Is a "reminiscences OF the Oscan
character, causing the V to be pronounced
more like o. Nearly all the rudely
traced inscriptions (which, OF
course, have nothing to do with the
true inscriptions on marble slabs that de-
note the name and qualities of the de.
DECEASED 1 m hn
influence OF that neighboring town on
Pompeii. Une of the marble Inscriptions
gives to Nocera the surname of Constan-
tia in relation to it's faithfulness-a sur
name, | believe, seen here in this cOnnec-
ticn for the first time. One of the tombs
had been surmounted on its tour corners
with stone pineapples, interesting, as sug-
gestive OF this style Of decoration as no.
ticed in the immense single pineapple
said to have crowned Hadrian's tomb in
Rome. 1t is curious that in the inches Of
one of the tombs stand two small head
stones instead Of urns.
The statues, cinerary urns, loose mar
bic tablets, skulls and bones have been
deposited in the room of a country cot
tage hard by, all except one statue, which
lies prone on the ground near the exca-
walton, and serves, by a string passed
round its neck, to hold fast the end OF a
as shelter from the sun-a mental office
10 which. no doubt, the man who was of
SUFFICIENT consideration TO have a statue
never dreamed that his effigy would be
degraded. The full length statues are
all portraits. and evidently very good
ones, for each OF the faces is highly
characteristic. One elderly male figure
has fine head and the mouth OF an
orator; another is a handsome young
frn mn 10 inv Tod
old woman, grave with years and hopors,
with deep lines at the corners of the very
peculiar and firmly pressed lips, and
style Of dressing the hair which reminds
one of the statues OF Livia. Then there
are, besides, a midde-aged and a young
woman, Of smoother countenances, the
latter with small, rather pointed and
pinched features. On the hair OF one of
the male statues there are traces of color,
and as the figures are sculptured rather
rouShlysil, stone, the style resembling
that of Capua, 1t 10 possible that the
whole hHure was once covered with paint
forgot to say that all the tombs found
are those of freedmen.
Ranged in the recess of a wall of the
room or lying on the ground were several
skulls, one of magnificent size and
breadth. One had still a coin, thick with
verdigris, stuck between its broken teeth,
while in another, from some cause or
other, the whole jaw and lower part OF
the skull were destroyed and the cavity
filed with hardened ashes. in which.
about where the throat would have been,
stuck coin. A few cinerary urns and
amphOre OF terra Gotta have been also
found, one of the former double, with a
lid furnished with pipe. through which
TO pour libations. The exact period of
these tombs. the details of the inscrip-
tiOns, ETC., have notyet been scientifically
ascertained, but my friend told me that
they are probably Of the periods of Julius
Cesar and Tiberius. 1t is very likely
that when this street of tombs is exca-
waited back to Pompeii older and perhaps
more sumptuOus tombs will be found it
being generally, though not always, the
case that the erecting of tombs is begun
close to the city and extended further into
the country as occasion requires.