Alambra: Cesnola's tomb clearances

Luigi Palma di Cesnola reported opening 82 tombs at Alambra, at different times between 1868 and 1874, after hiring labourers to explore a mound facing the village¹. He described tombs cut in the rock of the mound's slopes, and stones and broken pottery on its summit, which he took to indicate a large building¹. He claimed that each tomb held a copper object and a small earthenware figurine, together with a distinctive class of terracotta vessels¹. Bombardieri notes that Cesnola grouped the tombs and their reported contents together, although his descriptions and illustrations indicate burials of different periods². Cesnola said that skulls from the Alambra tombs were held at the Anthropological Museum at Turin².