Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 42 (2) 2014

Annotation:  Pleistocene Environments of the Northwestern Altai: Vegetation and Climate Early Upper Paleolithic Assemblages from the Japanese Islands: A Case Study from the Musashino Uplan Studying the Forms of Ancient Ware: Theoretical and Practical Aspects A Morphological Analysis of Vessels from Middle Bronze Age (Early 2nd Millennium BC) Burials at Veng Dendrochronological Dating of Buildings in the Central Part of the Residential Area at the Staroturu Bronze Age Animal Figurines from the Taiga Zone of the Ob Region Kurgans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz at the Chineta II Burial Ground in the Altai The Origin of A-frame Carts in the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia The Dolgaya-1 Site and the Novoromanovo Rock Art Gallery: A Tentative Interpretation with Regard to Cultivated Plants of the Bohai Population of Primorye According to Archaeobotanical Data Wood Painting Tradition of the Upper Vychegda Komi in the Late 19th – First Quarter of the 20th Cent Wedding Food of Germans Living in Siberia: Symbols and Signs Buccal Dental Microwear and Diet of the Sunghir Upper Paleolithic Modern Humans Dental Palaeopathological Analysis of the Eneolithic-Early Iron Age Populations from the Minusinsk B   

The Origin of A-frame Carts in the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia

V.A. Novozhenov.

Depictions of carts in the rock art of the Minusinsk Basin, the Upper Yenisei, southern Siberia, are compared with actual carts, whose remains were found in late 3rd– early 2nd millennium BC burials in the western Eurasian steppes. The carts were two-wheeled and four-wheeled, with open and covered platforms, and the wheels were solid or tripartite. Nose-rings, special yokes, ropes, and hooks were used to control draft animals (oxen or cows, not horses). The earliest A-frame carts appear to have originated in western Eurasian steppes whence they spread to the east. Alternative hypotheses stating that such carts had originated from those with two-poles, found at Gonur-tepe and other sites, are also discussed.

Keywords: A-frame carts, nose-ring, Okunev culture, Pit-Grave culture, Afanasyevo culture, Central Asia.