chariots

A chariot is a type of vehicle similar to a cart, driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 1950–1880 BC and are depicted on cylinder seals from Central Anatolia in Kültepe dated to c. 1900 BC. The critical invention that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots was the spoked wheel.

The chariot was a fast, light, open, two-wheeled conveyance drawn by two or more equids (usually horses) that were hitched side by side, and was little more than a floor with a waist-high guard at the front and sides. It was initially used for ancient warfare during the Bronze and Iron Ages, but after its military capabilities had been superseded by light and heavy cavalries, chariots continued to be used for travel and transport, in processions, for games, and in races.

Etymology

The word "chariot" comes from the Latin term ''carrus'' through French ''chariot'', a loanword from Gaulish ''karros''.

In ancient Rome a ''biga'' described a chariot requiring two horses, a '' triga'' three, and a ''quadriga'' four.

Origins

The wheel may have been invented at several places, with early evidence found in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and Slovenia. Evidence of wheeled vehicles appears from the mid 4th millennium BC near-simultaneously in the Northern Caucasus ( Maykop culture), and in Central Europe. These earliest vehicles may have been ox carts. A necessary precursor to the invention of the chariot is the domestication of animals, and specifically domestication of horses – a major step in the development of civilization. Despite the large impact horse domestication has had in transport and communication, tracing its origins has been challenging. Evidence supports horses having been domesticated in the Eurasian Steppes, with studies suggesting the Botai culture in modern-day Kazakhstan were the first, about 3500 BC. Others say horses were domesticated earlier than 3500 BC in Eastern Europe (modern Ukraine and Western Kazakhstan), 6000 years ago.

The spread of spoke-wheeled chariots has been closely associated with early Indo-Iranian migrations. The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta culture burial sites, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare. It is also strongly associated with the ancestors of modern domestic horses, the DOM2 population. (DOM2 horses originated from the Western Eurasia steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don, but not in Anatolia, during the late fourth and early third millennia BC. Their genes may show selection for easier domestication and stronger backs.)

The earliest fully developed spoke-wheeled horse chariots are from the chariot burials of the Andronovo (Timber-Grave) sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka Proto-Indo-Iranian culture in modern Russia and Kazakhstan from around 2000 BC. This culture is at least partially derived from the earlier Yamna culture. It built heavily fortified settlements, engaged in bronze metallurgy on an industrial scale, and practiced complex burial rituals reminiscent of Hindu rituals known from the ''Rigveda'' and the '' Avesta''. Over the next few centuries, the Andronovo culture spread across the steppes from the Urals to the Tien Shan, likely corresponding to the time of early Indo-Iranian cultures.

Not everyone agrees that the Sintashta culture vehicle finds are true chariots.

In 1996, Mary Aiken Littauer and Joost Crouwel wrote:

Peter Raulwing and Stefan Burmeister consider the Sintashta and Krivoe Ozero finds from the steppe to be carts rather than chariots:

Spread by Indo-Europeans

Chariots figure prominently in Indo-Iranian and early European mythology. Chariots are also an important part of both Hindu and Persian mythology, with most of the gods in their pantheon portrayed as riding them. The Sanskrit word for a chariot is ''rátha-'' ( m.), which is cognate with Avestan ''raθa-'' (also m.), and in origin a substantiation of the adjective Proto-Indo-European ' meaning "having wheels", with the characteristic accent shift found in Indo-Iranian substantivisations. This adjective is in turn derived from the collective noun ' "wheels", continued in Latin ''rota'', which belongs to the noun ' for "wheel" (from ' "to run") that is also found in Germanic, Celtic and Baltic (Old High German ''rad'' n., Old Irish ''roth'' m., Lithuanian ''rãtas'' m.). Nomadic tribes of the Pontic steppes, like Scythians such as Hamaxobii, would travel in wagons, carts, and chariots during their migrations.

Hittites

The oldest testimony of chariot warfare in the ancient Near East is the Old Hittite Anitta text (18th century BC), which mentions 40 teams of horses (in the original cuneiform spelling: 40 ''ṢÍ-IM-TI'' ANŠE.KUR.RA^ḪI.A) at the siege of Salatiwara. Since the text mentions ''teams'' rather than ''chariots'', the existence of chariots in the 18th century BC is uncertain. The first certain attestation of chariots in the Hittite empire dates to the late 17th century BC (Hattusili I). A Hittite horse-training text is attributed to Kikkuli the Mitanni (15th century BC).

The Hittites were renowned charioteers. They developed a new chariot design that had lighter wheels, with four spokes rather than eight, and that held three rather than two warriors. It could hold three warriors because the wheels were placed in the middle of the chariot and not at the back as in Egyptian chariots. Typically one Hittite warrior steered the chariot while the second man was usually the main archer; the third warrior would either wield a spear or sword when charging at enemies or hold up a large shield to protect himself and the others from enemy arrows.

Hittite prosperity largely depended on their control of trade routes and natural resources, specifically metals. As the Hittites gained dominion over Mesopotamia, tensions flared among the neighboring Assyrians, Hurrians, and Egyptians. Under Suppiluliuma I, the Hittites conquered Kadesh and, eventually, the whole of Syria. The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC is likely to have been the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving over 5,000 chariots.

Bronze Age Indian Subcontinent

Models of single axled, solid wheeled ox-drawn vehicles, have been found at several mature Indus Valley cites, such as Chanhudaro, Daimabad, Harappa, and Nausharo. While the late Harappan site of Pirak, Pakistan, offers evidence of true horses present in South Asia, from c. 1700 BC.

Spoked-wheeled, horse-drawn chariots, often carrying an armed passenger, are depicted in second millennium BC Chalcolithic period rock paintings, examples are known from Chibbar Nulla, Chhatur Bhoj Nath Nulla, and Kathotia. There are some depictions of chariots among the petroglyphs in the sandstone of the Vindhya range. Two depictions of chariots are found in Morhana Pahar, Mirzapur district. One depicts a biga and the head of the driver. The second depicts a quadriga, with six-spoked wheels, and a driver standing up in a large chariot box. This chariot is being attacked. One figure, who is armed with a shield and a mace, stands in the chariot's path; another figure, who is armed with a bow and arrow, threatens the right flank. It has been suggested (speculated) that the drawings record a story, most probably dating to the early centuries BC, from some center in the area of the Ganges–Yamuna plain into the territory of still Neolithic hunting tribes. The very realistic chariots carved into the Sanchi stupas are dated to roughly the 1st century CE.

Bronze Age solid-disk wheel carts were found in 2018 at Sinauli, which were interpreted by some as horse-pulled "chariots," predating the arrival of the horse-centered Indo-Aryans. They were ascribed by Sanjay Manjul, director of the excavations, to the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP)/ Copper Hoard Culture, which was contemporaneous with the Late Harappan culture, and interpreted by him as horse-pulled chariots. Majul further noted that "the rituals relating to the Sanauli burials showed close affinity with Vedic rituals. According to Asko Parpola these finds were ox-pulled carts, indicating that these burials are related to an early Aryan migration of Proto-Indo-Iranian speaking people into the Indian subcontinent, "forming then the ruling elite of a major Late Harappan settlement."

Horse-drawn chariots, as well as their cult and associated rituals, were spread by the Indo-Iranians, and horses and horse-drawn chariots were introduced in India by the Indo-Aryans. These Aryan people migrated southward into South Asia, ushering in the Vedic period around 1750 BC.

In religion

In ''Rigveda'', Indra is described as strong willed, armed with a thunderbolt, riding a chariot:Among Rigvedic deities, notably the Vedic Sun God Surya rides on a one spoked chariot driven by his charioteer Aruṇa. Ushas (the dawn) rides in a chariot, as well as Agni in his function as a messenger between gods and men.

The Jain Bhagavi Sutra states that Indian troops used a chariot with a club or mace attached to it during the war against the Licchavis during the reign of Ajatashatru of Magadha.

Hindu symbolism

In Hindu mythology, the chariot (ratha) is a powerful symbol representing divine movement and cosmic order. The most famous depiction is in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna serves as Arjuna's charioteer, guiding him through the moral and spiritual dilemmas of the Kurukshetra War. Symbolically, the chariot represents the human body, the horses symbolize the senses, and the charioteer (''Atman'') represents the higher self controlling the mind.

Persia

The Persians succeeded Elam in the mid 1st millennium. They may have been the first to yoke four horses to their chariots. They also used scythed chariots. Cyrus the Younger employed these chariots in large numbers at the Battle of Cunaxa.

Herodotus mentions that the Ancient Libyan and the Ancient Indian ( Sattagydia, Gandhara and Hindush) satrapies supplied cavalry and chariots to Xerxes the Great's army. However, by this time, cavalry was far more effective and agile than the chariot, and the defeat of Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC), where the army of Alexander simply opened their lines and let the chariots pass and attacked them from behind, marked the end of the era of chariot warfare (barring the Seleucid and Pontic powers, India, China, and the Celtic peoples).

Introduction in the Near East

Chariots were introduced in the Near East in the 17(18)th–16th centuries BC. Some scholars argue that the horse chariot was most likely a product of the ancient Near East early in the 2nd millennium BC. Archaeologist Joost Crouwel writes that "Chariots were not sudden inventions, but developed out of earlier vehicles that were mounted on disk or cross-bar wheels. This development can best be traced in the Near East, where spoke-wheeled and horse-drawn chariots are first attested in the earlier part of the second millennium BC..." and were illustrated on a Syrian cylinder seal dated to either the 18th or 17th century BC.

Early wheeled vehicles in the Near East

According to Christoph Baumer, the earliest discoveries of wheels in Mesopotamia come from the first half of the third millennium BC – more than half a millennium later than the first finds from the Kuban region. At the same time, in Mesopotamia, some intriguing early pictograms of a sled that rests on wooden rollers or wheels have been found. They date from about the same time as the early wheel discoveries in Europe and may indicate knowledge of the wheel.Christoph Baumer
''The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors''.
I.B. Tauris, 2012 p. 90

The earliest depiction of vehicles in the context of warfare is on the Standard of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, . These are more properly called wagons which were double-axled and pulled by oxen or a hybrid of a donkey and a female onager, named Kunga in the city of Nagar which was famous for breeding them. The hybrids were used by the Eblaite, early Sumerian, Akkadian and Ur III armies. The seal depicts a line of vehicles, each carrying a standing charioteer (driver), accompanied by a standing axe or spearman, with a rack of three to four spare spears, driving over a smattering of dead bodies. Such heavy wagons, borne on solid wooden wheels and covered with skins, may have been part of the baggage train (e.g., during royal funeral processions) rather than vehicles of battle in themselves.

The Sumerians had a lighter, two-wheeled type of cart, pulled by four asses, and with solid wheels. The spoked wheel did not appear in Mesopotamia until the mid second millennium BC.

Egypt

Chariot use made its way into Egypt around 1650 BC during the Hyksos invasion of Egypt and establishment of the Fourteenth Dynasty. In 1659 BC the Indo-European Hittites sacked Babylon, which demonstrated the superiority of chariots in antiquity.

The chariot and horse were used extensively in Egypt by the Hyksos invaders from the 16th century BC onwards, though discoveries announced in 2013 potentially place the earliest chariot use as early as Egypt's Old Kingdom (–2181 BC). In the remains of Egyptian and Assyrian art, there are numerous representations of chariots, which display rich ornamentation. The chariots of the Egyptians and Assyrians, with whom the bow was the principal arm of attack, were richly mounted with quivers full of arrows. The Egyptians invented the yoke saddle for their chariot horses in . As a general rule, the Egyptians used chariots as mobile archery platforms; chariots always had two men, with the driver steering the chariot with his reins while the main archer aimed his bow and arrow at any targets within range. The best preserved examples of Egyptian chariots are the four specimens from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Chariots can be pulled by two or more horses.

Ancient Canaan and Israel

Chariots are frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Tanakh