Trees and the significance of sacred grove imagery in Etruscan funerary paintings at Tarquinia (Italy)

The funerary paintings at Tarquinia, recognized for their extraordinary cultural and artistic importance, reflect the Etruscan aristocracy’s outlook on life, funeral rites, and their concept of the afterlife, such as their relationship with nature. Despite their recurrence, a botanical analysis of the painted trees was lacking. Here, we analysed 34 Etruscan-painted tombs, looking at the arboreal plants, studying their characteristic architecture, and providing key elements resulting from abstractions from real features for understanding how different species are represented. The identification was supported by a bibliography of Etruscan iconography and botanical atlas and online databases useful for the comparison with the diagnostic elements present in the represented trees. The results show that myrtles (Myrtus communis) and laurels (Laurus nobilis) were the most commonly depicted arboreal species in the fifth and fourth century BC tombs, respectively. Myrtles were prominent in funerary celebrations due to the plant’s Dionysian connection, and laurel was sacred within Apollonian rites. To a lesser extent, we also found palms, with their auspicious symbolism (hybrid forms combining Chamaerops humilis and Phoenix dactylifera), and single occurrences of fig (Ficus carica), and fir (Picea cfr. excelsa). These findings help to better comprehend the role of trees in Etruscan culture, which here seem to contribute to the representation of a sacred space within the funerary tomb, in keeping with the ancient concept of the sacred forests or “nemora”. The regular repetition of trees also helps to project sequences of temporal events and the progress of time in human life.