Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

bodies clothed in skins
8.12 Bronze cauldron with four handles from the Semirech’ye region, south-east Kazakhstan.
If the model wagons accurately represent the vehicles in use, then the average
wagon was substantially built with solid wooden wheels, either four or six according
to Pseudo-Hippocrates. The text also says that they were pulled by two or three yokes
of oxen. These tough, resilient structures were efficiently designed to carry heavy
loads on long journeys across the rough steppe. A quite different style of vehicle was
found in kurgan 5 at Pazyryk. It was a light, elegant carriage built of birch, sprung on
four spoked wheels each 1.6 m in diameter. The four horses that had pulled the carriage
were buried with it. One pair was harnessed to the pole using a primitive horse
collar, while the second outside pair hauled on traces. The quality of the vehicle and
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