The Painted Tombs of Paestum

With its three magnificent Doric temples, Paestum became well known through 18th-century engravings by Piranesi and Goethe’s vivid descriptions in his Italian Journey. However, Paestum is also renowned for its tombs decorated with painted scenes. During excavations in the 1960s, around 200 richly painted tombs from the Lucanian period (4th century B.C.) were discovered in a small necropolis about a kilometre north, immediately outside the city walls.

The tombs were painted on the inside with scenes depicting funerals and the passage of the dead into the underworld. They were executed on site immediately after the four slabs had been set in place in the pit. These paintings were executed using a technique resembling fresco. A thin layer of plaster was applied to a smoothed travertine slab. This style of tomb decoration blossomed under the Lucanians, a native people from mainland Italy who took over the city around 400 B.C. The scenes depict funerary games and rituals; the deceased on their deathbed; chariot racing; hunting scenes; and duels between men.

One particularly richly decorated tomb is the so-called Tomb of the Diver. The tomb, which dates to around 480 B.C., is unique among the Greek colonies in Italy. Its significance lies in containing the only example of Greek wall painting from the Archaic or Classical period to survive in its entirety. It is constructed from five limestone blocks forming the four lateral walls and the roof, with the floor excavated in the natural rock. The paintings on the four walls depict a symposium scene, while the cover slab shows the famous scene that gives the tomb its name: a young man diving into a curling, waving stream of water, symbolising the passage from life to death.

Here is a series of images from the Paestum Archaeological Museum’s collection of paintings, starting with some pictures of the Tomb of the Diver.

Lucanian fresco tomb painting of two men fighting, 3rd century BC.

Further images of the painted tombs of Paestum are available in my Flickr collection.