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89-654: The Maryannu were a caste of chariot -mounted hereditary warrior nobility that existed in many of the societies of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age . Maryannu is a Hurrianized Indo-Aryan word, formed by adding Hurrian suffix -nni to Indo-Aryan root márya , meaning "(young) man" or a "young warrior". Philologist Martin West suggested that the name Meriones , a character in Homeric epic,

178-556: A hybrid of a donkey and a female onager , named Kunga in the city of Nagar which was famous for breeding them. The hybrids were used by the Eblaite , early Sumerian , Akkadian and Ur III armies. Although sometimes carrying a spearman with the charioteer (driver), such heavy wagons, borne on solid wooden wheels and covered with skins, may have been part of the baggage train (e.g., during royal funeral processions) rather than vehicles of battle in themselves. The Sumerians had

267-674: A two-wheeled spoked cart that does not fit the definition of the ancient Near Eastern chariot . Before these discoveries can help answer the question of where the chariot originated, thorough studies of the spoked wheeled vehicles and horse gear of the steppes, as well as of interconnections and transfer of knowledge, are necessary (cf. Epimachov and Korjakova in Fansa and Burmeister 2004). Chariots figure prominently in Indo-Iranian and early European mythology. Chariots are also an important part of both Hindu and Persian mythology , with most of

356-711: A biga with two four-spoked wheels. The use of the composite bow in chariot warfare is not attested in northern Europe. Aryan Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Traditional Aryan ( / ˈ ɛər i ə n / ), or Arya in Proto-Indo-Iranian ,

445-420: A chariot or coach, especially at a reckless or dangerous speed. Plato , in his Chariot Allegory , depicted a chariot drawn by two horses, one well behaved and the other troublesome, representing opposite impulses of human nature; the task of the charioteer, representing reason, was to stop the horses from going different ways and to guide them towards enlightenment. The Greek word for chariot, ἅρμα, hárma ,

534-549: A chariot to fetch the bride home. Herodotus ( Histories , 5. 9) Reports that chariots were widely used in the Pontic – Caspian steppe by the Sigynnae . Greek chariots were made to be drawn by two horses attached to a central pole. If two additional horses were added, they were attached on each side of the main pair by a single bar or trace fastened to the front or prow of the chariot, as may be seen on two prize vases in

623-528: A common origin), a deity of Proto-Indo-European origin named * h₂eryo-men may also be posited. Vedic Sanskrit speakers viewed the term ā́rya as a religious–linguistic category, referring to those who spoke the Sanskrit language and adhered to Vedic cultural norms, especially those who worshipped the Vedic gods ( Indra and Agni in particular), took part in the yajna and festivals, and practiced

712-695: A hostile connotation and became for the Aryas of India the term for an inferior and barbarous people." In ancient Sanskrit literature , the term Āryāvarta (आर्यावर्त, the 'abode of the Aryas') was the name given to the cradle of the Indo-Aryan culture in northern India. The Manusmṛiti locates Āryāvarta in "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern ( Bay of Bengal ) to

801-799: A lighter, two-wheeled type of cart , pulled by four asses , and with solid wheels. The spoked wheel did not appear in Mesopotamia until the mid second millennium BCE. Chariot use made its way into Egypt around 1650 BCE during the Hyksos invasion of Egypt and establishment of the Fourteenth Dynasty . In 1659 BCE the Indo-European Hittites sacked Babylon , which demonstrated the superiority of chariots in antiquity. The chariot and horse were used extensively in Egypt by

890-534: A member of the " master race " of humanity. Conversely, non-Aryans were legally discriminated against , including Jews , Roma , and Slavs (mostly Slovaks , Czechs , Poles , and Russians ). Jews, who were seen as part of the hypothetical Semitic race , were especially targeted by the Nazi Party , culminating in the Holocaust . The Roma, who are of Indo-Aryan origin, were also targeted, culminating in

979-727: A modern European language in 1771 as Aryens by French Indologist Abraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron , who rightly compared the Greek arioi with the Avestan airya and the country name Iran . A German translation of Anquetil-Duperron's work led to the introduction of the term Arier in 1776. The Sanskrit word ā́rya is rendered as 'noble' in William Jones ' 1794 translation of the Indian Laws of Manu , and

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1068-461: A more ethnic meaning among Indo-Iranians , presumably because most of the unfree ( * anarya ) who lived among them were captives from other ethnic groups. The term * arya was used by Proto-Indo-Iranian speakers to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group, encompassing those who spoke the language and followed the religion of the Aryas ( Indo-Iranians ) , as distinguished from

1157-514: A sled that rests on wooden rollers or wheels have been found. They date from about the same time as the early wheel discoveries in Europe and may indicate knowledge of the wheel. The earliest depiction of vehicles in the context of warfare is on the Standard of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, c.  2500 BCE . These are more properly called wagons which were double-axled and pulled by oxen or

1246-590: Is "identical" to maryannu . Thus, Mērionēs would be the Homeric Greek version of the term, reflected in pre- Mycenaean poetic verse as Mārionās . The term is attested in the Amarna letters written by Haapi . The majority of the Maryannu had Semitic and Hurrian names. This Ancient Near East –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Chariot The chariot

1335-555: Is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians , and later Iranians and Indo-Aryans . It stood in contrast to nearby outsiders, whom they designated as non-Aryan ( * an-āryā ). In ancient India , the term was used by the Indo-Aryan peoples of the Vedic period , both as an endonym and in reference to a region called Aryavarta ( Sanskrit : आर्यावर्त , lit.   ' Land of

1424-452: Is also used nowadays to denote a tank , properly called άρμα μάχης, árma mákhēs , literally a "combat chariot". The Trundholm sun chariot is dated to c. 1500-1300 BCE (see: Nordic Bronze Age ). The horse drawing the solar disk runs on four wheels, and the Sun itself on two. All wheels have four spokes. The "chariot" comprises the solar disk, the axle, and the wheels, and it is unclear whether

1513-635: Is armed with a bow and arrow, threatens the right flank. It has been suggested (speculated) that the drawings record a story, most probably dating to the early centuries BCE, from some center in the area of the Ganges – Yamuna plain into the territory of still Neolithic hunting tribes. The very realistic chariots carved into the Sanchi stupas are dated to roughly the 1st century. Bronze Age solid-disk wheel carts were found in 2018 at Sinauli , which were interpreted by some as horse-pulled "chariots," predating

1602-569: Is at the origin of the English country name Iran . Alania , the name of the medieval kingdom of the Alans , derives from a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian stem * Aryāna- , which is also linked to the mythical Airyanem Waēǰō . Besides the ala - development, * air-y - may have turned into the stem ir-y- via an i-mutation in modern Ossetian languages , as in

1691-526: Is attributed to Kikkuli the Mitanni (15th century BCE). The Hittites were renowned charioteers. They developed a new chariot design that had lighter wheels, with four spokes rather than eight, and that held three rather than two warriors. It could hold three warriors because the wheel was placed in the middle of the chariot and not at the back as in Egyptian chariots. Typically one Hittite warrior steered

1780-602: Is no evidence. It is from the wheel track measurements and the dimensions and positions of the wheels alone that we may legitimately draw conclusions and these are alone sufficient to establish that the Sintashta-Petrovka vehicles would not be manoeuverable enough for use either in warfare or in racing. Peter Raulwing and Stefan Burmeister consider the Sintashta and Krivoe Ozero finds from the steppe to be carts rather than chariots. However, recent discoveries in

1869-548: Is the Ljubljana Marshes Wheel ( c.  3150 BCE ). The later Greeks of the first millennium BCE had a (still not very effective) cavalry arm (indeed, it has been argued that these early horseback riding soldiers may have given rise to the development of the later, heavily armed foot-soldiers known as hoplites ), and the rocky terrain of the Greek mainland was unsuited for wheeled vehicles. The chariot

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1958-574: Is the Old Hittite Anitta text (18th century BCE), which mentions 40 teams of horses (in the original cuneiform spelling: 40 ṢÍ-IM-TI ANŠE.KUR.RA ) at the siege of Salatiwara . Since the text mentions teams rather than chariots , the existence of chariots in the 18th century BCE is uncertain. The first certain attestation of chariots in the Hittite empire dates to the late 17th century BCE ( Hattusili I ). A Hittite horse-training text

2047-456: The Avesta , exclusively used the term airya ( Avestan : 𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀 , airiia ) to refer to themselves. It can be found in a number geographical terms like the ' expanse of the airyas ' ( airiianəm vaēǰō ), the ' dwelling place of the airyas ' ( airiio.shaiianem ), or the 'white forest of the airyas' ( vīspe.aire.razuraya ). The term can also be found in poetic expressions such as

2136-594: The Rigveda were of 'non-Aryan' origin, demonstrating that cultural assimilation to the ā́rya community was possible, and/or that some 'Aryan' families chose to give 'non-Aryan' names to their newborns. In the words of Indologist Michael Witzel , the term ārya "does not mean a particular people or even a particular 'racial' group but all those who had joined the tribes speaking Vedic Sanskrit and adhering to their cultural norms (such as ritual, poetry, etc.)". In later Indian texts and Buddhist sources, ā́rya took

2225-575: The British Museum from the Panathenaic Games at Athens, Greece , in which the driver is seated with feet resting on a board hanging down in front close to the legs of the horses. The biga itself consists of a seat resting on the axle, with a rail at each side to protect the driver from the wheels. Greek chariots appear to have lacked any other attachment for the horses, which would have made turning difficult. The body or basket of

2314-494: The Buddha (5th–4th century BCE), it took the meaning of 'noble'. In Old Iranian languages , the Avestan term airya ( Old Persian ariya ) was likewise used as an ethnocultural self-designation by ancient Iranian peoples , in contrast to an an-airya ('non-Arya'). It designated those who belonged to the 'Aryan' (Iranian) ethnic stock, spoke the language and followed the religion of the 'Aryas'. These two terms derive from

2403-806: The Canaanites and Israelites . 1 Samuel 13:5 mentions chariots of the Philistines , who are sometimes identified with the Sea Peoples or early Greeks . Examples from The Jewish Study Bible of the Tanakh ( Jewish Bible ) include: Examples from the King James Version of the Christian Bible include: Small domestic horses may have been present in the northern Negev before 3000 BCE. Jezreel (city) has been identified as

2492-676: The Digorian dialect . The Rabatak inscription , written in the Bactrian language in the 2nd century CE, likewise uses the term ariao for 'Iranian'. The name Arizantoi , listed by Greek historian Herodotus as one of the six tribes composing the Iranian Medes , is derived from the Old Iranian * arya-zantu - ('having Aryan lineage'). Herodotus also mentions that the Medes once called themselves Arioi , and Strabo locates

2581-458: The Hyksos invaders from the 16th century BCE onwards, though discoveries announced in 2013 potentially place the earliest chariot use as early as Egypt's Old Kingdom ( c.  2686 –2181 BCE). In the remains of Egyptian and Assyrian art, there are numerous representations of chariots, which display rich ornamentation. The chariots of the Egyptians and Assyrians, with whom the bow was

2670-513: The Latin term carrus , a loanword from Gaulish karros . In ancient Rome a biga described a chariot requiring two horses, a triga three, and a quadriga four. The wheel may have been invented at several places, with early evidence found in Ukraine , Poland , Germany , and Slovenia . Evidence of wheeled vehicles appears from the mid 4th millennium BC near-simultaneously in

2759-687: The Middle Persian Ērān-wēž , said to be the region where the first cattle were created and where Zaraθuštra first revealed the Good Religion. The Sasanian Empire , officially named Ērān-šahr ('Kingdom of the Iranians'; from Old Persian * Aryānām Xšaθram ), could also be referred to by the abbreviated form Ērān , as distinguished from the Roman West known as Anērān. The western variant Īrān , abbreviated from Īrān-šahr ,

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2848-612: The Northern Caucasus ( Maykop culture ), and in Central Europe. These earliest vehicles may have been ox carts . A necessary precursor to the invention of the chariot is the domestication of animals , and specifically domestication of horses – a major step in the development of civilization. Despite the large impact horse domestication has had in transport and communication, tracing its origins has been challenging. Evidence supports horses having been domesticated in

2937-567: The Porajmos . The genocides and other large-scale atrocities that have been committed by Aryanists have led academic figures to generally avoid using "Aryan" as a stand-alone ethno-linguistic term, particularly in the Western world , where "Indo-Iranian" is the preferred alternative, although the term "Indo-Aryan" is still used to denote the Indic branch . The term Arya was first rendered into

3026-495: The Ugaritic ary ('kinsmen'), **** although J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams find this proposition "hardly compelling". According to them, the original PIE meaning had a clear emphasis on the in-group status of the "freemen" as distinguished from that of outsiders, particularly those captured and incorporated into the group as slaves. In Anatolia , the base word has come to emphasize personal relationship, whereas it took

3115-617: The Vedic period around 1750 BCE. Shortly after this, about 1700 BCE, evidence of chariots appears in Asia-Minor . The earliest fully developed spoke-wheeled horse chariots are from the chariot burials of the Andronovo (Timber-Grave) sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka Proto-Indo-Iranian culture in modern Russia and Kazakhstan from around 2000 BCE. This culture is at least partially derived from

3204-481: The petroglyphs in the sandstone of the Vindhya range. Two depictions of chariots are found in Morhana Pahar, Mirzapur district. One depicts a biga and the head of the driver. The second depicts a quadriga, with six-spoked wheels, and a driver standing up in a large chariot box. This chariot is being attacked. One figure, who is armed with a shield and a mace, stands in the chariot's path; another figure, who

3293-537: The ' glory of the airyas ' ( airiianąm xᵛarənō ), the ' most swift-arrowed of the airyas ' ( xšviwi išvatəmō airiianąm ), or the ' hero of the airyas ' ( arša airiianąm ). Although the Avesta does not contain any dateable events, modern scholarship assumes that the Avestan period mostly predates the Achaemenid period of Iranian history. By the late 6th–early 5th century BCE, the Achaemenid king Darius

3382-484: The 10th-century Dēnkard . The Indian opposition between ārya - ('noble') and dāsá - ('stranger, slave, enemy') is however absent from the Iranian tradition. According to linguist Émile Benveniste , the root * das- may have been used exclusively as a collective name by Iranian peoples: "If the word referred at first to Iranian society, the name by which this enemy people called themselves collectively took on

3471-502: The 17(18)th–16th centuries BCE. Some scholars argue that the horse chariot was most likely a product of the ancient Near East early in the 2nd millennium BCE. Archaeologist Joost Crouwel writes that "Chariots were not sudden inventions, but developed out of earlier vehicles that were mounted on disk or cross-bar wheels. This development can best be traced in the Near East, where spoke-wheeled and horse-drawn chariots are first attested in

3560-526: The 3rd century CE, however, traditionalistic and nationalistic movements eventually took the upper hand during the Sasanian period , and the Iranian identity ( ērīh ) came to assume a definite political value. Among Iranians ( ērān ), one ethnic group in particular, the Persians , were placed at the centre of the Ērān-šahr ('Kingdom of the Iranians') ruled by the šāhān-šāh ērān ud anērān ('King of Kings of

3649-705: The Aryans ' ), where their culture emerged. Similarly, according to the Avesta , the Iranian peoples used the term to designate themselves as an ethnic group and to refer to a region called Airyanem Vaejah ( Avestan : 𐬀𐬫𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬥𐬆𐬨 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬘𐬀𐬵 , lit.   ' Expanse of the Arya ' ), which was their mythical homeland. The word stem also forms the etymological source of place names like Alania ( * Aryāna- ) and Iran ( * Aryānām ). Although

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3738-615: The British-German philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain , this specific theory by Gobineau proved to be particularly popular among the European far-right and ultimately laid the foundation for Nazi racial theories , which also co-opted the concept of scientific racism . In Nazi Germany , and also in German-occupied Europe during World War II , any citizen who was classified as an Aryan would be honoured as

3827-468: The English Aryan (originally spelt Arian ) appeared a few decades later, first as an adjective in 1839, then as a noun in 1851. The Sanskrit word ā́rya ( आर्य ) was originally an ethnocultural term designating those who spoke Vedic Sanskrit and adhered to Vedic cultural norms (including religious rituals and poetry), in contrast to an outsider, or an-ā́rya ('non-Arya'). By the time of

3916-690: The Eurasian Steppes, with studies suggesting the Botai culture in modern-day Kazakhstan were the first, about 3500 BCE. Others say horses were domesticated earlier than 3500 BCE in Eastern Europe (modern Ukraine and Western Kazakhstan ), 6000 years ago. The spread of spoke-wheeled chariots has been closely associated with early Indo-Iranian migrations. The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta culture burial sites, and

4005-477: The Eurasian steppe have provided fresh support to the claim that the chariot originated there, rather than in the Near East itself, and may be attributed to speakers of an Indo-Iranian (or Indo-Aryan) language. In particular, archaeological remains of horse gear and spoked wheeled vehicles have been found at the sites of Sintashta (Russia) and Krivoe Ozero (northern Kazakhstan), with calibrated radiocarbon dating to ca. 2000–1800. These finds, however, provide evidence of

4094-417: The Great and his son Xerxes I described themselves as ariya ('Arya') and ariya čiça ('of Aryan origin'). In the Behistun inscription , authored by Darius during his reign (522 – 486 BCE), the Old Persian language is called ariya , and the Elamite version of the inscription portrays the Zoroastrian deity Ahura Mazdā as the "god of the Aryas" ( ura-masda naap harriia-naum ). The self-identifier

4183-499: The Indo-Iranians, and horses and horse-drawn chariots were introduced in India by the Indo-Aryans. In Rigveda , Indra is described as strong willed, armed with a thunderbolt , riding a chariot: May the strong Heaven make thee the Strong wax stronger: Strong, for thou art borne by thy two strong Bay Horses. So, fair of cheek, with mighty chariot, mighty, uphold us, strong-willed, thunder armed, in battle. — RigVeda, Book 5, Hymn XXXVI: Griffith Among Rigvedic deities , notably

4272-449: The Iranians and non-Iranians'). Ethical and ethnic meanings may also intertwine, for instance in the use of anēr ('non-Iranian') as a synonymous of 'evil' in anērīh ī hrōmāyīkān ("the evil conduct of the Romans, i.e. Byzantines"), or in the association of ēr ('Iranian') with good birth ( hutōhmaktom ēr martōm , 'the best-born Arya man') and the use of ērīh ('Iranianness') to mean 'nobility' against "labor and burdens from poverty" in

4361-399: The Mahabharata is around 1750 BCE ." According to Asko Parpola these finds were ox-pulled carts, indicating that these burials are related to an early Aryan migration of Proto-Indo-Iranian speaking people into the Indian subcontinent, "forming then the ruling elite of a major Late Harappan settlement." Horse-drawn chariots, as well as their cult and associated rituals, were spread by

4450-410: The Sintashta culture vehicle finds are true chariots. In 1996 Joost Crouwel and Mary Aiken Littauer wrote Let us consider what is actually known of the Sintashta and Krivoe Ozero vehicles. At Sintashta, there remained only the imprints of the lower parts of the wheels in their slots in the floor of the burial chamber; Krivoe Ozero also preserved imprints of parts of the axle and naves. At Sintashta,

4539-434: The Vedic Sun God Surya rides on a one spoked chariot driven by his charioteer Aruṇa . Ushas (the dawn) rides in a chariot, as well as Agni in his function as a messenger between gods and men. The Jain Bhagavi Sutra states that Indian troops used a chariot with a club or mace attached to it during the war against the Licchavis during the reign of Ajatashatru of Magadha . The Persians succeeded Elam in

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4628-462: The Western Sea ( Arabian Sea )". The stem airya- also appears in Airyanəm Waēǰō (the 'stretch of the Aryas' or the 'Aryan plain'), which is described in the Avesta as the mythical homeland of the early Iranians, said to have been created as "the first and best of places and habitations" by the god Ahura Mazdā . It was referred to in Manichean Sogdian as ʾryʾn wyžn ( Aryān Wēžan ), and in Old Persian as * Aryānām Waiǰah , which gave

4717-444: The arrival of the horse-centered Indo-Aryans. They were ascribed by Sanjay Manjul, director of the excavations, to the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (OCP)/ Copper Hoard Culture , which was contemporaneous with the Late Harappan culture, and interpreted by him as horse-pulled chariots. Majul further noted that "the rituals relating to the Sanauli burials showed close affinity with Vedic rituals, and stated that "the dating of

4806-421: The art of poetry. The 'non-Aryas' designated primarily those who were not able to speak the āryā language correctly, the Mleccha or Mṛdhravāc. However, āryā is used only once in the Vedas to designate the language of the texts, the Vedic area being defined in the Kauṣītaki Āraṇyaka as that where the āryā vāc ('Ārya speech') is spoken. Some 35 names of Vedic tribes, chiefs and poets mentioned in

4895-488: The chariot base of King Ahab . And a decorated bronze tablet thought to be the head of a lynchpin of a Canaanite chariot was found at a site that may be Sisera 's fortress Harosheth Haggoyim . In Urartu (860–590 BCE), the chariot was used by both the nobility and the military. In Erebuni ( Yerevan ), King Argishti of Urartu is depicted riding on a chariot which is pulled by two horses. The chariot has two wheels and each wheel has about eight spokes. This type of chariot

4984-429: The chariot in Achaean art. This sculpture shows a single man driving a two-wheeled small box chariot. Later the vehicles were used in games and processions, notably for races at the Olympic and Panathenaic Games and other public festivals in ancient Greece, in hippodromes and in contests called agons . They were also used in ceremonial functions, as when a paranymph , or friend of a bridegroom, went with him in

5073-417: The chariot rested directly on the axle (called beam ) connecting the two wheels. There was no suspension , making this an uncomfortable form of transport. At the front and sides of the basket was a semicircular guard about 3 ft (1 m) high, to give some protection from enemy attack. At the back the basket was open, making it easy to mount and dismount. There was no seat, and generally only enough room for

5162-406: The chariot while the second man was usually the main archer; the third warrior would either wield a spear or sword when charging at enemies or hold up a large shield to protect himself and the others from enemy arrows. Hittite prosperity largely depended on their control of trade routes and natural resources, specifically metals. As the Hittites gained dominion over Mesopotamia, tensions flared among

5251-579: The culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare . It is also strongly associated with the ancestors of modern domestic horses, the DOM2 population (DOM2 horses originated from the Western Eurasia steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don, but not in Anatolia, during the late fourth and early third millennia BCE. Their genes may show selection for easier domestication and stronger backs). These Aryan people migrated southward into South Asia, ushering in

5340-515: The driver and one passenger. The reins were mostly the same as those in use in the 19th century, and were made of leather and ornamented with studs of ivory or metal. The reins were passed through rings attached to the collar bands or yoke, and were long enough to be tied round the waist of the charioteer to allow for defense. The wheels and basket of the chariot were usually of wood, strengthened in places with bronze or iron. The wheels had from four to eight spokes and tires of bronze or iron. Due to

5429-448: The earlier Yamna culture . It built heavily fortified settlements, engaged in bronze metallurgy on an industrial scale, and practiced complex burial rituals reminiscent of Hindu rituals known from the Rigveda and the Avesta . Over the next few centuries, the Andronovo culture spread across the steppes from the Urals to the Tien Shan , likely corresponding to the time of early Indo-Iranian cultures . Not everyone agrees that

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5518-431: The earlier part of the second millennium BCE..." and were illustrated on a Syrian cylinder seal dated to either the 18th or 17th century BCE. According to Christoph Baumer , the earliest discoveries of wheels in Mesopotamia come from the first half of the third millennium BCE – more than half a millennium later than the first finds from the Kuban region. At the same time, in Mesopotamia, some intriguing early pictograms of

5607-437: The essence of their shared parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial. If a person sacrificed to the right gods in the right way using the correct forms of the traditional hymns and poems, that person was an Aryan." The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin of the Indo-Iranian stem arya - remains debated. A number of scholars, starting with Adolphe Pictet (1799–1875), have proposed to derive arya - from

5696-445: The four specimens from the tomb of Tutankhamun . Chariots can be pulled by two or more horses. Chariots are frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Tanakh and the Greek Old Testament , respectively, particularly by the prophets, as instruments of war or as symbols of power or glory. First mentioned in the story of Joseph ( Genesis 50:9), "Iron chariots" are mentioned also in Joshua (17:16, 18) and Judges (1:19,4:3, 13) as weapons of

5785-477: The gods in their pantheon portrayed as riding them. The Sanskrit word for a chariot is rátha- ( m. ), which is cognate with Avestan raθa- (also m.), and in origin a substantiation of the adjective Proto-Indo-European *rot-h₂-ó- meaning "having wheels", with the characteristic accent shift found in Indo-Iranian substantivisations. This adjective is in turn derived from the collective noun *rot-eh₂- "wheels", continued in Latin rota , which belongs to

5874-494: The land of Arianē between Persia and India. Other occurrences include the Greek áreion ( Damascius ), Arianoi ( Diodorus Siculus ) and arian ( pl. arianōn ; Sasanian period ), as well as the Armenian expression ari ( Agathangelos ), meaning 'Iranian'. Until the demise of the Parthian Empire (247 BCE–224 CE), the Iranian identity was essentially defined as cultural and religious. Following conflicts between Manichean universalism and Zoroastrian nationalism during

5963-459: The meaning of 'noble', such as in the terms Āryadésa - ('noble land') for India, Ārya-bhāṣā - ('noble language') for Sanskrit, or āryaka - ('honoured man'), which gave the Pali ayyaka - ('grandfather'). The term came to incorporate the idea of a high social status, but was also used as an honorific for the Brahmana or the Buddhist monks. Parallelly, the Mleccha acquired additional meanings that referred to people of lower castes or aliens. In

6052-433: The mid 1st millennium. They may have been the first to yoke four horses to their chariots. They also used scythed chariots . Cyrus the Younger employed these chariots in large numbers at the Battle of Cunaxa . Herodotus mentions that the Ancient Libyan and the Ancient Indian ( Sattagydia , Gandhara and Hindush ) satrapies supplied cavalry and chariots to Xerxes the Great 's army. However, by this time, cavalry

6141-411: The mountings. According to Greek mythology, the chariot was invented by Erichthonius of Athens to conceal his feet, which were those of a dragon. The most notable appearance of the chariot in Greek mythology occurs when Phaëton , the son of Helios , in an attempt to drive the chariot of the sun, managed to set the earth on fire. This story led to the archaic meaning of a phaeton as one who drives

6230-410: The nearby outsiders known as the * Anarya ('non-Arya'). Indo-Iranians ( Aryas ) are generally associated with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE), named after the Sintashta archaeological site in Chelyabinsk Oblast , Russia. Linguistic evidence show that Proto-Indo-Iranian (Proto-Aryan) speakers dwelled in the Eurasian steppe , south of early Uralic tribes ; the stem * arya -

6319-733: The neighboring Assyrians , Hurrians , and Egyptians . Under Suppiluliuma I , the Hittites conquered Kadesh and, eventually, the whole of Syria . The Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BCE is likely to have been the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving over 5,000 chariots. Models of single axled, solid wheeled ox-drawn vehicles, have been found at several mature Indus Valley cites, such as Chanhudaro , Daimabad , Harappa , and Nausharo . Spoked-wheeled, horse-drawn chariots, often carrying an armed passenger, are depicted in second millennium BCE Chalcolithic period rock paintings, examples are known from Chibbar Nulla, Chhatur Bhoj Nath Nulla, and Kathotia. There are some depictions of chariots among

6408-514: The noun *rót-o- for "wheel" (from *ret- "to run") that is also found in Germanic, Celtic and Baltic ( Old High German rad n., Old Irish roth m., Lithuanian rãtas m.). Nomadic tribes of the Pontic steppes, like Scythians such as Hamaxobii , would travel in wagons , carts , and chariots during their migrations. The oldest testimony of chariot warfare in the ancient Near East

6497-462: The possible cognates of * arya - as a social status (a freeman or noble), and there is no evidence that Proto-Indo-European speakers had a term to refer to themselves as ' Proto-Indo-Europeans '. The term * h₂er(y)ós may derive from the PIE verbal root * h₂er- , meaning 'to put together'. Oswald Szemerényi has also argued that the stem could be a Near-Eastern loanword from

6586-454: The principal arm of attack, were richly mounted with quivers full of arrows. The Egyptians invented the yoke saddle for their chariot horses in c.  1500 BCE . As a general rule, the Egyptians used chariots as mobile archery platforms; chariots always had two men, with the driver steering the chariot with his reins while the main archer aimed his bow and arrow at any targets within range. The best preserved examples of Egyptian chariots are

6675-410: The reconstructed Proto-Indo-Iranian stem * arya - or * āryo -, which was probably the name used by the prehistoric Indo-Iranian peoples to designate themselves as an ethnocultural group. The term did not have any racial connotation, which only emerged later in the works of 19th-century Western writers. According to David W. Anthony , "the Rigveda and Avesta agreed that

6764-402: The reconstructed PIE term * h₂erós or * h₂eryós , variously translated as 'member of one's own group, peer, freeman'; as 'host, guest; kinsman'; or as 'lord, ruler'. However, the proposed Anatolian, Celtic and Germanic cognates are not universally accepted. In any case, the Indo-Iranian ethnic connotation is absent from the other Indo-European languages, which rather conceived

6853-619: The stem * arya may originate from the Proto-Indo-European language , it seems to have been used exclusively by the Indo-Iranian peoples, as there is no evidence of it having served as an ethnonym for the Proto-Indo-Europeans . In any case, many modern scholars believe that the ethos of the ancient Aryan identity, as it is described in the Avesta and the Rigveda , was religious, cultural, and linguistic, and

6942-595: The sun is depicted as the chariot or as the passenger. Nevertheless, the presence of a model of a horse-drawn vehicle on two spoked wheels in Northern Europe at such an early time is astonishing. In addition to the Trundholm chariot, there are numerous petroglyphs from the Nordic Bronze Age that depict chariots. One petroglyph, drawn on a stone slab in a double burial from c. 1000 BCE, depicts

7031-420: The wheel tracks and their position relative to the walls of the tomb chamber limited the dimensions of the naves, hence the stability of the vehicle. Ancient naves were symmetrical, the part outside the spokes of equal length to that inside. The present reconstructions of the Sintashta and Krivoe Ozero vehicles above the axle level raise many doubts and questions, but one cannot argue about something for which there

7120-454: The widely spaced spokes, the rim of the chariot wheel was held in tension over comparatively large spans. Whilst this provided a small measure of shock absorption, it also necessitated the removal of the wheels when the chariot was not in use, to prevent warping from continued weight bearing. Most other nations of this time had chariots of similar design to the Greeks, the chief differences being

7209-509: The words of scholar Gherardo Gnoli , the Old Iranian airya ( Avestan ) and ariya ( Old Persian ) were collective terms denoting the "peoples who were aware of belonging to the one ethnic stock, speaking a common language, and having a religious tradition that centred on the cult of Ahura Mazdā ", in contrast to the 'non-Aryas', who are called anairya in Avestan , anaryān in Parthian , and anērān in Middle Persian . The people of

7298-569: Was a fast, light, open, two- wheeled conveyance drawn by two or more equids (usually horses) that were hitched side by side, and was little more than a floor with a waist-high guard at the front and sides. It was initially used for ancient warfare during the Bronze and Iron Ages, but after its military capabilities had been superseded by light and heavy cavalries, chariots continued to be used for travel and transport, in processions , for games , and in races . The word "chariot" comes from

7387-565: Was far more effective and agile than the chariot, and the defeat of Darius III at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE), where the army of Alexander simply opened their lines and let the chariots pass and attacked them from behind, marked the end of the era of chariot warfare (barring the Seleucid and Pontic powers, India, China, and the Celtic peoples). Chariots were introduced in the Near East in

7476-592: Was heavily used by the Mycaenean Greeks, most probably adopted from the Hittites, around 1600 BCE. Linear B tablets from Mycenaean palaces record large inventories of chariots, sometimes with specific details as to how many chariots were assembled or not (i.e. stored in modular form).On a gravestone from the royal Shaft-grave V in Mycenae dated LH II (about 1500 BCE) there is one of the earliest depiction of

7565-538: Was inherited in ethnic names such as the Parthian Ary ( pl. Aryān ), the Middle Persian Ēr ( pl. Ēran ), or the New Persian Irāni ( pl. Irāniyān ). The Scythian branch has Alān or * Allān (from * Aryāna ; modern Allon ), Rhoxolāni ('Bright Alans'), Alanorsoi ('White Alans'), and possibly the modern Ossetian Ir ( adj. Iron ), spelled Irä or Erä in

7654-676: Was known in Vedic Sanskrit as Aryaman and in Avestan as Airyaman . The deity was in charge of welfare and the community, and connected with the institution of marriage. Through marital ceremonies, one of the functions of Aryaman was to assimilate women from other tribes to the host community. If the Irish heroes Érimón and Airem and the Gaulish personal name Ariomanus are also cognates (i.e. linguistic siblings sharing

7743-593: Was not tied to the concept of race. In the 1850s, the French diplomat and writer Arthur de Gobineau brought forth the idea of the Aryan race , essentially claiming that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were superior specimens of humans and that their descendants comprised either a distinct racial group or a distinct sub-group of the hypothetical Caucasian race . Through the work of his later followers, such as

7832-487: Was notably borrowed into the Pre-Sámi language as * orja -, at the origin of oarji ('southwest') and årjel ('Southerner'). The loanword took the meaning 'slave' in other Finno-Permic languages , suggesting conflictual relations between Indo-Iranian and Uralic peoples in prehistoric times. The stem is also found in the Indo-Iranian god * Aryaman , translated as 'Arya-spirited,' 'Aryanness,' or 'Aryanhood;' he

7921-689: Was used around 800 BCE. As David W. Anthony writes in his book The Horse, the Wheel, and Language , in Eastern Europe, the earliest well-dated depiction of a wheeled vehicle (a wagon with two axles and four wheels) is on the Bronocice pot ( c.  3500 BCE ). It is a clay pot excavated in a Funnelbeaker settlement in Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship in Poland. The oldest securely dated real wheel-axle combination in Eastern Europe

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