War chariot
Carro de guerra ligero
- Date
- c. 1900 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Sintashta (Urals) to Anatolia and Syria; Hattusa, Turkey
- Credited to
- Indo-European steppe peoples; perfected by Hittites, Hurrians and Egyptians
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Two-seat platform on two spoked wheels drawn by two horses, with an archer and a driver. Combined with the composite bow, it was the first mobile combat platform in history.
Origin debated between the steppe (Sintashta) and the Near East; the Shang Chinese chariot (c. 1200 BCE) is almost certainly an import from the steppe, not an independent development.
What it led to
- Battles on the scale of tens of thousands (Kadesh, 1274 BCE) and permanent professional armies
- A military caste of charioteers as a social and political elite in Mitanni, Egypt, Mycenae and Shang China
- The need for horse breeding, royal workshops and state logistics to maintain chariot forces
- Diplomacy among the great powers of the Late Bronze Age (Amarna letters, Treaty of Kadesh)
Built on
Made possible
- Composite bowc. 2200 BCE
- Written international peace treaty (Kadesh)1259 BCE
- Chariots of Yinxu (Shang dynasty)c. 1200 BCE
- Mounted cavalry as a military armc. 865 BCE
- Treaty of Kadesh
- Cavalry (after the Bronze Age collapse)