Editing Chariot (section)

===Early wheeled vehicles in the Near East===
[[File:Denis Bourez - British Museum, London (8747049029) (2).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Standard of Ur]] in southern Mesopotamia, {{circa|2500 BCE}}, depicting solid four wheeled, [[Kunga (equid)|Kunga]] drawn, war vehicles.]]
According to [[Christoph Baumer]], the earliest discoveries of wheels in Mesopotamia come from the first half of the third millennium BC – more than half a millennium later than the first finds from the Kuban region. At the same time, in Mesopotamia, some intriguing early pictograms of a sled that rests on wooden rollers or wheels have been found. They date from about the same time as the early wheel discoveries in Europe and may indicate knowledge of the wheel.<ref name="asianreviewofbooks.com">Christoph Baumer, [http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/pages/?ID=1478 ''The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors''.] I.B. Tauris, 2012 {{ISBN|1780760604}} p. 90</ref>

The earliest depiction of vehicles in the context of warfare is on the [[Standard of Ur]] in southern Mesopotamia, {{circa|2500 BCE}}. These are more properly called [[wagon]]s which were double-axled and pulled by oxen or a [[equid hybrid|hybrid]] of a [[donkey]] and a female [[onager]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Elena Efimovna Kuzʹmina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x5J9rn8p2-IC&pg=PA134|title=The Origin of the Indo-Iranians|year=2007|page=134| publisher=BRILL |isbn = 9789004160545}}</ref> named [[Kunga (equid)|Kunga]] in the city of [[Tell Brak#Kingdom of Nagar|Nagar]] which was famous for breeding them.<ref name="kunga1">{{cite book|author=Paolo Matthiae, Nicoló Marchetti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AaZg0ypYrnQC&pg=PA436|title=Ebla and its Landscape: Early State Formation in the Ancient Near East|year=2013|page=436| publisher=Left Coast Press |isbn = 9781611322286}}</ref> The hybrids were used by the [[Ebla#First kingdom|Eblaite]],<ref name="kunga1" /> [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|early Sumerian]], [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] and [[Ur III]] armies.{{sfn|Anthony|2010|p=403}} The seal depicts a line of vehicles, each carrying a standing charioteer (driver), accompanied by a standing axe or spearman, with a rack of three to four spare spears, driving over a smattering of dead bodies. Such heavy wagons, borne on solid wooden wheels and covered with skins, may have been part of the baggage train (e.g., during royal funeral processions) rather than vehicles of battle in themselves.{{according to whom|date=December 2024}}

The Sumerians had a lighter, two-wheeled type of [[cart]], pulled by four [[Donkey|asses]], and with solid wheels. The spoked wheel did not appear in Mesopotamia until the mid second millennium BC.<ref name="HA_(2015)">{{cite web|url=http://subscriptions.teachtci.com/shared/sections/6398?program_id=13|title=History Alive! The Ancient World: Lesson 5 – Ancient Sumer, Section 8 – Technology|website=learntci.com|publisher=History Alive|access-date=13 January 2015}}</ref>