Models Of Wheeled Wagons

While miniature models of wagons are useful to archaeologist, because they are explicit, information-bearing artifacts, they must also have had some specific meaning and significance in various regions where they were used. Models are known from Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy, the Carpathian basin, the Pontic region in Greece, India and China. Complete life-sized vehicles are also known from Holland, Germany and Switzerland, occasionally used as funeral objects.

A wheel model carved out of chalk was recovered from the late Uruk site of Jebel Aruda in Syria. This asymmetrical disk measures 8 centimeters (3 inches) in diameter and 3 cm (1 in) thick, and it appears to be the model of the wheel, with hubs on both sides. A second wheel model was discovered at the Arslantepe site in Turkey. This disc made of clay measured 7.5 cm (3 in) in diameter, and has a central hole where presumably the axle would have gone. This site also includes local wheel-thrown imitations of the simplified late Uruk pottery.

One recently reported miniature model comes from the site of Nemesnádudvar, an early Bronze Age, summation, and late medieval site located near the town of Nemesnádudvar, County Bács-Kiskun, Hungary. The model was discovered with various pottery fragments and animal bones in a part of the settlement dated to the early Bronze Age. The model is 26.3 cm (10.4 in) long, 14.9 cm (5.8 in) wide, and has a height of 8.8 cm (3.5 in). Wheels and axles for the model were not recovered, but the round feet were perforated as if they had existed at one time.

The model is made out of clay tempered with crushed ceramics and fired to brownish gray color. The bed of the wagon is rectangular, with straight sided short ends, and curved edges on the long side. The feet are cylindrical; the entire piece is decorated in zoned, parallel chevrons and oblique lines.

Ulan IV, Burial 15, Kurgan 4

In 2014, Shishlina and colleagues reported the recovery of a dismantled four-wheeled full-sized wagon, direct-dated to between 2398-2141 cal BC. This Early Bronze Age Steppe Society (specifically East Manych Catacomb culture) site in Russia contained the interment of an elderly man, whose grave goods also included a bronze knife and rod, and a turnip-shaped pot.

The rectangular wagon frame measured 1.65x0.7 meters (5.4x2.3 ft) and the wheels, supported by horizonal axles, were .48 m (1.6 ft) in diameter. Side panels were constructed of horizontally placed planks; and the interior was probably covered with reed, felt, or woollen mat. Curiously, the different parts of the wagon were made of a variety of wood, including elm, ash, maple and oak.

Sources

This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Neolithic, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.

Bakker JA, Kruk J, Lanting AE, and Milisauskas S. 1999. The earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles in Europe and the Near East.Antiquity 73(282):778-790.

Bondár M, and Székely GV. 2011. A new Early Bronze Age wagon model from the Carpathian Basin.World Archaeology 43(4):538-553.

Cunliffe B. 2008. Europe Between the Oceans. Themes and Variations: 9000 BC-AD 1000. New Haven: Yale University Press. 518 p.

Mischka D. 2011. The Neolithic burial sequence at Flintbek LA 3, north Germany, and its cart tracks: a precise chronologyAntiquity 85(329):742-758.

Shishlina NI, Kovalev DS, and Ibragimova ER. 2014. Catacomb culture wagons of the Eurasian steppes.Antiquity 88(340):378-394.