Journal - Comune di Monteleone di Spoleto

38
century B.C. it seems that the stories of achilles (and
Theseus) represent a paradigm of legitimate aspiration to
royal investiture for these central italic princelings, while
the stories of Herakles show the tyrant’s attainment of personal
power, as with Peisistratus in athens. 48 if this is so, two
distinct groups of etruscan-italic parade chariots with figural
scenes should be identified on the basis of the type of scene
depicted: The first group includes the vehicle from Todi,
which is decorated with the stories of both achilles and
Theseus, and the monteleone chariot, which depicts stories
of achilles. 49 The second group comprises the two chariots
from Castel San mariano near Perugia. one of the Castel
San mariano chariots shows the amazonomachy of Herakles
on the single large bronze panel enveloping the car; 50 the
other displays the introduction of Herakles into olympus on
one of the side panels, in a depiction unrelated to the main
scene on the central panel, which some suggest is connected
with the achilles saga “the genealogical antecedent
of the ‘nuptial rape’ of Thetis by Peleus.” 51 if, in fact, there
was a distinction between the roles played by such heroes
in the archaic ideology of power, then this symbolic meaning
has also to be acknowledged in parade chariots, which,
like the terracotta friezes, manifested the owner’s eminent
position within the family, or society, or both. it seems strange
to find the model of hero as tyrant at Castel San mariano, as
this isolated tomb containing chariots (perhaps a total of
four spread over two generations) and other splendid
bronzes belonged to an aristocratic family. 52 For half a century,
from about 560 to 510 B.C., this clan controlled — from
an aristocratic residence, not a city — the trade routes and
commerce between the Valle del Chiana and Chiusi before
a process of consolidation (synoikismos) led to the creation
of the nearby city of Perugia. 53 in my opinion, the symbolic
significance of the bronze panels of the Castel San mariano
chariots, more than the modest works from Todi, was fully
appreciated only by the persons who commissioned the
chariots in the significant etruscan centers. 54 The principes
who owned them did not identify themselves with Herakles
rather than Theseus or achilles; all three heroes satisfied
these princes’ desire to assimilate their life histories to that
of a Greek hero, according to the aristocratic model in
vogue at the time in the outlying centers, where power and
prestige were expressed by the accumulation of wealth. 55
While chariots’ iconography underlines their use in
sixth-century society, the custom of burying them with the
deceased died out in the metropoleis of central Tyrrhenian
italy. 56 This development, which was obviously linked to
changes in funerary customs, does not mean that the twowheeled
vehicle — chariot or cart — was no longer used as
a means of transportation in daily life by high-ranking persons.
57 The sixth-century parade chariots from the Via appia
antica (three miles outside rome), Castro (twelve miles
from Vulci), Castel San mariano (six miles from Perugia),
and Todi, and surely also the Barsanti chariot said to be
from central italy, all come from strategically situated places
in areas outside of (or preceding the formation of) major
urban centers, or from districts such as Valnerina, where
the monteleone chariot comes from (see Section i.C), that
had never been urbanized before the romans. in these very
areas the custom of burying the deceased owners with other
kinds of vehicles continued, whether the vehicles were comparable
to war chariots, that is, able to travel at a fast pace,
or to carts used for various purposes, including ceremonies.
examples are the finds from annifo at Foligno and Gubbio
in the province of Perugia in east central umbria, 58 Tomb 36
of the eretum necropolis in Sabina Tiberina, 59 Pitigliano in
southern Tuscany, and San Giovenale in southern etruria. 60
The custom of burying fast chariots and carts continued
elsewhere, but in areas that were not urbanized until the
roman conquest, such as Piceno, lucania, and daunia. 61
The recent discovery at orvieto of the bronze revetment of a
parade chariot inside a sanctuary, not in a funerary context,
is noteworthy and confirms that in a sixth-century etruscan
metropolis such vehicles were no longer buried in tombs,
although they were still being built and used by the living. 62
i must emphasize that none of the sixth-century parade
chariots found in italy, whether contemporary with the
monteleone vehicle or later, with or without scenes expressing
aristocratic prestige, possesses as complex and coherent
a figural program as the one created by the master of the
monteleone Chariot. The cultural background of this craftsman
will be elucidated in Section iii. The identity of the
person who commissioned the chariot will be discussed
separately in Section iii, because there is reason to believe
that he was not the person who was buried in the tomb with
the vehicle.