The New WarfareB.C. This is in part, I suppose, because in the period of the
Early Transcaucasian Culture (third millennium) the domesti-
cated horse was not yet of much importance, and because for
much of the second millennium the material record for Ar-
menia is very limited. It is clear, however, that even before
horse breeding became important to them, the peoples of an-
cient Armenia had a long tradition of wheeled transport. In the
last several decades, in fact, Soviet archaeologists have con-
firmed the importance of Armenia, or more precisely of the
chalcolithic and Bronze Age civilization of the Kura-Araxes
valleys, in the development of wheeled vehicles, including—
possibly—the chariot. Shortly before World War II, a great
number of kurgans, or barrow graves, were hastily excavated
in the Trialeti steppe, and these graves threw considerable
light on the development of the ox carts and wagons in use in
the Early Transcaucasian Culture. More spectacular (and better
published) have been the excavations of barrow graves in a flood
plain below the village of Lchashen at the southern shore of
Lake Sevan (see Fig. i). In conjunction with a hydroelectric
project in the 19505, the level of Lake Sevan was significantly
lowered, and the plain with its graves thus came to light. Be-
cause the plain had been under water for almost three thousand
years, the waterlogged contents of the Lchashen graves were
relatively well preserved. For our purposes, the significant con-
tents were the twenty-three wheeled vehicles buried with the
deceased as grave goods. These were of several types: four-
wheeled wagons with disk wheels, two-wheeled and A-frame
carts, and light spoked-wheel passenger carts or "chariots."
Unfortunately, the only carbon test thus far conducted on a
Lchashen vehicle is not as helpful as it might be. The vehicle
chosen for the test was apparently a "chariot," but the pub-
lished report is somewhat vague on this point. At any rate, the
test yielded a date of ca. 1500 B.C. (± 100 years)." 1 On the
in. Piggott, Earliest Wheeled Transport, 77—78: "A single radiocar-
bon date of 1200 ± 100 be was obtained from 'wood remains of ritual