- chapter 41: Princely chariots and carts –
Figure 41.8 The fast chariot from Vulci, Tomba del Carro di Bronzo, 1:1 model
(project by A. Emiliozzi, drawing by G. Corsi, model by C. Usai).Figure 41.9 The fast chariot from Vulci, Tomba del Carro di Bronzo. Bronze sheeting of the front
panel. Photograph E. Bianchi.symbol of power ceased. However, in the peripheral centers, which had remained alien
to the phenomenon of urbanization and of the process of the isonomic transformation
of society, some aristocratic groups in fact acquired just that custom, and they have left
us the most beautiful chariots ever built in the Italic peninsula. The characteristic that
they share is their projected use, exclusively ceremonial, given that in their construction
they were not designed for rapid travel. Functional innovations were introduced in the
construction of their wooden structure, which in some cases could be completely covered
in sheet bronze, from the chariot body to the wheels and from the draft pole to the yoke,
as shown in the parade chariots from Castel San Mariano near Perugia^8 (Figs 41.10 and
41.11), and in the splendid chariot preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, which came from Monteleone di Spoleto but was built in Etruria (Emiliozzi 2011).