Triangular car

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The triangular wagon is a Neolithic cart (single-axle wagon ) with a rotating axle, which was used in the circumalpine region as early as the 4th millennium BC. Chr. Emerged as one of the world's first types of transport vehicle and apparently comes from the plow and rod loop development line .

The discovery of an object made from a tree fork from the Moorsiedlung Reute-Schorrenried (dentro-chronologically dated 3709–3707 BC) is seen as clear evidence of the earliest use of working cattle, with researchers in this object partly the front part of a pole loop, partly but already recognize a triangular car. A comparable object with signs of wear on the ends of the rods has been found in Chalain Fontenu , Jura department , France (dated 3015-2976 BC). Finds such as the fire-hardened wheel of "Stare gmajne" (dated to 3160–3100 BC) in the Ljubljana Moor in Slovenia , which are associated with the local Baden culture , give evidence of early single-axle wagons .

Independently of the triangular carriages, which also exist as rock carvings, yoke fragments and evidence of “Verochsung” (castration of bulls) were also found. Typical signs of wear and tear on the bones of draft cattle hip joint arthrosis (coxarthrosis) were discovered in English sites dating back to the 3rd millennium, whereby it can be said that they were used as permanent draft animals.

Rod loop, which, provided with an axle and wheels at the wide end, becomes a triangular carriage

construction

The square axle holes in the wheels from the “Zürich-Pressehaus” site, two of which were still on axles 1.1–1.2 m long, show that the axles are rotating. From this, a narrow A-shaped chassis was reconstructed, which had a semicircular cutout that accommodated the round axle. Traces of abrasion on the axle suggest chassis widths of 80 to 120 cm.

The multi-part full disc wheels are made according to the salami principle from several connected blocks, which were cut round and provided with a square axle hole. One such was found near Castione dei Marchesi in the Po Valley. Round tree slices tear open very quickly when they dry out and can therefore not be used as wagon wheels. The composition of several wooden elements was filled with sapwood inserts from a second type of wood, for which a gap was partially left free so that it could be broken in after it had dried out and the wheel would be under tension. This particularly resilient wood, formed against the direction of growth, solved the problem of working wood and made the wheels more durable. Even then, typical types of wood were used that Wagner later preferred.

The ideas of the appearance of the carts and their teams are based on alpine rock art . They show cattle tense up in pairs as draft animals. The depiction on a rock carving in the Mercantour National Park in the Val de Fontanalbe in the French Maritime Alps , which shows two cattle in a yoke , pulling a bow on two wheels, can probably be dated to the Bronze Age . This is the first pictorial representation of a triangular cart. There is also a representation of a team of oxen in front of a pole loop. The transition from the bar loop to the triangular cart is therefore to the end of the 4th millennium BC. BC. Since the pulling team is permanently slightly inclined due to the loop, the axis was later extended by a short drawbar to give the animals more space to walk straight. From logic it was concluded that there was tension in the withers of the yoke, even if various representations point to a neck yoke. Since hornless cattle were preferred even then, because the horn interfered with keeping them in the stable, this would automatically rule out a neck yoke as is still common in water buffalo today.

The two-wheeled design results from the unity of drawbar and loading area, so that the front part of the load always weighs a little on the trailer.

The wheels, which were firmly connected to the axle, rotated together with the axle in a rigid axle bearing that was attached to the car. It is noticeable that this type of construction was used particularly in circumalpine lakeside and wet soil discovery sites, for example in the Horgen culture , the Saône-Rhône culture and in the Baden culture. Such a triangular cart is well suited for daily journeys such as B. bringing in the harvest or transporting wood, but also to transport loads over wet meadows. However, this vehicle is hardly suitable for journeys over several days.

The four-wheeled wagon models of the Baden culture and the representations of the North Central European funnel cup cultures (TBK) as well as the corded ceramics are unsuitable as a model for the triangular wagon, as they show vehicles with a fixed axle and freely rotating wheels, i.e. are built according to a different technical principle. From Gnarrenburg in Lower Saxony and the Meershusener Moor (from the 3rd millennium BC), the archaeologist Stefan Burmeister developed movable axles and wheels with hub bushings, as required for four-wheeled wagons, based on signs of wear.

There are few ethnographic and historical examples of four-wheeled carts with rotating axles. Otherwise, they are primarily found on two-wheeled agricultural vehicles in Anatolia , the Alps , Portugal , Spain and Sardinia . There are technical reasons for this limitation, as the rotating axle is only held on to the sloping chassis by the weight of the wagon and the load, occasionally supplemented by a loose binding. A constant load on the single axle is only guaranteed with single-axle wagons and thus has permanent contact with the chassis as well as the ground.

The width of the loading area of ​​triangular wagons is limited by:

  • the high weight of massive wooden elements including the solid wheels in relation to the relatively small Neolithic cattle
  • the small diameter of ancient wheels (max. 0.7 m) and the resulting low axle height of the cart, which, however, makes loading easier
  • the distance between the draft animals that walk in the yoke and between which the usable or loading area (without an extended drawbar) lies.

Indian triangular car

From the Harappa period there are models of carts made of clay (mostly without depictions of draft animals). The late Harappa period overlaps in the east with the Copper Age cultures on the Indian peninsula. At this time, carts first appeared on the Indian peninsula. Although no corresponding finds have been made there (as on the Indus) so far, the triangular car is shown in a pictorial representation on a ceramic vessel from Inamgaon in the West Indian region of Dekkan . It shows a two -wheeled cart pulled by two humpback cattle . HD Sankalia dates this vessel from 1600 to 700 BC. BC, while B. Allchin & FR Allchin the early Jorwe stage, to 1500-1050 BC. To date.

See also

literature

  • Mamoun Fansa , Stefan Burmeister (ed.): Wheel and car, the origin of an innovation car in the Middle East and Europe. Mainz, Zabern 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3322-6 .
  • J. Köninger et al. (Ed.): Loop, sledge, wheel and carriage . (= Hemmenhofen scripts ). Janus publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 2002. ISSN  1437-8620
  • Jürgen E. Walkowitz: Logistics in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic. In: Varia neolithica. Volume IV, 2006, ISBN 3-937517-43-X .
  • Astrid Masson, Eva Rosenstock: The cattle in prehistory and traditional agriculture: archaeological and technological-ergological aspects. In: Communications from the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. Volume 32, 2011, pp. 81-106.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pierre Pétrequin, Rose-Marie Arbogast, Amandine Viellet, Anne-marie Pétrequin, Denis Maréchal: A neolithic rod loop from the end of the 31st century. v. In Chalain (Fontenu, Jura, France) . In: Joachim Köninger (Ed.): Loop, sledge, wheel and carriage: on the question of early means of transport north of the Alps; Round table Hemmenhofen 10.10.2001 . Janus publishing house, Freiburg i. Br. 2002, p. 59 .
  2. ↑ Martin Mainberger: “Mysterious wooden objects” from the stilt house Neolithic: a type of transport device before the invention of the wheel and wagon? In: Archaeological correspondence sheet . tape 27 , 1997, pp. 415 .
  3. ↑ Pétrequin et al. 2002.
  4. ↑ Hüster Plogmann 2002.
  5. ↑ Burmeister 2004a, p. 327.
  6. ↑ 1974, Fig. 204, p. 505.