The evolution of the double-horse chariots from the bronze age to the Hellenistic times

Abstract

Light chariots with spoked wheels were developed initially in Syria or Northern Mesopotamia at about the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and quickly propagated all over Middle East. The two-wheeled horsedrawn chariot was one of the most important inventions in history. It gave humanity its first concept of personal transport, and for two thousand years it was the key technology of war. Information on chariots of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mycenaean and Archaic Greece, China, and Europe, with light and flexible spoked wheels from extant findings of ancient chariots, stone reliefs, and vase paintings is used for a design study of the dual chariot and its evolution in the centuries. Design reconstruction of the dual chariot found in Anyang China is incorporated herewith to prove that its development contains the seeds of a primitive design activity.