The New Warfareogists as Tocharians." 4 The spoked-wheel vehicles from
Lchashen, however, are in one respect sui generis. They do not
appear to have been military vehicles. With an open front, and
rails at the sides and back, they seem to have been used simply
for transportation. They are, then, "chariots" in the broad
sense and perhaps not unlike the "chariots" sought by kings
and chieftains throughout much of Eurasia in the nineteenth
and eighteenth centuries B.C. Structurally, the Lchashen two-
wheelers seem to belong to a type anterior to the typical Late
Bronze Age military chariot. The axle is positioned under the
middle of the "chariot" body, whereas throughout the Near
East from the fourteenth century onward, chariot axles were
positioned toward the rear. The Lchashen graves also contained
miniature bronze models of chariots, and these conform to the
normal military type: they have rear axles, and a box closed in
front and open in the back.II5
The Lake Sevan "chariots" were made in Armenia, since the
combination of woods used in their construction (elm, oak,
beech, and pine) would not have been available outside the
Armenian highlands. Both the "chariots" and the other vehi-
cles provide impressive testimony that the woodworking skills
requisite for the manufacture of chariots were highly developed
in Armenia. The elements are regularly joined by mortice-and-
tenon, or dowel, construction. One vehicle had been elabo-
rated with "no less than 12,000 mortices; large and small,
round and square. The tilt framework in this wagon had 600
such slots or mortices alone." 1 ' 6 Although it is possible that
- Ibid., 19.
- Littauer and Crouwel, Wheeled Vehicles, 78.
- Piggott, "Earliest Wheeled Vehicles," 289. Cf. Burney, The
Peoples oftheHMs, 106: "The Lchaschen wagons and carts give proof of the
skill in woodworking of the craftsmen of this region. Oak and elm were the
woods most used for the wheels, axles and draught-poles, the yokes being
of oak and the framework of the arched roof of the pliable yew; beech and
pine were also used. The wagon with wickerwork sides from Barrow 11 at
Lchaschen is typical in its dimensions, and demonstrates the immense la-
bour which went into the manufacture of these vehicles: mortice-and-tenon
or dowelled joints were used exclusively, with pegs and treenails; this wa-