City of the Dead

The Etruscan necropolis of Crocifisso del Tufo, outside Orvieto (c. 500 B.C.) has parallel streets and doorways to the individually identified family tombs. The urban arrangement which is apparent to the visitor is only the most obvious layer of a domesticity of death which would have been supplemented by heraldic symbols on the roofs and the occupation of the houses by sculpted ranks of reclining dead. Although the only means by which to interpret death is through representations and transformations of life, the creations of streets of houses with doorways in a continuous urban wall suggests the significance of common civic values in all areas of existence.

from URBAN ETHIC link in the sidebar

Urban Urns: cities of the dead

The ancient practice of depositing ashes in cinerary urns in the form of small buildings creates an evocative form of quasi-urbanism in archaeological museum displays, in the Montemartini in Rome and the Museo Archaeologico in Perugia. They constitute a type of model necropolis.