As
David W. Anthony writes in his book
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language, in Eastern Europe, the earliest well-dated depiction of a wheeled vehicle (a wagon with two axles and four wheels) is on the
Bronocice pot (). It is a clay pot excavated in a
Funnelbeaker settlement in
Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship in Poland. The oldest securely dated real wheel-axle combination in Eastern Europe is the
Ljubljana Marshes Wheel ().
Greece at
Mycenae, c. 1600 BC|239x239px The later
Greeks of the first millennium BC had a (still not very effective)
cavalry arm (indeed, it has been argued that these early horseback riding soldiers may have given rise to the development of the later, heavily armed foot-soldiers known as hoplites), and the rocky terrain of the
Greek mainland was unsuited for wheeled vehicles. The chariot was heavily used by the Mycaenean Greeks, most probably adopted from the Hittites, around 1600 BC.
Linear B tablets from Mycenaean palaces record large inventories of chariots, sometimes with specific details as to how many chariots were assembled or not (i.e. stored in modular form). On a gravestone from the royal Shaft-grave V in Mycenae dated LH II (about 1500 BC) there is one of the earliest depiction of the chariot in Achaean art. This sculpture shows a single man driving a two-wheeled small box chariot. Later the vehicles were used in games and processions, notably for races at the
Olympic and
Panathenaic Games and other public festivals in ancient Greece, in
hippodromes and in contests called
agons. They were also used in ceremonial functions, as when a
paranymph, or friend of a bridegroom, went with him in a chariot to fetch the bride home.
Herodotus (
Histories, 5. 9) Reports that chariots were widely used in the
Pontic–
Caspian steppe by the
Sigynnae. Greek chariots were made to be drawn by two
horses attached to a central pole. If two additional horses were added, they were attached on each side of the main pair by a single bar or
trace fastened to the front or
prow of the chariot, as may be seen on two prize
vases in the
British Museum from the
Panathenaic Games at
Athens, Greece, in which the driver is seated with feet resting on a board hanging down in front close to the legs of the horses. The biga itself consists of a seat resting on the axle, with a rail at each side to protect the driver from the wheels. Greek chariots appear to have lacked any other attachment for the horses, which would have made turning difficult. The body or
basket of the chariot rested directly on the
axle (called
beam) connecting the two wheels. There was no
suspension, making this an uncomfortable form of transport. At the front and sides of the basket was a semicircular guard about 3 ft (1 m) high, to give some protection from enemy attack. At the back the basket was open, making it easy to mount and dismount. There was no seat, and generally only enough room for the driver and one passenger. The reins were mostly the same as those in use in the 19th century, and were made of leather and ornamented with studs of ivory or metal. The reins were passed through rings attached to the
collar bands or yoke, and were long enough to be tied round the waist of the charioteer to allow for defense. The wheels and basket of the chariot were usually of wood, strengthened in places with bronze or iron. The wheels had from four to eight spokes and tires of bronze or iron. Due to the widely spaced spokes, the rim of the chariot wheel was held in tension over comparatively large spans. Whilst this provided a small measure of shock absorption, it also necessitated the removal of the wheels when the chariot was not in use, to prevent warping from continued weight bearing. Most other nations of this time had chariots of similar design to the Greeks, the chief differences being the mountings. According to Greek mythology, the chariot was invented by
Erichthonius of Athens to conceal his feet, which were those of a dragon. The most notable appearance of the chariot in Greek mythology occurs when
Phaëton, the son of
Helios, in an attempt to drive the chariot of the sun, managed to set the earth on fire. This story led to the archaic meaning of a
phaeton as one who drives a chariot or coach, especially at a reckless or dangerous speed.
Plato, in his
Chariot Allegory, depicted a chariot drawn by two horses, one well behaved and the other troublesome, representing opposite impulses of human nature; the task of the charioteer, representing reason, was to stop the horses from going different ways and to guide them towards enlightenment. The
Greek word for chariot, ἅρμα,
hárma, is also used nowadays to denote a
tank, properly called άρμα μάχης,
árma mákhēs, literally a "combat chariot". File:Delphi charioteer front DSC06255.JPG|The
Charioteer of Delphi was dedicated to the god
Apollo in 474 BC by the tyrant of
Gela in commemoration of a
Pythian racing victory at
Delphi. File:Atenas, Estoa de Átalo 18.jpg|Chariot, armed warrior and his driver. Greece, 4th century BC File:Racing chariot. Fresco from Lucanian tomb.jpg|Fresco depicting an
Italic chariot from the Lucanian tomb, 4th century BC. File:The Abduction of Persephone by Pluto, Amphipolis.jpg|A
mosaic of the
Kasta Tomb in
Amphipolis depicting the abduction of
Persephone by
Pluto, 4th century BC. File:2547 - Milano - Museo archeologico - Piatto apulo - Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto - 1 feb 2014.jpg|The
goddess Nike riding on a two-horse chariot, from an
Apulian
patera (tray),
Magna Graecia, 4th century BC. File:Parade charriots Louvre CA2503.jpg|Procession of chariots on a
Late Geometric amphora from Athens (–700 BC).
Central and Northern Europe in
a double burial, c. 15th century BC (the
Nordic Bronze Age) The
Trundholm sun chariot is dated to c. 1500-1300 BC (see:
Nordic Bronze Age). The horse drawing the solar disk runs on four wheels, and the Sun itself on two. All wheels have four spokes. The "chariot" comprises the solar disk, the axle, and the wheels, and it is unclear whether the sun is depicted as the chariot or as the passenger. Nevertheless, the presence of a model of a
horse-drawn vehicle on two spoked wheels in Northern Europe at such an early time is astonishing. In addition to the Trundholm chariot, there are numerous
petroglyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age that depict chariots. One petroglyph, drawn on a stone slab in a
double burial from c. 1000 BC, depicts a biga with two four-spoked wheels. The use of the
composite bow in chariot warfare is not attested in northern Europe.
Western Europe The
Celts were famous for their chariots and modern English words like
car,
carriage and
carry are ultimately derived from the native
Brythonic language (
Modern Welsh:
Cerbyd). The word
chariot itself is derived from the
Norman French charriote and shares a Celtic root (
Gaulish:
karros). Some 20
iron-aged chariot burials have been excavated in Britain, roughly dating from between 500 BC and 100 BC. Virtually all of them were found in
East Yorkshire – the exception was a find in 2001 in
Newbridge, 10 km west of
Edinburgh. chariot burial, France,
La Tène culture, c. 450 BC The Celtic chariot, which may have been called in
Gaulish (compare Latin ), was a
biga that measured approximately in width and in length. British chariots were open in front.
Julius Caesar provides the only significant eyewitness report of British chariot warfare: Chariots play an important role in
Irish mythology surrounding the hero
Cú Chulainn. (), a vessel of
Archaic Greek workmanship found in a
Gallic burial. Chariots could also be used for ceremonial purposes. According to
Tacitus (
Annals 14.35),
Boudica, queen of the
Iceni and a number of other tribes in a formidable uprising against the occupying Roman forces, addressed her troops from a chariot in 61: : "Boudicca curru filias prae se vehens, ut quamque nationem accesserat, solitum quidem Britannis feminarum ductu bellare testabatur" :
Boudicca, with her daughters before her in a chariot, went up to tribe after tribe, protesting that it was indeed usual for Britons to fight under the leadership of women. The last mention of chariot use in battle seems to be at the
Battle of Mons Graupius, somewhere in modern Scotland, in 84 CE. From
Tacitus (
Agricola 1.35–36) "The plain between resounded with the noise and with the rapid movements of chariots and cavalry." The chariots did not win even their initial engagement with the Roman auxiliaries: "Meantime the enemy's cavalry had fled, and the charioteers had mingled in the engagement of the infantry." Later through the centuries, the chariot was replaced by the "
war wagon". The "war wagon" was a
medieval development used to attack rebel or enemy forces on battle fields. The wagon was given slits for archers to shoot enemy targets, supported by infantry using pikes and flails and later for the invention of gunfire by hand-gunners; side walls were used for protection against archers, crossbowmen, the early use of gunpowder and cannon fire. It was especially useful during the
Hussite Wars, c. 1420, by
Hussite forces rebelling in
Bohemia. Groups of them could form defensive works, but they also were used as hardpoints for Hussite formations or as firepower in pincer movements. This early use of gunpowder and innovative tactics helped a largely peasant infantry stave off attacks by the
Holy Roman Empire's larger forces of mounted
knights.
Etruria at the Met (c. 530 BC) The only intact
Etruscan chariot dates to c. 530 BC and was uncovered as part of a
chariot burial at
Monteleone di Spoleto. Currently in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is decorated with bronze plates decorated with detailed low-relief scenes, commonly interpreted as depicting episodes from the life of
Achilles.
Rome is a set of Roman or Greek
bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a
quadriga. They date from late
Classical Antiquity and were long displayed at the
Hippodrome of Constantinople. In 1204 AD,
Doge Enrico Dandolo sent them to Venice as part of the loot sacked from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. In the
Roman Empire, chariots were not used for warfare, but for
chariot racing, especially in
circuses, or for triumphal processions, when they could be pulled by as many as ten horses or even by dogs, tigers, or ostriches. There were four divisions, or
factiones, of charioteers, distinguished by the colour of their costumes: the red, blue, green and white teams. The main centre of chariot racing was the
Circus Maximus, situated in the valley between the
Palatine and
Aventine Hills in Rome. The track could hold 12 chariots, and the two sides of the track were separated by a raised median termed the
spina. Chariot races continued to enjoy great popularity in
Byzantine times, in the
Hippodrome of Constantinople, even after the
Olympic Games had been disbanded, until their decline after the
Nika riots in the 6th century. Byzantium racing factions and races continued, to some extent, until the imperial court was moved to
Blachernae during the 12th century. The starting gates were known as the Carceres. An ancient Roman car or chariot pulled by four horses abreast together with the horses pulling it was called a
Quadriga, from the Latin
quadriugi (of a team of four). The term sometimes meant instead the four horses without the chariot or the chariot alone. A three-horse chariot, or the three-horse team pulling it, was a
triga, from
triugi (of a team of three). A two-horse chariot, or the two-horse team pulling it, was a
biga, from
biugi. A popular legend that has been around since at least 1937 traces the origin of the 4 ft in
standard railroad gauge to Roman times, suggesting that it was based on the distance between the ruts of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the
Roman Empire. There is no evidence of the distance being used in the millennium and a half between the departure of the Romans from Britain and the adoption of the gauge on the
Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. == Introduction in Ancient China ==