Wheel 5

Notes
1.An earlier version of this paper was submitted as an M.A. thesis to the Committee on Regional Studies--East Asia, Harvard University in May 1997. It has since been revised and expanded. I would like to thank Robert W. Bagley, David N. Keightley, and Victor H. Mair for their critique of the original paper and for their subsequent suggestions and assistance.
2.Stuart Piggott, "The Chinese Chariot: An Outsider's View," inArts of the Eurasian Steppelands, ed. Philip Denwood (London: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 1978), 32-51; Stuart Piggott,Wagon, Chariot, and Carriage: Symbol and Status in the History of Transport(London: Thames and Hudson, 1992).
3.For a discussion and illustration of wheeled toys from Mexico, see: Gordon Frederick Ekholm, "Wheeled Toys in Mexico,"American Antiquity11 (1946): 222-8; Earl L. Stendahl, "Wheeled Toys,"Masterkey24 (1950): 160-2; Matthew William Stirling, "Wheeled Toys from Tres Zapotes, Veracruz,"Amerindia1 (1962): 43-9.
4.For a compelling study proposing environmental causes for the disparity between the two continents, see Jared Diamond,Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies(New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997).
5.M.A. Littauer and J.H. Crouwel,Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1979), 13-14.
6.Ibid., 15-20.
7.Ibid., 20-2.
8.Ibid., 50-72.
9.Ibid., 65.
10.M.A. Littauer and J.H. Crouwel,Chariots and Related Equipment from the Tomb of Tutankhamun(Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1985).
11.Littauer and Crouwel,Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals, 137.
12.Ibid., 152-3.
13.Stuart Piggott,The Earliest Wheeled Transport: from the Atlantic coast to the Caspian Sea(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983), 1-63; Piggott,Wagon, Chariot, and Carriage.
14.Stuart Piggott, "Bronze Age Chariot Burials in the Urals,"Antiquity49 (1975): 289-90.
15.Piggott,Wagon, Chariot, and Carriage, 58-63.
16.Piggott,The Earliest Wheeled Transport, 128-30.
17.Piggott,Wagon, Chariot, and Carriage, 71-3.
18.C. Margabandhu, "Technology of Transport Vehicles in Early India," inRadiocarbon and Indian Archaeology, ed. D.P. Agrawal and A. Ghosh. (Bombay: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1973), 182-8.
19.M. Sparreboom,Chariots in the Veda(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985).
20.Ibid., 93-118.
21.Unlike the earlier bulky carts, the frame of the chariot was flexible, allowing it to travel rough terrain without shaking apart. This was accomplished through a construction technique which avoided the use of nails or rigid joints in favor of light timbers lashed with leather straps. Such construction allowed the vehicle to respond to the terrain like the horses which pulled it, flexing a skeleton connected by sinews. Nevertheless, lightly-built chariot parts did break frequently. The timber and leather modular construction did allow the driver to replace various parts in the field and disassemble the vehicle when needed to reduce the stress on its parts. Thus, the chariot was both powerful and fragile, much like a modern thoroughbred horse.
22.Piggott,Wagon, Chariot, and Carriage,63.
23.Edward L Shaughnessy, "Historical Perspectives on the Introduction of the Chariot into China,"Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies48.1 (1988): 208.
24.Ibid., 192.