It is asserted, too, that some of the earliest tombs of the necropolis of Alba Longa were found beneath a stratum of peperino.
In the third, after the Campagna, by a great general uplift, had become a land surface, volcanic energy found an outlet in comparatively few large craters, which emitted streams of hard lava as well as fragmentary materials, the latter forming sperone (lapis Gabinus) and peperino (lapis Albanus), while upon one of the former, which runs from the Alban Hills to within 2 m.
The tufa, sperone and peperino were easy to quarry, and could be employed by those who possessed comparatively elementary tools, while travertine, which came into use later, was an excellent building stone, and the lava (selce) served for paving stones and as material for concrete.
Of Etruscan sarcophagi there are numerous examples in terracotta; occasionally they are miniature representations of temples, and sometimes in the form of a couch on which rest figures of the deceased; one of these in the British Museum dates from 500 B.C. The earliest Roman sarcophagus is that of Scipio in the Vatican (3rd century B.C.), carved in peperino stone.
No traces of the ancient city, except of its necropolis, the tombs of which are overlaid with a stratum of peperino 3 ft.