rivers, carrying goods and people. Sometimes oceangoing
ships sailed up the rivers, transporting goods from the east.
Smaller boats made of animal skins stretched over wooden
frames were commonly used on the rivers to transport only a
few people or for fi shing.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Most ancient peoples of Asia traveled on foot. Even aft er the do-
mestication of draft animals and the introduction of the wheel,
transportation usually meant people walking, carrying loads on
their shoulders and backs. One of the remarkable things about
ancient peoples was the large amounts of goods they trans-
ported in this manner, trekking through dangerous, frequently
very dry or very cold environments. Th e paths they wore in the
earth on these journeys oft en became the roads of empires.
On the many large Asian islands between the Indian
and Pacifi c oceans dense tropical forests oft en impeded land
transportation. On such islands as Sumatra and Java water
transportation was the better choice for moving goods over
any but the shortest distances. People poled or paddled boats
such as dugout canoes and bamboo raft s over the sinuous wa-
ters of rivers, streams, and swamps. Even on the mainland, in
Indochina and much of southern Asia, dense forests inhib-
ited travel. People walked the trails of tapirs and elephants
to make their way to streams where they could use boats. On
many Pacifi c islands, forests were thick enough to inhibit
travel. Th e islanders oft en found it easier to travel by boat in
the ocean around their islands than to try to travel great dis-
tances inland. For large islands, such as New Guinea, island-
ers made their ways to streams and used dugout canoes to
carry themselves and goods. In open areas such as those in
Australia, people of the Pacifi c continued to rely on transpor-
tation on foot through the ancient era.
Th e amount of goods a walker could carry was obviously
limited by his or her strength. In many parts of Asia poles
were set across the shoulders of two people, enabling them
to carry weights greater than one person could bear. From
very early times people also used sledges for heavy loads. Th e
early sledges, litt le more t han rough wooden frames on which
goods were dragged across the ground, were soon improved
by the addition of sledlike runners. Th is innovation may have
occurred in the far north of Asia. Even aft er the introduction
of the wheel, sledges remained the preferred mode of trans-
portation over mud, marshes, snow, and ice. For the nomadic
peoples of Siberia sledges became essential to their way of life
because they frequently had to pack up and move their heavy
animal-skin-and-wood tents and other goods to new places.
When the domestication of draft animals reached Asia
is not known, but by 3500 b.c.e. farmers near the mouth of
the Yangtze River were using oxen to pull plows. Th e wheel
as a means of transportation was fi rst used in Sumer, in the
Near East, before 3500 b.c.e. and spread from there. Th e orig-
inal wheels consisted of three boards held together by twoboards fi tted crosswise on the inside of the wheel. Th ese solid
wheels were very heavy. Th e Harappans of the Indus River
valley (2600–1500 b.c.e.) probably used four-wheeled wagons
pulled by two oxen apiece. Th ese heavy vehicles enabled them
to transport enough grain to fi ll the huge granaries in their
cities, providing a food reserve against hard times.
For many centuries in ancient India oxen remained the
favored animals for hauling carts and wagons. Th ey were so
valuable that in some places in India it was punishable by
death to kill one. Even long aft er the domesticated horse was
introduced to India, oxen were preferred for pulling wagons.
By 300 b.c.e. Indian traders formed long caravans of hun-
dreds of wagons pulled by oxen. Ox-drawn carts of supplies
followed Indian armies to war. Oxen were slower than horses
but tolerated India’s climate better. Th us horses ser ved ma i n ly
to carry riders or to pull light chariots.
Two-wheeled chariots had the advantage of being faster
than four-wheeled wagons. Th ey transported elite warriors
to battle and the rich through cities. Sometime aft er 2000
b.c.e. spoked wheels—lighter and therefore faster than solid
wheels—were introduced to India. Another innovation im-
proved maneuverability: Originally, axles and wheels formed
one unit, rotating together, which made chariots, carts, and
wagons diffi cult to turn. Eventually, wheelwrights found
ways to allow wheels to turn independently of each other. Th e
wheels could thus rotate at diff erent speeds, allowing fast,
tight turns without skidding.
By 2600 b.c.e. wheeled vehicles had appeared in China,
probably introduced by nomads from central Asia who had
learned this technology from Mesopotamians. Solid wheels
and wheels fi xed to axles presented the same problems to the
Chinese as they did to the Indians, but the use of solid-wheeled
carts persisted in southern China and southern Asia as they
did in India, probably because of their durability and ease of
construction. Although China had two great river systems,
the Yangtze and Yellow River, the rivers wound through the
landscape so much that the Chinese found it took longer to
move on the rivers than to travel by land, which led to many
road building projects to improve land transportation.
It was probably also nomads of central Asia who intro-
duced war chariots to China. By 2000 b.c.e. people in what is
now northern China were using wheels with 18 spokes. Chari-
ots with spoked wheels, pulled by horses, were of great value to
the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1500–ca. 1045 b.c.e.). Th e chariot, even
a heavy, lumbering one, gave Shang armies a big advantage in
battle and in the transportation of militar y supplies against en-
emies who oft en were limited to being on foot. Th e advantage
became even greater when Chinese wheelwrights, like those in
India, discovered how to let wheels turn independently. Mean-
while, Shang four-wheeled wagons appear to have remained
clumsy vehicles because the forward axle was fi xed in place
and could not easily shift to follow a winding road, but they
were nevertheless important for transporting heavy cargoes.
Th e Scythians of central Asia introduced the stirrup to
the Chinese. A Scythian stirrup was just a leather loop, but ittransportation: Asia and the Pacific 11150895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1115 1115 10/10/07 2:31:08 PM