382 ANNUAL OP SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



upon them as it did twenty centuries since, and, in the very middle of the 

 first chamber, reveals one or more skeletons fully clothed, with their arms 

 or precious ornaments. Around them stand painted vases, furniture of 

 every form, utensils of various kinds and metals, precisely in the spots 

 where their relatives or dearest friends had placed them. The walls are 

 adorned with elegant pictures, with friezes bearing the figures of warriors 

 who combat, and with decorations of an original style hitherto unknown. 

 It creates a very natural surprise that scarcely one in a hundred of these 

 tombs has been examined in past times, and that, even when this has been 

 the case, objects of art in gold, glass, ivory, and vases have not been re- 

 moved. It would seem as if money had been the only object of search. 

 In some streets the tombs are evidently for the most part those of the 

 poor ; in others they are the last habitations of people in easier circum- 

 stances ; and in some are found the mausoleums of rich and powerful 

 citizens. The antique articles which are found in these various classes of 

 sepulchres and people are likewise of a different and distinct character. 

 Amongst the tombs, too, of those who were poor, sometimes is found a 

 noble and richly- adorned sepulchre, an instance of which is one which 

 was discovered in 1813. At present we are indebted for the encourage- 

 ment of the arts to His Majesty of the Two Sicilies, for a renewal of 

 excavations which have been so long suspended and hitherto the works, 

 which have been conducted with his usual ability by Cavalier Bonucci, 

 have rendered an ample harvest. They were commenced at the beginning 

 of this year ; and though the severity of the winter, which has covered 

 Puglia with frost and snow, has thus much retarded the works, yet some 

 rare sepulchres have been discovered, remarkable for their novel and 

 beautiful architecture and their curious monuments. Amongst these, a 

 tomb opened to the north of Canosa cannot fail to awaken the wonder of 

 all Europe. It lies near the ancient gate of Canosa, at a short distance 

 from the River Ganto. This tomb is composed of two subterranean cham- 

 bers, formed in the hard mass of the earth, and belongs to a warrior, who 

 still wears his arms of bronze and of iron. Along the sides of the walls 

 were found a quantity of large and small paterae, tazze, and ordinary 

 drinking vessels. In the midst of these stood six vases, which formed 

 three equal pairs, of a size perfectly wonderful. On these are represented 

 very rare and precious subjects as the Rape of Europa, the Vengeance of 

 Medea, the Liberation of Andromeda, and the Funeral Pyre of Patroclus, 

 round which the body of Hector is being dragged by the car of Achilles. 

 But there is one vase which by the size and the subjects of its paintings 

 will form an epoch in the annals of archaeology and the arts, and by its 

 historic interest, perfectly unique in monumental vases, is calculated to 

 awaken the wonder of modern times. It is a vase whose paintings repre- 

 sent Greece and Asia, and in the midst of them the Genius of Discord, 

 who raises aloft the naming torch. Darius is seated amidst his satraps, 

 and Persia, personified, addresses to them a grave and sorrowful speech. 

 Besides these there are various graceful figures of women, whose heads 



