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A Group of Terracotta Wagon Models from Southeastern Anatolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Engin Özgen
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Extract

Four-wheeled wagons, which can be considered as one of the major breakthroughs of man's technological evolution and range over a considerable period of time, seem to appear as pictographic signs on inscribed clay tablets from Uruk in southern Mesopotamia during the fourth millennium B.C. These simple vehicles which are depicted with a roofed superstructure were probably drawn by a pair of bovids the existence of which is attested in the ancient Near East both by literary sources and osteologically. The evidence for four-wheeled wagons, this time without a roof, becomes extensive in the following millennium as represented on the “Standard of Ur”, the “Vulture Stele”, specimens of vase painting, sealing and seals, terracotta and metal wagon models and actual wagon remains. In the beginning of the third millennium B.C. they are depicted in military contexts, hence the name “battle cars”, whereas there is no evidence for a similar use towards the end of the period and following millennia. It seems that they were relegated to cult use in the later third millennium B.C. and continued to the early second millennium B.C.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 36 , December 1986 , pp. 165 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1986

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References

1 For a detailed study of the historical and archaeological background of the fourwheelers, cf. Littauer, M. A.-Crouwel, J. H., Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East (= Handbuch der Orientalistik VII. 1.2.Bl), Leiden/Köln 1979, pp. 15 ff., 37 ff., 48 ffGoogle Scholar.

2 Falkenstein, A., Archaische Texte aus Uruk, Berlin 1936, pp. 10, 52 fGoogle Scholar.

3 Woolley, C. L., The Royal Cemetery (= Ur Excavations 2), London 1934, pl. 92Google Scholar; Strommenger, E.-Hirmer, M., Fünf Jahrtausende Mesopotamien, Munich 1962Google Scholar, colour plate XI; Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 1), fig. 3.

4 Strommenger-Hirmer (supra n. 3), fig. 66 bottom.

5 From Khafaje and Susa, cf. Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 1), p. 15, n. 5.

6 From Ur, Kish and Tell Chuera, cf. Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 1), p. 15, n. 6.

7 From Anatolia and North Syria, cf. Littauer, M. A.-Crouwel, J. H., “Early Metal Models of Wagons from the Levant”, Levant 5 (1973), pp. 102 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. and relevant plates.

8 From Kish, Ur and Susa, cf. Moorey, P. R. S., “A Reconsideration of the Excavations on Tell Ingharra (East Kish)”, Iraq 28 (1966), pp. 41 ff.Google Scholar; C. L. Woolley (supra n. 3), pp. 64, 108 f.

9 Cf. especially metal models of wagons from Anatolia, Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 7), pls. XXXIV–XLI A.

10 My special thanks to Mr. Mustafa Demirçubuk, Director of Gaziantep Museum and Mr. Mehmet Bilici, Director of the Adana Regional Museum, for permitting me to study the terracotta wagon models.

11 Cf. especially Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 7), pl. XLIV B, C, D.

12 Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 7), p. 114

13 Cf. however the equid-drawn wagons on the “Standard of Ur”, Strommenger-Hirmer (supra n. 3), colour plate XI. For metal wagon models with bovid teams, cf. Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 7), pls. XXXIV–XLIV, all from Anatolia.

14 Cf. Littauer-Crouwel (supra n. 7), pp. 114 ff.

15 Ibid., pl. XLIV B, C.

16 Cf. sealing from Kültepe, Karum II, Özgüç, N., The Anatolian Group of Cylinder Seal Impressions from Kültepe, Ankara 1965, pl. III, 9Google Scholar; Buchanan, B., Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum I, Oxford 1966, no. 255Google Scholar.