Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (1) 2009

Annotation:  Environment and Human Behavior in Northern Mongolia during the Upper Pleistocene Bear in Mind: Bear Hunting in the Mesolithic of the Southern Caucasus L.B. Kirtcho. Two Bronze Age Steles in Gorny Altai Electron Probe Microanalysis of the Paste from Ceramics of the Far East Eurasian Coins of the 13th century from the Northern Caucasus Absolute Dendrochronological Scales of Archaeological Sites in European Russia A Dendrochronological Analysis of Wood from Pskov Dendrochronological Studies of Medieval Novgorod (Based on the Findings of Archaeological Excavatio On the Semantics of Animal Style Ornithomorphic Images in Pazyryk Ritual Artifacts Treasures of the Sacred River Everyday Diet of the Buryats in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries The Ethnic Environment of Diasporas in Western Siberia Demography of the Siberian Nenets in the First Third of the 20th Century Modern Altai Crafts Human Crania from the Tes Burial Ground, Kamenka III: The Analysis of Metric and Nonmetric Traits Analysis of Temporal Anthropometric Changes in Various Groups of Israeli Males The International Conference on the Neolithic of the Sea of Japan Basin (Vladivostok, 17–18 March, 2   

L.B. Kirtcho.

L.B. Kirtcho.

The article addresses models of carts found at Altyn-Depe – a key Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement in Western Central Asia, dating to the late 4th – early 3rd millennia BC. This is the earliest evidence of wheeled transport in the region, providing information on the type and construction of carts used by the early agriculturalists of the Middle East. The models represent two-wheeled carts with shafts that were apparently linked to a yoke. Judging by representations of the harness, bulls (possibly oxen) were the only draft animals. In the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, fourwheeled carts appeared at Altyn-Depe. The most common type had high walls and two shafts, drawn by a single animal – a camel or, less often, a bull. Under the increasingly arid climate, the camel became the principal draft animal in Western Central Asia. The two types of carts – two-wheeled and four-wheeled – attest to two periods of intense contacts between people of Southern Turkmenistan and those of the adjoining regions.

Keywords: Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, earliest wheeled transport, Western Central Asia, Altyn-Depe, draft animals, draft camel, models of wheels, two-wheeled and four-wheeled carts.