Another interpretation of the five cones is that their design is an attempt by Bogdanović to invoke ancient styles of design and architecture into his work. Some historians have asserted that the memorial is meant to mimic descriptions of the highly mythologized lost tomb of the Etruscan king Lars Porsena (Photo 8) which was supposedly destroyed in 89BC by Roman general Cornelius Sulla in what is today central Italy. The historic description of the tomb, which describes five tightly arrange stone pyramids, could very well be the basis for the memorial, as not only has Bogdanović been consistently known to include obscure ancient mythology into his work, he is also known to have potentially included Etruscan motifs in other monuments he constructed (such as the one at Novi Travnik for example). In fact, if you look at concept drawings which Bogdanović made for the Vukovar spomenik (which can be seen in the Historic Images slideshow below), some look startlingly similar to the imagined concepts for the ancient tomb seen in Photo
