Chariots

[Vidhyanath Rao]

JoatSimeon at aol.com wrote:
> It's a light bentwood-construction vehicle with two
> spoked wheels pulled by paired draught horses.

You mean that the actual chariot was found. My understanding,
based on photographs, (and what Littauer and Crowell explicitely
say) is that only indentations made by the wheels and the axle part
extending out were found, and the superstructure was fully
decayed away. If a photograph (not a skectch) of whatever superstructure
was ever found, I would like a reference.

> And all chariots used neck-yokes, until the invention of the horse collar.

No. Spruytte, based on representations, showed that Classical greeks
used a dorsal yoke and what is a primitive version of breast traction.
His experiments with reconstructions based on chariots found in Tut's
tomb prove that traction comes from the yoke saddles (neck forks) and
not from the bands arounds the horses' necks. There is enormous
difference between the two that cannot be waved away.

-Nath