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For the first time in the Indian subcontinent, a series of royal burials with chariots have been recovered from the Chalcolithic period at the archaeological site Sinauli (29°8′28″N; 77°13′1″E), Baghpat district, western Uttar Pradesh, India. Eight burials were excavated from the site; among them a royal burial with copper decorated legged coffin (lid with a series of anthropomorphic figures) and headgear has also been recovered. Among these remarkable discoveries, three full-sized chariots made of wood and copper, and a sword with a wooden hilt, made this site unique at historical ground. These cultural findings signify that the ancients from this place were involved in warfare. All these recovered exclusive antiquities also proved the sophistication and the high degree of craftsmanship of the artisans. According to the 14C radiocarbon dating and recovered material culture, the site date back to 4000 yr BP (∼2000 BCE) and is thought to belong to Ochre-Coloured Pottery (OCP)/Copper Hoard culture. This culture was believed to develop in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab and was contemporary to the late phase of the Indus civilization. Altogether, the findings indicate that the time period of this culture is plausibly contemporary to Late Indus, Mesopotamian and Greece civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iconic Dupljaja chariot model from the Carpathian Basin informs us on cosmologies and technologies of Bronze Age societies in Europe between 1600 and 1200 BC. It communicates key elements of religious imagery and ritual practice alongside technical features of working chariots. Through a detailed reappraisal employing use-wear, compositional, and iconographic analyses as well as 3D modelling of the chariot model, the authors explore the social context of its creation and use. Integrating functional wheels with four spokes and iconographic depictions of the similar cross-in-circle symbol, the Dupljaja chariot combines and cross-references motifs with pan-European relevance in the Bronze Age. The study aims to better understand the interplay between the local and regional context of the Dupljaja chariot and how its distinct features arose from the material and ideological networks defining later Bronze Age Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

В последнее десятилетие всё чаще поднимаются вопросы возникновения и развития колесничества и верховой езды в Евразии. Этому способствует активизация археозоологических исследований, позволяющих по следам на зубах, изменениям и деформации костей лошадей определить степень и формы их использования. В статье анализируются особенности захоронения лошадей в могильниках Вандаху (V—III вв. до н. э.) и Мацзяюань (III—II вв. до н. э.) скифоидной культуры янлан с привлечением результатов детального археозоологического изучения конских черепов из Вандаху. Все имеющиеся данные однозначно указывают, что некоторые умершие в Вандаху погребались как воины-колесничие с оружием и черепами четвёрок лошадей со следами воздействия удил на зубах, колесничными псалиями и деталями колесниц. Материалы элитных захоронений в Мацзяюань с реальными колесницами и костяками лошадей подтвердили заключение о принадлежности черепов из Вандаху колесничным лошадям и показали чрезвычайное конструктивное и функциональное разнообразие колесниц, представленных образцами от боевых и парадных квадриг до больших одноосных повозок, влекомых четвёркой быков. Полученные данные из оставленных западными жунами могильников Вандаху и Мацзяюань демонстрируют только использование колесниц. Свидетельств верховой езды нет. Однако, согласно имеющимся письменным древнекитайским источникам, западные жуны были хорошими всадниками, которых привлекали в кавалерию армии Цинь. Косвенным подтверждением тому является наличие в терракотовой армии Цинь того же времени (вторая половина III в. до н. э.) верховых лошадей с сёдлами степного типа.

Given the ubiquity of coerced military service and draconian punishments for dereliction of soldierly duty in the ancient world, one would not expect to find evidence of exemptions from this duty in ancient records. Yet this is exactly what one encounters in the warfare laws of Deuteronomy 20, where four deferments from the army are offered to Israelite men. Still, many scholars have doubted whether these exemptions reflect actual military regulations at any time in Israel's history. In this article, I examine the exemption for the man described as "afraid" and "disheartened" in Deut 20:8 and argue that sound military rationale exists to support its use in the context of a militia fighting force like that envisioned by Deuteronomy. I discuss cavalry and chariot tactics--as the enemy army described in Deuteronomy 20 possesses "horses and chariots" (v. 1)--and demonstrate how dismissing the inordinately fearful from an infantry militia facing mounted units would increase the chances of that militia withstanding the enemy. I also describe the techniques that make the "coward's deferment" of Deut 20:8 more appealing and enticing for the frightened soldier to accept; studies of military psychology have shown that, without such encouragement, very few men who should depart from the lines would actually do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Israelite-Judaean Military Service in the Armies of Assyria has not been fully discussed, and this article is an attempt to offer a fuller picture of this phenomenon. This article is composed of two parts. The first will concentrate and discuss all the evidence we have for Israelite and Judaean units that were absorbed into the Assyrian army, which will be used as a foundation for the second half of the article. All this will attempt to show that the inscription detailing the Assyrian capture of 200 Israeli chariots, rather than 50 as is written in two other inscriptions, is the more accurate one, and then discuss the implications of such a conclusion. The second part is the first attempt to concentrate all the names of possible Assyrian soldiers who are of Israelite and/or Judaean origin. The first and second parts together encompass the first attempt to concentrate all the evidence for Israelite and Judaean service in the Assyrian army in one place. This will prove that Israelites and Judaeans served in the Assyrian army in a continuous manner from at least the fall of Samaria until the fall of the Assyrian Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is believed that chariots and cheekpieces for harnessing horses were invented in the steppe in the late 3rd – early 2nd millennium BC. From the steppe, the chariots reached the Carpathians, Mycenae and the Near East. However, these conclusions are based on the use of radiocarbon dates for the steppe complexes and historical ones for the Near Eastern ones. Correlation with the Carpathian materials was made on the basis of chronological schemes outdated for this region. The analysis shows that chariots spread to both regions independently, from the Near East, and the appearance of both chariots and cheekpieces in Mycenaean Greece was associated with the arrival of small elite groups from the Carpathians, probably of Thracian origin. It has made it possible to link the Eastern European and Ural cultures to the historical chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean.

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The study concerns the presence of chariots in Etruscan female burials of the Orientalizing period, with particular regard to the necropolis of Vetulonia and Marsiliana d’Albegna, where, from a careful examination of the contexts, a high concentration of graves with chariot emerges, both male and female. As Gilda Bartoloni in her article “I carri a due ruote femminili del Lazio e dell’Etruria” (1984), I chose to privilege female burials which, in the light of the most recent research and studies, are much more numerous than previously thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The subject of this paper are the new discoveries of antler cheekpieces of horse harness at Trzciniec Culture sites in Morawianki, Miechów and Jakuszowice (Little Poland, Poland). It also addresses the issue of double horse burials being parts of sepulchral complexes, with barrows at their centres. The article tackles the problem of the occurrence of such burials and cheekpieces in the Danubian regions, the steppe zone of Eastern Europe and in the territory of Greece. It also considers the function of cheekpieces, as parts of horse gear used for harnessing a horse to a chariot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar crossed into Britain and was immediately engaged in a unique style of warfare. The Iron Age Britons used sturdy and fast two-horse chariots to respond to Roman invasion. This article looks at the tactics of and analyzes aspects of the battle chariot. It assesses the capabilities of the people who fielded the chariot and the means used to sustain their resources and gauge their capabilities. Drawing on both classical and archaeological sources, this article presents a fuller account of Caesar's two trips to Britain in 55-54 B.C. and the British warfare he encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Dilemas Contemporáneos: Educación, Política y Valores is the property of Dilemas Contemporaneos: Educacion, Politica y Valores and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to examine some societal principles that underlie the development of horse-drawn chariots in Inner Eurasia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (cal. 2050-1750 BC). Analysis is based on an evaluation and re-examination of the archaeological evidence for horse-drawn chariots, and the social constructs they entail. Chariots were developed in the zone of the Northern Eurasian steppes before c. 2000 BC in the context of complex but stateless societies. Because chariots depend on a set of developed skills, valuable resources, and complicated technologies, which involve several outstanding improvements to previously known solutions, they require specific conditions for their development and maintenance in social life. Most fundamentally, they require a group of people with an interest in this complex technology: a class of military elites characterized by aggrandizing behavior. The competition between collectives of military elites for resources, power and prestige brought into life the earliest chariot complex in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early Qin Culture refers to the Qin Culture from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring-and-Autumn Period. Considering its cultural composition, we will realize that it has three main sources, namely the Shang, Zhou, and Western Rong (Western Barbarian) Cultures. The elements derived from the Shang Culture comprised the furniture of waist pits and the custom of dog burial in graves, the use of human sacrifice, the interment of chariots and horses, the Shang-style pottery wares and the tradition of constructing huge-scale mausoleums. These elements reflect that the Qin people initially came from the east and had strong ties with the Shang Dynasty and were deeply influenced by the Shang Culture, and belonged to the Yin people (after the fall of the Shang Dynasty) in the broader sense. The elements absorbed from the Zhou Culture comprised the architectural types of ancestral temples and palaces, the adoption of the ritual vessels, the suspended musical instruments, the Zhou style pottery wares and the writing system. These elements indicate that the Qin people adopted the ritual and musical culture of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which had a great political significance at the early stage of Qin's history. The factors derived from the cultures of the Western Rong ethnic group or the northern steppes included the flexed burial position, the golden body ornaments and chariots and horses, iron wares, animal motifs on utensils, recesses on the walls of the burial pits and the ditches around the graves, the use of bronze cauldrons and swords (daggers). Such elements reflect that during the development process in the Longyou region, the Qin people absorbed the cultures of the adjacent Western Rong ethnic group, the Eurasian steppes and farther beyond. The first kind of elements continued to predominate the Qin Culture down to the middle Western Zhou, then the second and the third ones arose from the late Western Zhou to the early Spring-and-Autumn Period, and simultaneously, the first were only present in the aristocratic burial activities. Based on the remnants of the Shang Culture, the early Qin Culture came into being by widely absorbing elements of the Zhou and Western Rong Cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1933, Dorothy Burr published a catalogue of a large Protoattic votive deposit located near the southwest corner of the Athenian Agora. Included within the deposit are a number of terracotta votive shields, horses, and chariots, as well as a remarkably well-preserved terracotta plaque depicting a "Mistress of Snakes." There has long been a consensus among archaeologists that this votive assemblage is indicative of a cult of the dead. A reexamination of the deposit and its context suggests a rather different conclusion: the votives were dedications to Demeter, and came from the Eleusinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with unpublished fragments of sculpture in basalt found at Umm al-Jimāl, a site of a ruined Nabataean-Roman to Byzantine settlement in northern Jordan, six kilometers south of the border with Syria. The sculptures are typical for the southern Syrian volcanic zone of the Hawrān. The site is located at the extreme southern outcrop of this area, today part of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The fragments are contemporary with a better-preserved corpus of similar sculptures investigated by the authors in the basalt desert of al-Ledjā, ancient Trachon(itis). At Umm al-Jimāl, an analogous chariot group driven by deities can be identified by a wheel block with traces of the tail hairs of animals in harness. The assembled figures in human shape with drapery are parallel to the Sahr al-Ledjā statuary. Taking all extant evidence into account, the authors propose recognizing the sculptural remnants from Umm al-Jimāl as testimony of a strongly Hellenistic-Romanized embellishment of a hitherto little-known Arab-Nabataean sanctuary dating to the first or second century AD. This shrine together with its sculptures had most probably been destroyed by the Palmyrenean Campaign in the later third century AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study concerns the function and role of Bronze Age chariots and charioteers as reflected in funerary contexts in the southern Urals. This work focuses on: 1) the presentation of archaeological data recently obtained from the excavation of a burial ground near the village of Stepnoye (southern Trans-Urals, Sintashta, Petrovka and Alakul' cultures); 2) the reconstruction of the social identity of individuals (their gender, age, professional affiliation) buried with the attributes of chariotry. Previous research had largely ignored aspects of gender and age identity and other social aspects of individuals linked with chariotry. Our analysis clearly demonstrates the diversity of 'chariot' burials and the absence of firm rules governing their construction. The grave goods discovered contain attributes of chariot complexes that are quite diverse, including the following elements: weaponry, tools, ornaments, and items and artefacts linked to the production of metal objects. Departing from what has previously been proposed and stereotyped, we suggest that chariotry is likely to have been a part-time activity for some males (although some cheek-pieces were found in children's and women's burials), but most probably not for all men in a community. Archaeologically, we do not see a social group of so-called 'warrior-charioteers' who were exclusively occupied in war or training for it. By comparison, conflict, and the need for defensive structures during the Bronze Age in Europe and the Ural steppe differed dramatically, depending on fundamental environmental, economic, and social differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Celtic tribes migrated into Northern Italy in the late 8th and 7th centuries BC. In 390 BC the Gauls sacked the city of Rome. The Romans believed that they would never be safe while the Gauls threatened their northern frontier, so they colonized the land in the northern part of Picenum in 232 BC. In 225 BC, a huge Gallic army swarmed southwards through Etruria. Some 50,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry and chariots drawn from the Cisalpine Boii, Insubres, Taurisci and Transalpine Gaesatae plundered the region and annihilated the Roman forces at Clusium, 3 days of march north of Rome. At Telamon, however, they were intercepted by two Roman forces (8 legions and allies), approaching them from two opposite directions. The Gauls were forced to deploy their army facing both ways. The line facing rearward, anticipating Aemilius, had the Gaesatae in front and the Insubres behind them. Facing the opposite direction, ready to meet Atilius, were the Taurisci and Boii. Gaesatae (probably javeleeners) fought naked, standing proudly in front of the whole army with nothing but their weapons to protect them. The Insubres and Boii, by contrast, wore trousers and cloaks. The strength of a Gallic attack lay in the fi rst onslaught, its power fuelled by the belief in a glorious afterlife, the desire for fame, and some hysteria fuelled by noise and chanting, and often enhanced by alcohol. Such charges lacked focus and, if repulsed, the Gauls had no strategy for recovery and became desperate. The Roman light infantry javelins inflicted heavy damage on the naked Gaesatae. The Roman maniples armed with a pila, a heavy javelin designed to penetrate the target's shield, and a gladius, a short stabbing sword, attacked the Insubres, Boii and Taurisci. The Gauls were fi nally defeated when they were attacked on their fl ank by the Roman cavalry. The Gallic infantry were cut to pieces, and the cavalry fled. Polybius reports that 40,000 Gauls were killed in the battle. The Battle of Telamon was the last recorded use of chariots in a battle on the European continent. During the 3rd century BC, the cavalry became more signifi cant in Gallic warfare. After this battle, Gallic cavalry would serve as mercenary troops for foreign armies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the life in ancient Egypt based on the discoveries of mummified human remains and burial sites. It first cites the styles and reasons for mummification. The quality of objects found in burial sites indicates the stability of the economy and politics during the rule of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The decoration on the chariots also showed the presence of mining of raw materials and trade.

The article focuses on the conditions and possibility of liberation viewed through the prism of the chariot allegory in pre-classical Indian teachings, the "Mahābhārata" and the "Upaniṣads" and the "Phaedrus" by Plato. Topics include perception of the self in Indian pre-classical thought and soul in ancient Greek teachings as self-moving being and immortal, the Indian teachings preaching the way similar to liberation and allegory of the chariot comparing man to many-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle.

There are estimated to be around 1200 depictions of painted and engraved chariots in Saharan rock art, a number which has doubled in recent years. However, because of the nature of the environmental conditions in the Sahara, the chariot is regarded as having played a minor technological and cultural role, and archaeologists have been criticised for attributing too much importance to these images. This enquiry focuses on the aesthetic component of these depictions, addressing the variation in chariot representations. In reviewing the significance of these depictions beyond their technological significance, the aim is to consider how they functioned socially, culturally and cognitively within a Saharan context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the identification of a full-sized chariot property on the Elizabethan stage in the dramas "Jocasta," "II Tamburlaine," by Christopher Marlowe, "The Wounds of Civil War, or Marius and Scilla," by Thomas Lodge and "Diary," by Philip Henslowe. It discusses the use of war chariots in "Bibliotheca historica," and the use of Jacobean and Caroline stage chariots at Court.

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Chulan Tomb 2 (dated to 171 C.E.) in present-day Suxian, Anhui province, offers the rare opportunity to study the hitherto unknown relationship between multiple depictions of chariot processions--one of the most popular pictorial motifs in Eastern Han funerary art--at different locations in a single cemetery. Comparing this tomb's two chariot processions in stylistic, iconographic, and positional terms, this paper draws attention to a special dragon motif that ornaments a few special chariots and argues that these "dragon chariots," unique among stone carvings of the Eastern Han, were meant to carry the deceased couple, who were buried separately but received joint sacrifices in their shared shrine. Unlike previous studies, which focus on either the shrine or the burial as self-contained units, this paper approaches the entire cemetery as an organic architectural and pictorial nexus without breaking the narrative link between its units. This case study of depictions of chariot processions presents a dynamic view of the afterlife during the Eastern Han dynasty: the burial and the shrine formed two temporary stops rather than permanent homes for the deceased souls, which were ceaselessly traveling on the posthumous road. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first publication of the 'Minstead hoard': a small assemblage of Late Iron Age copper alloy metalwork recovered from the New Forest in the 1950s. The hoard includes a complete set of five chariot terrets, plus three strap unions, all of good quality and condition. This short paper discusses in turn each of the various artefacts that make up the hoard, and suggests a likely date range. Possible reasons for the hoard's deposition are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]