THE FIRST OX CARTS

Mosaic in the Sumerian city of Ur. Circa 2500 b.C. http://www.alexandriaarchive.or

According to Greek Mythology, Filomeleo, the inventor of carts, ploughs and yokes was born from the union between the goddess of agriculture, Deméter, and Lasionte. Mythology seems to support the idea that the origin of carts is linked to agriculture and the domestication of animals, activities that men started to carry out in the Middle East during the Neolithic, around 6000 b.C. Bronze miniatures, reliefs and mosaics prove the use of wheels and carts among the peoples living in the Fertile Crescent, who were able to domesticate the first animal species and were the promoters of the first forms of agriculture, pottery and trade.

Terra-cotta representations of carts drawn by two oxen in Mohenjo Daro, in the Indus Valley, and votive copper carts associated with burial places found in Tell Agrab (Mesopotamia) prove that carts were used for purposes other than the transport of agricultural products: for war, ritual and funeral purposes.

Civilizations developing in the Eastern Mediterranean, like the Egyptian and Mycenaean civilizations, knew the advances in transportation by the middle of the 2nd millennium b.C., and the Etruscans, in northern Italy, around the 1st millennium b.C.

The Indo-european peoples who settled in Central Europe, skilful cart builders, spread the new farming techniques all over Europe: cave engravings in Sweden, fragments of solid wheels found in Holland, or the remains of the Italian town of Mercurago prove that carts were known and used in Europe from very early times.

CARTS IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.

The representation of several animals pulling carts on the chalky walls of the Remosillos shelter (La Puebla de Castro, Huesca), gives this scene a unique character among the examples of Levantine rock art. If, as the archaeological materials found in the shelter seem to indicate, they are proved to have been created by neolithic people, they will be the oldest representation of carts in Spain. ¹.

Decorative stelae located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula containing representations of different types of carts are more abundant. They are two-wheeled carts (mainly spoke wheels, though sometimes they are solid), drawn by horses, in which the "chedeiro" is curved and the "cabezalla" sometimes seems to be integrated into the "chedeiro" itself and sometimes appears represented as an independent piece. These carts are similar to the ones used by the Aegeans and Phoenicians in the East Mediterranean. They don't seem to have been used for war or transportation purposes, but as part of rituals in which carts would be the vehicle which carried warriors' corpses to the afterlife.². The rectangular funeral carts profusely decorated with bronze rivets left in the Tartessian necropolis of La Joya in Huelva belong to a different typology.³

Carts were used by the Iberians mainly as a means of transport. They gradually abandoned the ritual and funeral purposes proved by stelae and necropoli which they had served in previous times. The traces left by iron-reinforced wheels on the stones bear witness to the heavy traffic on the roads leading to villages like Castellar de Meca (Valencia).

Carts of different types were also represented in the cave paintings found in the rock-shelters of Los Buitres de Peñalsordo. They differ mainly in the shape of the chedeiro, in this case, rectangular and more appropriate for transportation purposes. Peninsular transportation carts apparently come from European areas and their closest referents are the examples found in Northern Italy: the wheel of Mercurago (Medium Bronze Age), and the stela-menhir of Lagundo, (Final Bronze Age), in which a transportation cart pulled by oxen can be spotted.

Castellar de Meca http://mestreacasa.gva.es

FIRST REPRESENTATIONS OF CARTS IN GALICIA

Arte esquemático en Peñalsordo (Badajoz)

In 1926, Jesuit priest E. Jalhay, spotted a very interesting cart among a group of petroglyphs found in Outeiro de Morouzo (Pedornes, Oia). This may be the only example of its kind in rock art. It shows an ox cart pulled by two animals each ridden by a rider.⁴ In later visits, this scholar, a member of the Jesuist school of Camposancos (A Guarda), stood by his first hypothesis that the carts represented on the rock served a ceremonial purpose, or were used for military parades or even for transporting tin coming from the Cassiterides. However, Costas Goberna, who has recently revised that theory, disputes the existence of the cart that E. Jalhay made out, although he admits the difficulties for a definite identification.

Piedra del Cazador en Pedornes. Reproducción del conjunto realizada por Costas Goberna.

Archeologists Alberte Reboreda and Eduardo Breogán have recently announced the discovery of the warrior stela of Pedra Alta found in Castrelo do Val (Ourense). Engraved on it, we can see not only the “panoply”, or ideal equipment /complete suit of armour for a warrior, but also a cart similar to those found in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. This Bronze Age stela dates from 1200-1000, and it is the first evidence of the presence of carts in Galicia.

In the permanent debate about the presence of the Celts in Galicia, the nearest roots of our carts, as well as those of many other techniques and cultural contributions, are related to the Roman presence in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Celtic root of terms like carro, roda, camba... does not seem to be a strong enough argument to claim that the Celtic peoples introduced carts in Galicia: "Carro é celta, roda, camba... pero eu defendo que a cultura castrexa non tiña o carro, senón que chegou cos romanos, polo que este vocabulario o traían con eles. Quizáis da zona do Po, onde se empaparon de cousas célticas cos pobos cisalpinos" ⁵

Dúas interpretacións para un mesmo petróglifo. A esquerda o carro cargado de E. Jalhay; á dereita a lectura de Costas Goberna

The plaustrum was mainly used in rural areas, although we must not forget its importance in a number of different fields of civil and military daily life, as the reliefs on the columns of Antoninus and Trajan prove. It was used in Rome and in most of the provinces of the Empire, as we can see in mosaics, paintings and reliefs. It used to have an assembly of wheels made of solid wood, and they were drawn by oxen, and also, although not so commonly, by bulls and donkeys. Their structure was very close to the one of the carts used in the west of Asturias until the 1960s.⁶

http://tallerdebelenismo.forocreacion.com

THEIR PRESENCE IN CELTIC VILLAGES

Roda de Catoira Raigame nº 19 2004

 

In the Pre-Roman villages of the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula we can still find some remains that attest to the presence of carts. Some standing stones in several Pre-Roman villages such as Mohias or Coaña (Asturias) seem to have been intended to safeguard the buildings from the scratches made by carts. The votive bronze carts of Costa Figueira (Vilela, Paredes de Douro, Portugal) represents two yokes of oxen.⁷.

Deep tracks are marked on the stones in Pre-Roman villages in the province of Zamora and in the Pre-Roman village of Viladonga (Castro de Rei, Lugo). The remains of some bow yokes and washers can still be seen in the latter.

 

The votive bronze cart of de Costa Figueira (in the parish of Vilela, Paredes de Douro) which dates form the 1st millennium BC, represents two yokes of oxen and two axles, one at the front and one at the back. It is probably related to a foundation or demarcation ritual rather than a farming scene.

1 http://www.fumdham.org.br/fumdhamentos5/pilar_utrilla.asp
2 CELESTINO PÉREZ, S. Los carros y las estelas decoradas del Suroeste. Badajoz, 1985. Pax. 54 3 QUESADA SANZ, F. La posesión de carros y el significado de su colocación en la tumba: contraste entre culturas. el caso de Iberia. 1977. Páx. 53-59
4 COSTAS GOBERNA, F. J. (2004): “Los Supuestos carros de los grabados rupestres de Oia (Pontevedra)”. Boletín del Instituto de Estudios Vigueses, 10: 219-238.
5 CALO LOURIDO, F. “La lengua, unico vestigio celta en Galicia que logra consenso”. Suplemento Culturas da Voz de Galicia do 17 de abril de 2010
6 PAZ GARCÍA, M E OUTROS. “El asentamiento romano en Catarrosa. Aproximación a su estudio” En Espacio. Tiempo y Forma, Serie II, Historia Antigua, t. 10, 1997, páxs. 351-374
7 SANTOS YAGUAS, N. “La arqueología castreña y el sector económico agropecuario. Memorias de Historia Antigua. Población y poblamiento en el Norte de la Península”. Servicio de Publicaciones. Universidade de Oviedo. Pax. 46