Introduction Part I: 1. The Steppe Highway: the rise of pastoral nomadism as a Eurasian phenomenon 2. Bronze, iron and gold: the evolution of nomadic cultures on the northern frontier of China Part II: 3. Beasts and birds: the historical context of early Chinese perceptions of northern peoples 4. Walls and horses: the beginning of historical contacts between horse-riding Nomads and Chinese states Part III: 5. Those who draw the bow: the rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the political unification of the Nomads 6. From peace to war: China's shift from appeasement to military engagement Part IV: 7. In search of grass and water: ethnography and history of the North in the Historian's Records 8. Taming the North: the rationalization of the nomads in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's historical thought Conclusion.

Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History . By Nicola Di Cosmo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ix, 369 pp. $70.00 (cloth).

Here is a vividly written and fully illustrated assessment of the figured decoration on Late Bronze Age vessels from the Greek mainland, Cyprus, and the Aegean islands. It will become a standard source on the Mycenaean imagination. Emily Vermeuele and Vassos Karageorghis describe the hunting scenes, chariots, sphinxes and griffins, bulls and birds, people dancing or fighting, and cult scenes on Mycenaean pottery. They analyze forms and styles, sources and influences, and the development of conventions. They relate what is known about hte painters and their workshops, and the overseas trade. A catalogue of the 700 remaining whole and broken examples, now in museums around the world, is appended. Over 950 illustrations provide a comprehensive view of the art. This study tells us much about Bronze Age civilization, and it opens the way to an understanding of the relationship of Greek art to figure drawing in pre-Classical times.

Mycenaean pictorial vase painting

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The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Warfare

Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare1. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling2–4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc3. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia5 and Anatolia6, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 bc, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association7 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 bc8,9 driving the spread of Indo-European languages10. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture11,12. Analysis of 273 ancient horse genomes reveals that modern domestic horses originated in the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region.

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The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes.

The earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles dates to the Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture in Europe and the Late Uruk period in the Near East. Results of excavations and 14C determinations from Poland, Germany, Iraq, Syria and Turkey suggest that the appearance of wheeled vehicles was contemporary in Europe and the Near East.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00065522

The earliest evidence of wheeled vehicles in Europe and the Near East

New dates and new finds give cause to look again at that central issue in later European prehistory — the origin of wheeled light vehicles of battle.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003598X00084192

The origin of the true chariot

The long-standing debate on the military use of chariots in Late Bronze Age Greece was joined in 1973 by P. A. L. Greenhalgh. In his provocative book, he argued that Mycenaean warriors using thrusting spears had fought at speed from massed chariots. At the same time he rejected as unrealistic Homer's descriptions of chariots as conveyances for warriors who dismounted to fight on foot. These opinions were recently briefly restated in ANTIQUITY, where Dr Greenhalgh reaffirms his theory, using the well-known metal panoply from chamber tomb 12 at Dendra as additional evidence (Greenhalgh, 1980). In doing so, he disregards the objections that have been raised against his position (Littauer, 1977; Anderson, 1973; 1975).

Chariots in late bronze age Greece

Summary. Chariots figure prominently in two recent books by Robert Drews. He considers these fast, horse-drawn vehicles as having revolutionized warfare in Greece and the Near East in the second millennium B.C., with serious political and social implications. The present article, to a considerable extent based on earlier works by the authors, shows that several of Drews’ assertions are untenable and that chariots played a much less significant role than he would have us believe.

Robert drews and the role of chariotry in bronze age greece

This collection of papers is primarily concerned with transport by wheeled vehicle in antiquity. They shed much light on the construction of the vehicles, the ways their draught animals were harnessed and controlled, and the uses to which the equipages were put. The evidence discussed includes actual remains of vehicles and bridles, as well as figured and textual documents. Ridden animals and their gear also feature in this collection of papers. The Selected Writings of Mary B. Littauer and Joost H. Crouwel are important for all those interested in the cultures of the ancient Near East, Egypt and Cyprus and of Bronze Age Greece.

Selected writings on chariots and other early vehicles, riding and harness

Quelques sources archeologiques montrent l'existence d'un battage ceremoniel au Proche-Orient : impression d'un sceau du style d'Uruk trouve a Arslan Tepe, une plaque de pierre du British Museum de provenance inconnue, un sceau conserve a New York dans le style Jemdet-Nasr

J. H. Crouwel

Papers

The origin of the true chariot

Chariots in late bronze age Greece

Robert drews and the role of chariotry in bronze age greece

Selected writings on chariots and other early vehicles, riding and harness

Ceremonial Threshing in the Ancient Near East, I. Archaeological Evidence *