The Golden Chariot
The Etruscan Chariot From Monteleone di Spoleto has had many names. It has been called The Etruscan Chariot, The Golden Chariot, The Monteleone Chariot, Isidoros Chariot, the Vannozzi Chariot, The Stolen Chariot, The New York Chariot and the Metropolitan Museum Chariot. It was called Golden because of the bright brass shine it had in sunlight when it was created in the 6th century BC. It was buried in an Etruscan tomb around 550 BC, the tomb over the millenias came to be know as "Captains Hill". The Chariot was buried with two human corpses (we suppose, the Captain and his wife), along with assorted vases, pins and jewelry, cups, pottery and funerary pieces. All of these pieces of antiquity are of great Archaic Period value. The Craftsman who built the Chariot was a great talent and his work has lasted 2500 years. The Etruscan Chariot may have been built to celebrate "The Captain" and his standing in pre-roman Etruria or it may have been built specifically for the burial of this famed person. It was discovered near Monteleone di Spoleto in Umbria, Italy. Captains Hill ( Colle del Capitano ) is in the area called Ruscio where the Vannozzi Family farm is located. Isidoro was a hard working farmer. Isidoro Vannozzi discovered the Etruscan Burial Tomb while digging into the hill to make either a basement barn, because of a wolf problem in the area, or a wine cellar, or just a basement room, as he was constructing a new home for his growing family from 1897 through 1902. The story goes, that the hill collapsed on the basement and opened up the tomb to the air for the first time in 2500 years. We can all imagine how Isidoro, his wife and kids (for which he was building his bigger house), must have been amazed at what was in this hole in the ground behind were the basement was being dug. The family has many stories about riding on the chariot as children, passed down generations now. The word got around to the surrounding villages, Cassia and Norcia.
There are many contrary stories, about how the Chariot got from this point to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it has resided since the early 1900s. All of them involve intrigue and are fitting for a script of a Raiders of the Lost Arc feature film. The most prominent story has to do with a professor from a language school, or maybe he was an antiques dealer from that village nearby, Norcia. He convinced Isidoro to sell the Chariot for either, 1 or 2 cows, a roof worth of tiles or just enough tiles to cover some of the roof, 930 or 1250 Lire, sheep and/or pigs. The story goes, he was either bamboozeled or was shrewd, no authorities came by or he hid it from those same authorities, or any combination of these. But for a farmer with a family, being able to finish his roof and increase his herd for the farm, this had to be a boon.
The professor/antiques dealer sold it to two middle men who, took the Chariot apart, stored it in giant grain or bean barrels in either Florence or Rome, where it was either taken to France or Holland by two French men or men from Belgium. The Chariot partially rebuilt, ended up in Paris, surrounded by boxes full of chariot parts and tomb antiquities, in the basement vault of the Bank of Lyon the largest bank in the world at that time. And stepping amongst the famous paintings, gold and silver bars was J.P. Morgan, the financier and new head of the Met Museum. Morgan purchased the Chariot with money from the Rogers Fund. All of these stories took place around 1900 to 1905. There were some who wrongly attributed the discovery of the Chariot to the professor/dealer or to forger/thiefs.
It was researched for several years and one stunning announcement after another came from the Metropolitan Museum about one of the great archaeological finds in history. There were posters, postcards and stamps depicting the Chariot. It was the point of discussion for many years in scholarly books and newspaper articles. The Etruscan Chariot was heralded with banners depicting its image, hanging from lamposts on Fifth Ave. The Press went wild.
It was on display from the 1920s until 1989 when it was taken away for research and rehabilitation. The Museum was advised by the most prominent Etruscan specialists in the world and they showed how the archaeologists in the early 1900s, left off pieces and incorrectly reconstructed the Chariot. They discovered elephant and hippo ivory, amber and other unusual markings. The pole and harness for the horses needed to bend and those other pieces discovered in the Museum storage, were put back on the Chariot during this second reconstruction.
The goal was to create a new Roman, Greek and Etruscan gallery at the Museum. It took more years than was hoped, but on April 20th 2007 the Monteleone Chariot was unveiled in the new Etruscan Balcony as the center piece overlooking the new Greek and Roman Galleries, the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court in the South Wing of the Museum. There is a Chariot post card. The New York Times, the Trenton Times and other papers had several articles about the Chariot. CNN had a story about the opening, abcnew.com and National Public Radio had stories on the Chariot. The press was once again enthusiastic about the Golden Chariot.
Someday in the near future there will be a paper regarding the second reconstruction of the Chariot and what was learned. We may learn if there was an accident to the Chariot before it was buried or after it was unearthed or maybe both. We know about the size of the horses and that the Etruscan people were much more that just Greeks on vacation. We can imagine the tremendous wealth it took to build such a chariot and create a burial tomb. And we know that up until Isidoros discovery, time had concealed what this pretty little tree topped hill contained inside.
If you are an interested in the Chariot, a decendant of immigrants from Monteleone to the US, or are a decendant of the Vannozzi Family, there is a fund designed to donate money for up keep and research of the Etruscan Chariot and as a second goal, insure that the story of Isidoro is correctly told as the discoverer of the Chariot in Monteleone.
Please e-mail me at uniter-40249@mypacks.net with your questions or for more details.
