Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.91

c14.91

The horses were harnessed to a single central pole, which, on analogy with known representations, probably rose in a curve from the bottom of the chariot and then continued straight, to meet the yoke almost horizontally. This use of a yoke, a form of harness appropriate to oxen but very unsuitable to a horse (with it, as Contenau put it, ‘the capacity of the horse’s effort is only equal to its resistance to strangulation’!) is, however, characteristic of the whole ancient world, and the beginnings of the modern type of harnessing and horse-collar is not seen until Roman Imperial times in Europe at the earliest. The yoke is used universally with the chariot, whether in Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt or in Celtic Britain of the first century B.C., and from the *Rigveda* descriptions we can see that in all respects its fastening to the pole is equally typical of Indo-European practice. The problem was to provide a strong yet slightly flexible junction between pole and yoke, to allow for unequal stress whether the animals were pulling or checking, and this was done by providing a stout pin or bolt through the chariot-pole near its far end, against which the wooden yoke was lashed with thongs—