The First Waggons and Carts—from the Tigris to the Severn

V. Gordon Childe

doi:10.1017/S0079497X00018673

The First Waggons and Carts—from the Tigris to the Severn

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2014

V. Gordon Childe

Show author details

V. Gordon Childe: Affiliation:
Director, The Institute of Archaeology, London University

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

At the end of the 12th century A.D. Henry II sent a substantial portion of the provisions and gear for his invasion of Ireland from Abingdon and Oxford to Bristol by cart. At the beginning of the 12th century B.C. a migrating horde from the north conveyed its household goods, women and children to the frontiers of Egypt in ox carts. No doubt the wide alluvial plains of Hither Asia, even before goats and charcoal-burners had stripped them of their parkland vegetation, were more congenial to the use of wheeled vehicles for long distance transport than the temperate forests of Britain and Cis-Alpine Europe. Still even in Asia, I suspect, the first economic use of wheeled vehicles was for the carriage of bulky foodstuffs from the fields, where they were grown, to the settlements, where they were stored and consumed, and of farmyard manure in the opposite direction. It was in this way by allowing a larger population to be fed at a single centre that the invention of the wheel contributed to the Urban Revolution in Mesopotamia. (In Egypt, where all cultivable land lies close to the Nile, boats took the place of carts).

Type: Research Article
Information: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , 1951 , pp. 177 - 194

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00018673 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1951

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 177 note 1} As pointed out by Dr Jope in a lecture to the Society of Antiquaries of London in April, 1951.

^{page 177 note 2} As depicted on the north wall of Ramasses' temple at Medinet Habu.

^{page 177 note 3} In the sequel ‘cart’ means ‘two-wheeled’ and ‘waggon’ ‘four-wheeled vehicle.’

^{page 177 note 4} Childe, , New Light on the Most Ancient East, 1952Google Scholar, pl. XIX, gives the best available illustration.

^{page 177 note 5} cf. van Buren, , ‘Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art,’ Analecta Orientalia, 23, Rome, 1945, 88–90Google Scholar.

^{page 178 note 1} Childe, Dawn, fig. 59, 7.

^{page 178 note 2} e.g. at Gawroniec Hill, a site of the (late) ‘First Northern’ culture near Cmielów, Poland, W.A., XVII, 1950, pl. XXXV.

^{page 178 note 3} ‘Pre-Sargonid Temples of the Diyala Region,’ OIP., LVIII, 1942, 128–31Google Scholar.

^{page 178 note 4} Falkenstein, , Archäische Texte aus Uruk-Warka, (ADFU-W., 2), 1936Google Scholar.

^{page 178 note 5} British Museum Quarterly, VIII, 1934, 38Google Scholar.

^{page 179 note 1} Rev. Ass., XXXIV, 1937, 149Google Scholar; MDP., XXIX, 1943, 103Google Scholar.

^{page 179 note 2} Watelin-Langdon, , Kish, IV, Paris, 1934, 30Google Scholar.

^{page 179 note 3} Woolley, Ur Excavations; 2, The Royal Cemetery, 64 ff., 108 ff.

^{page 179 note 4} M.D.P., XXIX, 104Google Scholar.

^{page 179 note 5} ibid., 103.

^{page 179 note 6} ibid., 89-90; Rev. Ass., XIX, 1922, 137–8Google Scholar.

^{page 180 note 1} So in the copper model from Tell Agrab Frankfort, , ‘More Sculpture of the Third Millennium,’ OIP. LX, 1943, 123Google Scholar.

^{page 180 note 2} Dalton, , The Treasure of the Oxus, 1905, 60, 78Google Scholar, pl. IV.

^{page 180 note 3} see note 6, p. 179.

^{page 182 note 1} see note 1, p. 180.

^{page 183 note 1} Comparatively little metal has been published from this period, but that is because the excavated sites have been mainly temples; an abundance of vessels of lead as well as copper from the unpublished graves at Ur implies a complete mastery of the most difficult metallurgical operations.

^{page 183 note 2} Watelin, op. cit., 30.

^{page 183 note 3} Delougaz, , Pre-Sargonid Temples, 57Google Scholar, fig. 49.

^{page 183 note 4} Vats, , Harappa, 1940, 99–100Google Scholar; Mackay, , Chanhu-daro Excavations, 1943, 162–3Google Scholar.

^{page 183 note 5} Ancient India, 3, 1947, 85Google Scholar.

^{page 183 note 6} Ant. J., IX, 1929, 26–8Google Scholar.

^{page 183 note 7} Excavations at Shah-tepe, Iran (The Sino-Swedish Expedition, Pub. 27), Stockholm, 1945, 262Google Scholar.

^{page 184 note 1} Pumpelly, , Explorations in Turkestan, 1908, 172Google Scholar.

^{page 184 note 2} Stratigraphie comparee de l'Asie occtdentale, 592.

^{page 184 note 3} Tobler, , Excavations at Tepe Gawra, II, 1949, 167Google Scholar. Note. The levels at Tepe Gawra, as at Chager Bazar, were numbered from the top downwards.

^{page 184 note 4} Speiser, , Excavations at Tepe Gawra, I, 1935Google Scholar, pl. XXXV.

^{page 184 note 5} Iraq, III, 1936, 21Google Scholar.

^{page 184 note 6} Iraq, IX, 1947, 26Google Scholar.

^{page 184 note 7} In the Ashmolean Museum.

^{page 184 note 8} Inghold, , Rapport préliminaire sur sept campagnes de fouilles à Hama, Copenhagen, 1940Google Scholar.

^{page 184 note 9} Syria, XI, pl. XXXIV.

^{page 184 note 10} One in the Louvre (AO.2773; Rev. Ass., VII, 1910, 117Google Scholar), the other in Stockholm (Statens Historiska Museet, 14, 305; ESA., X, 1936, 87–9Google Scholar); in the Louvre model the high dash-board and part of the pole, missing from our Plate IX are preserved.

^{page 184 note 11} Evans, , Palace of Minos, IV, 808Google Scholar.

^{page 184 note 12} Kuftin, , Trialeti, 95Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 1} S.A., X, 1948, 147–56.

^{page 186 note 2} S.A., VI, 79; for the dating see Krivtsova-Grakova, K.S., XVI, 1947, 32–3.

^{page 186 note 3} Berg, Gösta, ‘Sledges and Wheeled Vehicles,’ Nordiska Museets Handlingar, 4, 1935, 117–8Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 4} Aarbøger, 1907, 75–7Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 5} Aarbøger, 1920, 90Google Scholar.

^{page 186 note 6} I have to thank Dr C. J. Becker for information about this unpublished find and for showing me the wheels in the National Museum, Copenhagen, in May, 1951.

^{page 187 note 1} Montelius, , Civilisation prim. en Italie, IGoogle Scholar, pl. B.13.

^{page 187 note 2} Munro, , Lake Dwellings, 1890, 206–9Google Scholar; cf. Mötefindt, , Mannus, X, 1918, 56Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 1} Lechler, , Mannus, XXV, 1933, 131–2Google Scholar, claims some carvings on a slab in the SOM. cist of Züschen (Hesse) as representations of oxcarts. They probably do depict bullocks, very schematically drawn, pulling something, but as the alleged wheels are ‘verhältnismassig klein als Vollräder gezeichnet durch eingetiefte Näpfschen,’ i.e., just cup-marks, it might be a sledge or a harrow !

^{page 188 note 2} Frankfort, , Cylinder Seals, 248Google Scholar, pl. XL, m, n; Porada, , Collection of Pierpoint Morgan Library, 1948Google Scholar, pl. CXXXIV, 393E.

^{page 188 note 3} Iraq, III, 1936, 21Google Scholar; IV, 96.

^{page 188 note 4} Schmidt, , Excavations at Tepe Hissar, Damghan, 199Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 5} Childe, , Prehistoric Migrations in Europe, Oslo, 1950Google Scholar, fig. 194.

^{page 188 note 6} Gösta Berg, op. cit., pl. XXVII; just the same type is represented in Val Camonica, in Upper Italy and may belong to the ‘Hallstatt period’ or later; cf. Norden, , ‘Ett Alpväggarnas bildarkiv’ in Kulturhistoriska Studier tillägnade Nils Åberg, 1938, 54Google Scholar.

^{page 188 note 7} PPS., XIV, 1948, 180Google Scholar.

^{page 189 note 1} Jacob-Friesen, , PZ., XVIII, 1927, 154–84Google Scholar.

^{page 189 note 2} Kersten, , P.Z., XXIV, 1933, 103Google Scholar.

^{page 189 note 3} Dvořak, , ‘Knf̌ecf Pohřby na Vozech ze starši Doby Železné,’ Praehistorica, I, Praha, 1938Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 1} Paret, , ‘Das Fürstengrab der Hallstattzeit von Bad-Cannstatt,’ Anhang zu Fundberichte aits Schwaben, N.F., VIII, 1933Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 2} Rest, , ‘Das Grabhügelfeld von Bell,’ B.J., 148, 1948, 132–49Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 3} Known also to the Vedic Aryans according to Piggott, , Prehistoric India, 1950, 277Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 4} Favret, , Préhistoire, V, 1936, 65Google Scholar.

^{page 190 note 5} see note 6, p. 188.

^{page 190 note 6} Cahiers d'Archéologie et d'Histoire d'Alsace, XII, 1921, 1195–1230Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 1} Cahiers d'Archéologie et d'Histoire d'Alsace, XII, 1921, 1195–1230Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 2} ‘Foreign Influences in Denmark's Early Iron Age,’ A.A., 1950, 94–100Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 3} Arch. J., CV, 1948, 27–40Google Scholar.

^{page 192 note 4} Graziosi, , L'Arte rupestre della Libia, 91–7Google Scholar, illustrates the types and discusses their distribution and age.

^{page 192 note 5} Breuil, , Les Peintures rupestres schématiques de la Péninsule ibérique, II, 1933, 62–4Google Scholar, pl. XVIII.

^{page 192 note 6} Antiquity, V, 1931, 187–91Google Scholar.

^{page 193 note 1} Hencken, , AJA., LIV, 1950, 302–3Google Scholar; Pittioni, , MAGW., LXXXVIII–IX, 1948–1949, 145Google Scholar; MacWhite, , ‘Estudios sobre las Relaciones atlanticas de la Peninsula hispanica,’ Disertaciones Matritenses, IIGoogle Scholar; Madrid, 1951, 101.

^{page 193 note 2} Cf. Gösta Berg, 105, 111.

Article contents

The First Waggons and Carts—from the Tigris to the Severn

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests