CHAPTER FORTY ONE

PRINCELY CHARIOTS AND CARTS

Adriana Emiliozzi

W

hen the Assyrian artists decorated the royal palaces of Kalhu (Nimrud), of
Khorsabad or of Nineveh with the scenes of the conquests, ceremonies or hunts of
their sovereigns (from Tiglathpileser III to Ashurbanipal, between 745 and 627 bc), the
fi gurative arts of the Etruscans included only the timid beginnings of narrative episodes
of mythological character, denying us the possibility of observing the regal lifestyle of
the leaders of these people even through their artistic representations. Thus, while we are
in a position to be able to observe the form and to understand the use of Middle Eastern
chariots between the eighth and seventh centuries bc, although we do not have the
original (vehicles) we do have the odd representation to insert directly into the ancient
reality of the remains of the numerous vehicles found in the Etruscan tombs of the same
period. A good example of the oldest is a vase by the Caeretan Painter of the Heptachord
(circa 670 bc), on which the arrival of a warrior on the fi eld of battle echoes that of a
mythical hero: armed with a sword, he descends from the biga (two-horse chariot) driven
by a charioteer, as an attendant rushes up behind the chariot to bring him the rest of the
arms he needs to fi ght on foot, that is, the spear and the round shield (Figs 41.1–41.3).^1
Other scenes with personages in chariots appear during the seventh century bc, but it
will be necessary to wait for the development of the arts in the next century in order to
see more complex scenes of military processions, of parades and of chariot races, carved,
modeled, painted, beaten or incised on monuments of various types.
An accurate list of Etruscan and Italic wheeled vehicles coming from excavations and
known from representations up to 1903 was furnished by Nachod 1909 (43–71). In
1978, Woytowitsch published a systematic collection of the remains of actual vehicles
from the Italian peninsula, of representations and of small scale models, while Stary in
1980 and 1981, and other authors (also in the 1980s) have discussed the function of
the chariot in Etruria.^2 The exhibition Carri da guerra e principi etruschi (Emiliozzi 1997)
inaugurated the era of modern studies for the reconstruction – graphic and material – of
the princely Etruscan and Italic vehicles datable between the last decades of the eighth
and the sixth century bc.^3 A new book by Joost Crouwel is dedicated to all the vehicles of
pre-Roman Italy, known through representations and models, as well as those buried in