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The Ducks Tomb at Veii: the oldest frieze in Etruscan painting
The Tomba delle Anatre (Ducks’ Tomb) is to be found in the Riserva del Bagno necropolis, just outside the ancient town of Veii. It dates to the second quarter of the 7th century BC — the Orientalising period — and ranks among the earliest examples of funerary painting in the Etruscan territory, surpassed only by the Tomb of the Roaring Lions, also discovered at Veii in 2006. It is a small chamber hewn into the tufa, with a four-pitched ceiling painted in yellow and red, and a lateral bench for the deceased. On the back wall five ducks in a row are depicted.
The frieze and its meaning
The colours are applied directly onto the smoothed rock, without plaster: red, yellow, black, white. The ducks — with curved beaks, stylised legs, upturned tails — are all walking in the same direction, towards the left, that is, towards the body of the deceased. The style recalls the Italo-geometric pottery of the period, in particular Caeretan Heron ware. But the choice is not merely decorative. Waterbirds, creatures living between water and land, symbolise the passage between life and the afterlife — ferrymen of the soul’s final journey.
Only two painted tombs at Veii
Veii has yielded only two painted hypogea from such an early date: the Ducks’ Tomb and the Campana Tomb, dated to around 600 BC, and today visible only through 19th-century reproductions. Both mark fundamental milestones in Etruscan funerary megalography. The better-known painted tombs of Tarquinia would only appear towards the end of the 7th century.
