3 Horse Chariot

[Ray Briggs]

I am painting an Assyrian army and am about toe start on the heavy chariots. The WRG bboks state that 3 horse chariots were used but this seems improbable to me. My question is, what is the evidence for 3 horse chariots being used between ca 1300BC and 700BC, and how were they harnessed if they were used?
Regards,
Ray

[Mark]

There's a thread on this on ancmed circa 2004. From Nigel Tallis, in that thread:

The reliefs are from the throneroom, no less, of Assurnasirpal II's palace at Nimrud. The show scenes of campaign, chariot combat, and parade. The reason why 3 horses are shown on these is because they are large enough (around 1.75 metres) to show this sort of detail - the chariots on the Balawat gates (and some gates of AII) are only a couple of inches high!

IIRC there are some three-team horses on a couple of nA ivories, though I may be wrong, and on Central Asian rock reliefs (from the Altai)

Also:

I was part of a team which built a couple of 3-horse chariots and tested them in Turkey for a telly programme a couple of years ago. It works fine. The third horse isn't under draught ... Remember a 3-horse chariot is just a 2-horse one with another horse hitched to the outside of the yoke. It doesn't help with the draught directly.

Later:

3-horse chariots are depicted in art, they're mentiond in texts from the LBA onwards (with uru as 3-horse team), they're illustrated in plan view in petroglyphs in the Altai, described in the Iliad and illustrated in C8th BC Greek material, trigae are described in some detail in Graeco-Roman chariot racing, and a similar technique and aim, with asymmetrical hitch, was/is used with the Russian dvoika (where the outriggers are "spares").

The 4-bay yoke only appears in the late C8th BC (Tiglath-Pileser III/Sargon II)

[Patrick Waterson]

The British Museum has reliefs of Ashurnasirpal II showing a chariot with three horses clearly outlined.  There seems no reason to doubt the existence of three-horse chariots, the current question being whether the vehicle is really a single-pole two-horse chariot with another horse strung along or a genuine three-horse item with two poles.

I would suggest going with whichever three-horse interpretation makes most sense, as Nigel seems to have covered the bases.

Patrick