One of Italy's most spectacular but neglected archaeological treasures steps into the spotlight next month in a bid to focus interest on the ancient Etruscans .
Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said he planned to dedicate September 19 to the digs at Veio, where archaeologists recently brought to light the oldest examples of painting in Western civilisation .
In one of the most sensational archaeological finds in Italy in years, in June experts unearthed a tomb dating to the seventh century BC, the oldest ever to have emerged from the ground at the buried Etruscan city north of Rome .
Rutelli said he was planning to work closely with local administrators to discuss ways of boosting tourism in the area .
"If any other country in the world had a site like Veio, it would feature as their star attraction. Italy has so much artistic wealth and, too often, we just take this for granted," said Rutelli, discussing his plans with reporters earlier this month .
"Veio was the biggest of the Etruscan cities, an arch-enemy of Rome, which eventually conquered and took it over" .
Rutelli called the Veio archaeological area "unique," stressing that he wanted it to "come alive and ensure that a greater number of people had an opportunity to enjoy it" .
Experts could barely contain their excitement when they found the tomb, which contained wall paintings of five red, roaring lions and a flock of yellow-tinged waterbirds .
"We are at the dawn of what has been called Orientalising civilisation," said Rome University Etruscanologist Giovanni Colonna, illustrating the newly baptised Tomb of the Lions .
Colonna said the tomb - just outside the perimeter of the Veio Archaeological Park - was probably the last resting place of a prince. He said it predated the previously oldest tomb at Veio - known as the Tomb of the Ducks - by some ten years, meaning it was built in about 690 BC .
This period was when the pre-Roman Etruscan civilisation was at its height .
There are Egyptian paintings older than the ones at Veio - as well as far older cave paintings - but Italian experts believe the new tomb illustrations are the oldest examples of a Western tradition that was then developed by Greece and Rome .
They say the lions, believed to portray the terrors of the Underworld, and the waterfowl, thought to represent the flight of the prince's soul into the Afterlife, were the finest examples of Etruscan painting from this period .
Colonna said the paintings were "much more spectacular" than the ones in the Tomb of the Ducks, which was unearthed 50 years ago .
When the new site was presented to the media Rutelli said the government would turn the area "into a huge dig" to look for other tombs believed to be hidden under what was until recently just a field of barley .
The Etruscans are believed to have formed the first advanced civilisation in Italy, based in an area called Etruria, corresponding mainly to present-day Tuscany and northern Lazio, including Florence, which has an extensive Etruscan collection .
At the height of their power at around 500 BC when Rome itself was subjugated - their power spread to the foothills of the Alps and southward near Naples .
Since much of their language has yet to be deciphered, archaeological finds have proved invaluable in working out how the Etruscans lived.
