King Tut's Chariots Marvels of Engineering

Discovery News ^ | Tuesday, August 3, 2010 | Rossella Lorenzi

[SunkenCiv]

King Tutankhamun, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt more than 3,300 years ago, rode full speed over the desert dunes on a Formula One-like chariot, according to new investigations into the technical features of the boy king's vehicle collection.

Discovered in pieces by British archaeologist Howard Carter when he entered King Tut's treasure-packed tomb in 1922, the collection consisted of two large ceremonial chariots, a smaller highly decorated one, and three others that were lighter and made for daily use.

"They were the Ferrari of antiquity. They boasted an elegant design and an extremely sophisticated and astonishingly modern technology," Alberto Rovetta, professor in robotics engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, told Discovery News.

Of the six chariots, one made its longest ride yet last week when it traveled outside Egypt for the first time in three millennia to the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit in New York's Discovery Times Square Exposition...

"These vehicles appear to be the first mechanical systems which combine the use of kinematics, dynamics and lubrication principles," Rovetta said.

Further studies, in collaboration with Nasry Iskander at the conservation department of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, showed the unique interplay of form and function in King Tut's chariots. These technical underpinnings involve the design of the wheels, the naves, the bearings, and the pole between the cart and the yoke.

"The wheels feature a real tire, made of a flexible wood rim, which adapts to soil irregularities. Moreover, the six-spoke wheels are made from elastic wood. This absorbs uniformly the loads transmitted by soil irregularity, so that the vibrations are damped by the wheel itself like the intelligent suspensions in modern cars," Rovetta said.

[ROTB]

“the vibrations are damped by the wheel itself like the intelligent suspensions in modern cars”

Awww ... the Egyptians got *LUCKY* people!!

Remember! That was the same culture that thought poopoo was a magical medicinal elixir!

[hellbender]

Barf. All this supposed “sophisticated design” is basically just the product of the limited materials they had to work with.

[bunkerhill7]

These are show-room toy models-not for actual usage

because a horse would very quickly destroy their puny construction with one kick-

[wolfcreek]

[tutstar]

gnip

[Question_Assumptions]

Robert Drews argues that chariots were the jet fighters of their day in his book The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C.

[SunkenCiv]

Herodotus’ modern translators had a good laugh about the Egyptians’ use of crocodile dung for eye ailments — turns out the ancient E’s had by accident found a naturally occurring antibiotic. Maybe that’s what you meant.

[SunkenCiv]

Yup, they served as mobile archery platforms; the driver swung along parallel to the enemy line, the archer fired shot after shot into the enemies, then they’d zoom back to get more arrows.

[ROTB]

>turns out the ancient E’s had by accident found a naturally occurring antibiotic

“Even a stopped clock ...”

[DuncanWaring]

Here’s a story about a full-scale working model:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lostempires/trebuchet/builds.html

[justa-hairyape]

Interesting story. They also have a mock-up built near Stirling Castle and it looks different then the Nova built Trebuchet and the American made model mock-up. Learned about WarWolf in the BBC series below. Very good series. There are 5 episodes each with 6 parts. Would like to see additional episodes if they have been made.

A History Of Scotland - Episode 3 - Bishop Makes King (2/6)

[colorado tanker]

That thing must have been a real babe magnet in the day.

[SunkenCiv]

Naturally, an open-top vehicle, the owner’s obviously rich, geez, it’s a wonder he didn’t have a couple of hundred kids.