© Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Belgrade. All rights reserved FME Transactions (2016) 44, 229-236 229 Received: September 2015, Accepted: April 2016 Correspondence to: Thomas C. Ghondros Associate Professor, University of Patrass, Panepistimioupoli Patron 265 04, Greece E-mail: chondros@mech.upatras.gr doi:10.5937/fmet1603229C Thomas G. Chondros Associate Professor University of Patras Greece Kypros F. Milidonis Research Associate University of Patras Greece Cesare Rossi Professor University of Naples “Federico II” Italy Nenad Zrnic Professor University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering The Evolution of the Double-horse Chariots From the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Times Light chariots with spoked wheels were developed initially in Syria or Northern Mesopotamia at about the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and quickly propagated all over Middle East. The two-wheeled horse- drawn chariot was one of the most important inventions in history. It gave humanity its first concept of personal transport, and for two thousand years it was the key technology of war. Information on chariots of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mycenaean and Archaic Greece, China, and Europe, with light and flexible spoked wheels from extant findings of ancient chariots, stone reliefs, and vase paintings is used for a design study of the dual chariot and its evolution in the centuries. Design reconstruction of the dual chariot found in Anyang China is incorporated herewith to prove that its development contains the seeds of a primitive design activity. Keywords: Dual-chariots, Axles, Bearings, Spoked wheels, Traction dynamics. 1. INTRODUCTION The chariot, an open, two - or four-wheeled vehicle of antiquity, first used in royal funeral processions and later employed in warfare, racing, and hunting, apparently originated in Mesopotamia in about 3000 B.C. The two-wheeled horse-drawn chariot was one of the most important inventions in history. It gave humanity its first concept of personal transport, and for two thousand years it was the key technology of war. It also became the world’s first mass spectators sport event. It was used in warfare during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and continued to be used for travel, processions and in games after it had been superseded as a military machine [1-5]. In western Asia and Europe chariots were preceded by heavy ox-drawn conveyances with one-part or threepan solid disk wheels, attested as early as the fourth millennium B.C. During the excavations of 1927/8 from the British archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley to the Royal Cemetery of Ur in modern day Iraq, an artifact known today as the Royal Standard of Ur was discovered. It is dated to the third millennium B.C. Portrayed on one side of this artifact is the Mesopotamian four-wheeled, cart-like structure pulled by four donkeys (Fig.1). The artist depicts it in different states of motion. Initially, the donkeys shown walking, begin to trot, and then gallop. To clarify that this was a war machine a trampled enemy or two are shown under it [5]. Figure 1 shows details of the chariot as used in a royal parade (Top), and in the battlefield (Bottom). The solid wheels consisting of two similar semi-circular parts connected together and with the axles. The wheels rotated on a fixed axle linked by a draft pole to the yoke of two pairs of donkeys or a pair of oxen. Bodywork consisting of a platform with side screens and a high dashboard, framed with wood and covered with skins, forming the superstructure was attached to the wheels’ axle and drawbar. This earliest known depiction of the Mesopotamian chariot was carrying a spearman and a charioteer, and fighting could be also conducted from on-board the vehicle. Shields seem to be applied abreast of the donkeys serving also as the link with the drawbar, which in the left bottom depiction seems to be bent upwards, from the chariot floor towards the donkeys’ necks. A twin circular link is put on top of the drawbar for the harness to pass by, and control the left and right pair of donkeys separately [5]. Figure 1. Standard of Ur, 26th century BC. Bottom panel depicts chariots in action [5]. The wheel was further improved in the Near East, and contributed to the development of the chariot with four spoked wheels. Representations of chariots, can be found on Anatolian seal impressions from the second millennium B.C. Unlike their Mesopotamian prede– cessors, these chariots have spoked wheels. Four small cast copper/bronze wheels (170-177 mm in diameter) found in a context of the first half of the 18th century B.C. in the Burnt Palace at Acemhöyük in Anatolia provide the earliest three-dimensional evidence for spoked wheels so far known. These four-spoked wheels can be compared with extant examples of spoked wheels from Egyptian chariots from later second