Journal - Comune di Monteleone di Spoleto

ii.15 reconstruction of the
shock-absorbing system
in the substructure between
the chassis and the axle of
the monteleone chariot.
drawings: dalia lamura
under the direction of
adriana emiliozzi
36
hole for the tenon
and the fact that a man walked alongside the horses, as
shown in some illustrations, 35 may have rendered outriggers
attached to the car of the chariot unnecessary. This issue lies
outside the bounds of the present study, however.
C. Iconographic sources for the use and cultural context
of six-century parade chariots
a sixth-century B.C. chariot with a tripartite body could
move at a fast pace, as shown by illustrations of races. Thus,
a wheelwright had to know what use a chariot would be put
to in order to know which shock-absorbing system to install:
the traditional woven-leather flooring appropriate for a fast
chariot, or a platform, which might sometimes be rigid, suitable
for a parade chariot.
The custom of burying vehicles with their deceased owners
to show their rank was common in the italian peninsula
during the orientalizing period. except in Picenum, it
became rare in the archaic period. However, many archaic
monuments depict scenes highlighting the use of chariots —
actual in life and ideal in the afterlife. The terracotta friezes
of the temples and princely buildings (regiae) of etruscan
and latin cities are the richest source of visual information.
36 These architectural elements (far more than funerary
paintings and reliefs, vase paintings, or friezes impressed on
bucchero and impasto clay, carved in ivory, or embossed
on metal objects) 37 provide documentation of princely life
that is iconographically consistent and chronologically continuous.
Because they are also less influenced by foreign
iconographic conventions, they allow the function (real or
idealized) of the etruscan-italic chariot to be traced from the
first decades of the sixth century B.C. to its end. discoveries
made since the publication in 1940 of arvid andrén’s work
on architectural terracottas have inspired a number of iconographic,
stylistic, and interpretive studies on topics ranging
from the function of the figurative content in relation to the
designated use (civil or sacred) of the buildings to the ways
in which wealth and power are symbolized. 38 The topic has
been so extensively explored that the risk of subjective
interpretation is slight.
illustrations of bigas, trigas, and quadrigas (two-, three-,
and four-horse chariots) appear on terracotta friezes from
580 B.C. on, 39 but chariots with cars resembling that of the
monteleone chariot appear only around 530 – 520 B.C.
The friezes date to the same period as the Castro chariot
(520 B.C.), which in turn presents the same morphology
depicted on the so-called Veii-rome-Velletri plaques, which
represent converging nuptial processions (see Figure ii.16). 40
in the procession arriving from the left, the bridegroom
stands on a triga behind the charioteer, and the bride does
the same in the procession coming from the opposite direction.
41 The car of the bride’s chariot resembles the car of the
Castro chariot down to the palmette, undoubtedly of metal,
that embellishes the leather covering of its front panel. The
bride’s chariot has rear side panels, which, by contrast, are
missing from the bridegroom’s vehicle, a parade chariot with
ear-loop side rails resembling those mounted on the proper
left panel of the monteleone chariot (cat. 4a). The shock
absorbers do not seem to be depicted in the chariots on
these terracotta plaques, undoubtedly because the smaller
friezes did not allow for great detail. The parade chariots on
the terracotta friezes have wheels with six spokes, 42 whereas
the wheels on the Castro and monteleone chariots, which
have the same type of body, have nine. The yokes on the
chariots depicted on the plaques, though undecorated, are
identical in shape to the yoke on the monteleone chariot, so
the leather collars and the method of attachment must have
been identical as well.
each of the plaques depicts two chariots, one drawn by
wingless horses and the other by horses with wings.
according to mario Torelli, the bridal couple in the first
chariot (a triga) is “terrestrial,” while the pair in the second
(a biga) is “divine.” 43 external evidence indicates that a
woman was buried with the Castro chariot, which may have
been her bridal chariot. That fact, and the vehicle’s sumptuous
decoration, point to her exceptional status (see Section
ii.a). The monteleone chariot was built for a man, and his
gender and high aristocratic rank are clearly conveyed by the
scenes depicted on it. Given the similar typology of the