Posted on 07/26/2004 9:33:55 PM PDT by blam
Monday, July 26, 2004. 10:09pm (AEST)
Discovery rewrites Chinese vehicle history
The discovery of 3,700-year-old chariot tracks has pushed back the appearance of vehicles in China by 200 years, the country's media has reported.
"It advances the history of China's vehicle use up to the Xia Dynasty (2100 - 1600 BC)," said Xu Hong, who leads the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' archaeological investigation team at the Erlitou archaeological site in Yanshi city, central Henan province.
The two parallel tracks were discovered on the grounds of a palace at the site, Xinhua news agency reported.
Erlitou, discovered in 1959, was the largest residential human settlement in China and east Asia nearly 4,000 years ago.
It boasts one of China's richest and earliest sites of palaces and bronze casting workshops.
Before the chariot discovery, the earliest vehicle traces known in China dated back to the early Shang Dynasty (1600 - 1100BC).
Because the distance between the two parallel tracks is only one metre, archaeologists believe the vehicle body of the chariot would have been much narrower than others found elsewhere in Henan, and was probably of special use.
It is unclear whether they are tracks of horse-drawn carriages, like those found in the Yin Ruins in Anyang, also in Henan.
That was no chariot. It was a rickshaw (sic)
Most recent article about the same area:
Just like any totalitarian regime, they are always discovering something new to prove how great they really are/were.
For all of China's prowess, it was still an ox-cart nation until it stole some of our R&D, and was given the rest.
Thanks Bubba.
Nah. It was a chariot pulled by Heavenly Horses.
Blast from the past:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1039559/posts
If I recall correctly, the Discover Channel speical on these mummies showed a "wagon burial" for one of the women.
*shrug*....:)
Xia Dynasty mentionedThanks B.
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If it had been a chariot, there would have been horse tracks as well.
IMHO this was two guys (Mei hung and Ai Hung Tu) walking side-by-side.
Yes, that is true. And before the 2080s, long before, we're going to be dealing with a monster in China, mostly due to the short sighted actions we have taken. Of course they may implode financially, so we'll have to take it as it comes.
One would think that if they could find the tracks they could at least find a fragment of what must have been a full-cast wheel.
My dad said in his youth that it was routine to plant large cotton fields with a horse and a one man plow.
Interesting. I don't know much about their banking system. Thanks.
Thanks for the link. I missed your post until just now. SAT
You're welcome....:)
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