One of the three centaur burials discovered in 1980 by the archaeological Society of Argos Orestiko eight kilometers northeast of Volos, Greece
The plaque on “The Centaur of Volos,” first exhibited in 1980 at the Mansion Art Center in Wisconsin, reads: “One of three centaur burials discovered in 1980 by the archaeological Society of Argos Orestiko eight kilometers northeast of Volos, Greece.” The human bones are real, as are the horse bones. But they were carefully arranged and staged by a guy named Bill Williams. According to research and forensic science writer Dolores Stolze at the Stange Remains forensic anthropology website: In 1980, Bill Williams, artist and professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, constructed the skeletal remains of The Centaur of Volos from real human bones and the bones of a Shetland pony. The human bones that Williams used were from an anatomical specimen, a human skeletal front from India, in the biology department at his university. The human and pony bones were tea-stained to give them a uniform color and make them look authentic.
“The Centaur of Volos” toured a series of colleges in the 1980s before being acquired by the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1994. It is now on permanent display in their Jack E. Reese Gallery at the Hodges Library. In 2008, Williams was commissioned by Skulls Unlimited, a company that sells real bones, both human and other, to create another centaur skeleton, this one posed:
“The Centaur of Tymfi” was exhibited at Arizona’s International Wildlife Museum in 2012 as part of a “Mythological Wildlife” exhibit. It was subsequently purchased by The Barnum Museum in Connecticut. (Fun fact: “The Centaur of Tymfi” actually uses zebra, not horse, bones.) As for why “The Centaur of Volos” was ever created and exhibited, according to Stolze:
The exhibit was designed to encourage students to rely on their critical thinking skills and not accept everything at face value, such as how believable it looks or sounds. Even from a reliable source like a university exhibit or according to Roadside America, Williams “had conceived of the centaur as a way to test the public’s willingness to believe the unbelievable, just as P.T. Barnum did.” In this day and age, I’m relatively certain I could post the “Volos” photos on Facebook and get at least five people to believe it and circulate it.