05-12-2006, 10:15 PM
"An ancient king's war chariot found in a tomb near Rome has helped rewrite the history of the Romans and their Sabine rivals .
"This chariot is an exceptional find," said archaeologist Paola Santoro .
"It shows that the city of Ereteum remained independent long after the Sixth Century BC." "In other Sabine cities like Custumerium, conquered by the Romans, the custom of putting regal objects in king's tombs had died out by that time" .
"We can say that Eretum kept its independence until the Fourth Century BC." Santoro said her team had recovered all the metal parts of the bronze-and-iron decorated chariot and had used echo-soundings to trace the imprints of the long-decayed wooden parts .
"This will enable us to reconstruct the whole chariot," she said .
The chariot, which accompanied the king on his last journey, was placed at the entrance to the tomb, the largest chamber tomb ever found in Italy .
Santoro's team have also found an Etruscan-style terracotta throne - "a metre high, worthy of the king's stature" - and four large bronze cauldrons with bull-hoof supports .
Less than a dozen of this type of cauldron had been discovered before, Santoro said .
The tomb was found in the main room in the three-room complex, next to a wall recess where a wooden coffin containing the king's ashes would have been placed .
The horses that had drawn the chariot would have been sacrificed at the entrance to this room, Santoro said . "#
[url:t5fwi2xw]http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mharrsch/2006_05_01_romanarch_archive.html#114746737591915385[/url]
"This chariot is an exceptional find," said archaeologist Paola Santoro .
"It shows that the city of Ereteum remained independent long after the Sixth Century BC." "In other Sabine cities like Custumerium, conquered by the Romans, the custom of putting regal objects in king's tombs had died out by that time" .
"We can say that Eretum kept its independence until the Fourth Century BC." Santoro said her team had recovered all the metal parts of the bronze-and-iron decorated chariot and had used echo-soundings to trace the imprints of the long-decayed wooden parts .
"This will enable us to reconstruct the whole chariot," she said .
The chariot, which accompanied the king on his last journey, was placed at the entrance to the tomb, the largest chamber tomb ever found in Italy .
Santoro's team have also found an Etruscan-style terracotta throne - "a metre high, worthy of the king's stature" - and four large bronze cauldrons with bull-hoof supports .
Less than a dozen of this type of cauldron had been discovered before, Santoro said .
The tomb was found in the main room in the three-room complex, next to a wall recess where a wooden coffin containing the king's ashes would have been placed .
The horses that had drawn the chariot would have been sacrificed at the entrance to this room, Santoro said . "#
[url:t5fwi2xw]http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~mharrsch/2006_05_01_romanarch_archive.html#114746737591915385[/url]
Cristina
The Hoplite Association
[url:n2diviuq]http://www.hoplites.org[/url]
The enemy is less likely to get wind of an advance of cavalry, if the orders for march were passed from mouth to mouth rather than announced by voice of herald, or public notice. Xenophon
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The Hoplite Association
[url:n2diviuq]http://www.hoplites.org[/url]
The enemy is less likely to get wind of an advance of cavalry, if the orders for march were passed from mouth to mouth rather than announced by voice of herald, or public notice. Xenophon
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