War Chariots: Sintashta Spoked Wheels to Kadesh and the Circus Maximus

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The chariot began around 2000 BC on the Eurasian steppes with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture, nomadic herders in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan who buried their dead inside their vehicles. Its decisive breakthrough was the spoked wheel, which replaced the heavy solid disc and drew its strength from tension rather than mass. Historians still argue whether those first steppe vehicles were true chariots or fast carts, but the design spread into the Near East and set off a Bronze Age arms race. By the 17th century BC the Hittites had moved the axle toward the center to carry a three-man crew, while the Egyptians, who first met the chariot through the invading Hyksos around 1650 BC, kept the axle at the rear for a fast two-man archery platform. The two philosophies met at Kadesh around 1274 BC, the largest chariot battle in history.

Bigger chariots proved to be a dead end. The Neo-Assyrians of the 7th century BC built lumbering four-man vehicles just as selective breeding produced horses large enough to ride, and cavalry took over. In China, chariots went from Shang royal burials around 1250 BC to the measure of state power, until Warring States infantry with long halberds and pikes and the crossbow made them obsolete. Rocky Greece abandoned them for war, Celtic Britain used them for hit-and-run raids that Julius Caesar described, and Rome turned them into mass entertainment and religious and philosophical symbols.

• The Mitanni horse trainer Kikkuli wrote a seven-month conditioning program for chariot horses in the 15th century BC, including precise diets, swimming and forced marches.
• Egyptian drivers tied the reins around their waists and steered by shifting their body weight, leaving both hands free for a shield or bow.
• In ancient China a state of 10,000 chariots counted as a superpower, a scale that implied some 40,000 trained horses for the primary teams alone.
• Caesar recorded Celtic warriors running out along the chariot pole between galloping horses to hurl javelins before leaping down to fight on foot.
• The Circus Maximus held up to 250,000 spectators watching 12 chariots race at once, and fans of factions like the Blues and Greens rioted over results.