TOMB (OR tombe, tumbe, Fr. tombe, from Lat. tumba. from Gk. nippoc, tyntbos, sepul chral mound, grave, tomb; connected with OIr. tonn, little hill, Skt. lunge, vaulted). A cham ber o• structure for the burial of the dead. In all ages the belief in immortality and the de sire to honor the dead have led to the bestowal of the highest efforts of art upon their burial places. The ancient belief in the intermediate, shadowy existence in the tomb of the ha or 'double' of the deceased led also to the decora tion of the tomb interim• with pictured or carved `doubles' of the appurtenances of mundane life for the delectation of this imprisoned shade, as in the tombs of Egypt and Etruria.
Tombs may be either excavated or structural. Those cut in the rock are called hypogam Of these the most noted arc those which honeycomb the west bank of the Nile in Egypt. some having roomy chambers with open porches, in front; others, more numerous, penetrating deep into the cliffs (that of Seti 1. extending S00 feet) with a complex of descending passages, chambers, and pits. Other rock-cut sepulchres are in the `Val ley of the Kings,' near Jerusalem; at Para in Syria, where are Roman hypogfea with elabo rately carved facades; the tomb of Darius at Naksh-i-Hustam in Persia ; and many Etrus can tombs with less elaborate facades at Care, Corueto, etc. In Lycia, besides hypogfea with carved fronts, there are many tombs above ground hewn each from a single block into the semblance of a timber-framed structure. The splendid Sidon sarcophagi in the Constantinople Museum, shaped like small shrines or temples, almost deserve to be called tombs on account of their size and elaborate architecture. Inter mediate between the rock-cut and structural tombs are such subterranean or buried struc tures as the hive-shaped Pelasgic tombs of Mycere, e.g. the so-called 'Treasnry of Atreus.' Structural tombs in the open air affect usually the type of a tumulus, of a shrine, of a tower, or of a canopy over a solid podium or pedestal. The Pyramids of Egypt are the grandest- examples of the first type. (See PYRAMIDS.) The Romans sometimes built circular tombs surmounted by a cone or tumulus of earth or masonry; e.g. tombs of Cfecilia Metella, of Augustus, and of Hadrian; the last named on the Vatican side of the Tiber, over 200 feet in diameter, but like the others des titute of its mound, is now known as the Castle Sant' Angelo. The Greeks attempted little in the way of sepulchral architecture except in Asia Minor, where the magnificent tomb of Mausolus ( whence 'Mausoleum,' q.v.) in Caria was ac counted one of the Seven Wonders. The Ho rn ails, who delighted in raising impressive tombs, perfected the canopy or tower type, as in elegant examples at Saint-Remy and Vienne in France, lgel, near Troves, Mylassa in Asia Minor, and many other places. They lined their great high ways beyond their city gates with tombs of various types and often of great beauty, and in the fourth century developed, in such examples as the tomb of Saint Helena, the circular tomb with a dome, which was in the Middle Ages adopted by the Moslems and perfected, first on a small scale but with great richness of de tail, in the hundreds of domed and minareted tombs at Cairo known as tombs of the Khalifs, and later in such majestic structures as the tombs of Khurrem at Constantinople, of Humayun at Delhi. and of Mahmud at Bijapfir,
and in the incomparable Taj Mahal (q.v.) at Agra. Syria abounds in tombs of all types, mostly dating from the early Christian centuries, though not a few belong to the Roman dominion, e.g. the 'Tomb of Absalom' at Jerusalem, the tombs at Palmyra, etc.
In early Christian times and the Middle Ages the practice of interment within the church edi fice became common, springing from that of erect ing the altar over the tomb or sarcophagus of a martyr (altar-tomb). Throughout the Middle Ages the decoration of indoor tombs assumed a great variety of shapes, the most common type being that of a sarcophagus bearing on the cover a recumbent figure of the deceased, under a richly wrought canopy borne by twisted shafts or clustered columns and pointed arches and embellished with sculpture and often with mosaic. These tombs were sometimes free-stand ing, sometimes set against a wall, or even set high up upon the wall, especially in Italy. Both kinds are to be seen imitated in the cele brated open-air tombs of the Scaligers at Verona. The bronze shrine of Saint Sebaldus at Nurem berg is a late Gothic example of the canopy tomb. The Renaissance adopted these types, but altered their details and filled the churches of Italy, France, England, Germany, and Spain with splendid monuments, some of great refine ment and beauty, others marvelously rich and even ostentatious, to the memory of the great dead. The fifteenth-century wall-tombs of Italy are especially beautiful, and such churches as Santa Croce at Florence, Santi Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, Santa Maria del Popolo at Rome, and estminster Abbey beeame great repositories of sepulchral art. Sculpture played an increas ing part in these works, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was lavishly employed in allegorical groups, often theatrical and vul gar.
In modern cemeteries, besides the ordinary graves with their gravestones or obelisks, are to be seen tombs shaped like classic shrines, and oc casionally more elaborate structures fronted or surmounted by elaborate groups of allegorical sculpture. Among important mausolea may lie mentioned the impressive dome of the ln•alides at Paris, serving as the tomb of the great Na poleon, and the less successful Grant mausoleum in New Yo•k. Neither of these compares in splendor, however, with the Oriental tombs men tioned above. Modern sepulchral art is inferior to mediaeval, Renaissance, or Oriental art. The modern preference is to erect imposing monu ments to the dead in the frequented squares of populous cities, rather than over their quiet graves in remote cemeteries. Consult: Brindley and Weatherly, Ancient Senn/Howl Monuments (London, 1887) Tosi and Becchio, Altars, Tab ernacles. and Tombs (Lagny, 1843) ; Trendall, 3/onn »i en ts. Cenotaphs, Tombs, aml Tablets (London, 1858) ; Boussard, lone ?mire (Paris, 1875) : and for Greek and Roman tombs, Staekelberg, Die Criiber der Ilellenen (Berlin, 1837) ; Rossi, leoma, sotteranea eristi ana (Rome, 1SS7-8S). See BURIAL; CAMeO SAN TO: CEMETERY; CENOTAPH; NECROPOLIS; PYRA MID: SEPULCHRAL MOUND.