Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T09:03:17.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The emergence of Bronze Age chariots in eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

P.F. Kuznetsov*
Affiliation:
*Samara State Pedagogical University (Email: kpf58@sama.ru)

Extract

The author presents new radiocarbon dates for chariot burials found in the region between Europe and the Urals, showing them to belong to the twentieth-eighteenth centuries BCE. These early dates, which pre-empt the appearance of the war chariot in the Near East, are transforming the ancient history of Eurasia and the early Mediterranean civilisations, pointing to the Volga-Ural area as an important centre of innovation for early Europe.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anthony, D. W. 1995. Horse, wagon & chariot: Indo-European languages and archaeology. Antiquity 69: 554–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anthony, D. W. 1998. The opening of the Eurasian Steppe at 2000 BCE, in Mair, V.H. (ed.) The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia. Washington, D.C: Institute for the Study of Man/Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum.Google Scholar
Anthony, D. W. & Vinogradov, N.B.. 1995. Birth of the chariot (Excavations east of the Ural Mountains reveal traces of the two-wheeled, high-performance vehicles). Archaeology 48 (2) 3641.Google Scholar
Bochkaryov, V. S. 1991. The Volga-Ural center of concentration of the Bronze Age cultures. Sociogenez I culturogenez v istoricheskom aspekte. Nauka. St. Petersburg (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bochkaryov, V. S. 1992a. New absolute dates for Bronze Age Europe. Severnaya Evrasia ot drevnosti do srednevekoviya. Nauka. St. Petersburg (in Russian).Google Scholar
Bochkaryov, V. S. 1992b. Metal axes-celts of Later Bronze Age Europe. Stepi Evrazii v drevnosti i srednevekoviye. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage (in Russian).Google Scholar
Boroffka, N. 1998. Bronze-und fruheisenzeitliche Geweihtrensenknebel aus Rumänien und ihre Beziehungen. Eurasia Antiqua 4. Berlin.Google Scholar
Chernykh, E. N., Avilova, L.I. & Orlovskaya, L.B.. 2000. Metallurgical provinces and radiocarbon chronology. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Epimachov, A. & Koryakova, L.. 2004. Streitwagen der Eurasien Steppe in der Bronzezeit: das Volga-Uralgebirge und Kasachstan, in Franca, M. & Burmeister, S. (ed.) Rad und Wagen: Der Ursprung einer Innovation. Wagen im Vorderen Orient und Europa: 221–36. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag.Google Scholar
Forenbaher, S. 1993. Radiocarbon dates and absolute chronology of the central European Early Bronze Age. Antiquity 67: 218–56.Google Scholar
Gening, V. F., Zdanovich, G.B. & Gening, V.V.. 1992. Sintashta: archaeological sites of Aryan tribes in the Ural-Kazakh Steppes. Chelyabinsk.Google Scholar
Hansel, A. & Hansel, B.. 1997. Gaben an die Götter: Schätze der Bronzezeit Europas (Ausstellung der Freien Universität Berlin in Verbindung mit dem Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz). Berlin: Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Freien Universität/Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte.Google Scholar
Housley, R. A., Hedges, R.E.M., Law, I.A. & Bronk, C.R.. 1990. Radiocarbon dating by AMS of the destruction of Akrotiri, in Hardy, D.A. with Doumas, C.G., Sakellarakis, J.A. & Warren, P.M. (ed.) Thera and the Aegean World III, vol. 3, Chronology. London: Thera Foundation.Google Scholar
Kovalevskaya, V. B. 1977. A horse and a rider (ways and fates). Moscow: Nauka (in Russian).Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E. E. 1994. Where did the Indo-Aryan come from? Material culture of the Andronovo tribes and the origin of the Indo-Iranians (in Russian). Moscow: Vostochnaia lit-ra.Google Scholar
Kuznetsov, P. F. 1998. Chronoloqy of cultures in Bronze Age in Eastern Europe and new dates according to 14C. 14C and Archaeology (3rd International Symposium).Google Scholar
Kuznetsov, P. F. & Plaksin, A.V.. 2004. Samara Land, Antiquities of Neftegorsk Region. Samara.Google Scholar
Leskov, A. M. 1964. Ancient cheek-pieces made of horn from Trakhtemirov. Sovetskaya arkheologiya 1 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Manning, S., Kromer, B., Kuniholm, P. & Newton, M.. 2001. Anatolian tree rings and a new chronology for the East Mediterranean Bronze-Iron Ages. Science 294 (5551): 2532–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myshkin, V. N. & Turetskiy, M.A.. 2006. Bronze Age Kurgans at Maly Kinel River. Archaeological Issues of the Volga Region. Issue 4. Samara.Google Scholar
Penner, S. 1998. Schliemanns Schachtgräberrund und der europäische Nordosten: Studien zur Herkunft der frühmykenischen Streitwagenausstattung (Saarbrucker Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 60). Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Trifonov, V. A. 2001. The amendments to the absolute chronology of the Eneolithic cultures - Caucasus in Middle Bronze Age, Steppe and Forest-Steppe region of Eastern Europe (according to radiocarbon data). Dedicated to the hundred's anniversary of V. A. Gorodtsov's Bronze Age Chronology. Samara (in Russian).Google Scholar
Vasiliev, I. B., Kuznetsov, P.F. & Semenova, A.P.. 1992. Bronze Age burials of nobles in the Middle Volga region. Arkheologicheskie vesti. Nauka. St. Petersburg (in Russian).Google Scholar
Vasiliev, I. B. 1994. Potapovka kurgan cemetry of the Indo-Iranian tribes in the Volga. Samara State University (in Russian).Google Scholar
Vinogradov, N. B. 2003. Bronze Age kurgan cemetery of Krivoe Ozero in the Southern Trans-Ural region. Chelyabinsk (in Russian).Google Scholar