Chariots in Antiquity

This volume of essays honours Joost Crouwel, a leading expert on wheeled transport in antiquity. The editors and contributors are internationally acclaimed specialists, who share their ideas, observations, and research by exploring the many facets associated with chariots: their equipment, horses and harnesses, cultural exchanges, iconography, and the outlook of the people who rode in them. The topics represent many areas of expertise: art historians, archaeologists, and linguists from Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Kazakhstan, Canada and the USA, a master wheelwright, a horse expert from the UK. Their specialist essays make an innovative and wide-ranging contribution to research across a wide spectrum of interests and areas of the ancient world. The contributions showcase diverse ways in which early chariots were utilised across Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe/Central Asia, East Asia, Anatolia, the ancient Near East and Egypt. Notably, there is a time span of over 700 years separating the earliest occurrences of innovations in East Europe from those in East Asia. The book explores a wide range of technological solutions employed in the construction of these chariots as well as the history of chariotry. By presenting new insights into the chronological evolution, contextual occurrences, and manufacturing techniques of early chariots, this volume serves as a companion to Equids and Wheeled Vehicles in the Ancient World: Essays in Memory of Mary A. Littauer (BAR Publishing, 2019) edited by Peter Raulwing, Katheryn M. Linduff and Joost H. Crouwel.