Elias Manuel Morgado Pinheiro Dissertação de Mestrado em ...

ways in different locations, and naturally, the way they were used and their design
would condition each other. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that warfare conditions
in specific locations would change the design of the war chariot. These were not drastic
modifications, but enough to force us to consider them when discussing the subject of
origins. The war chariot, in its final form, might have arisen from a combination of
small improvements made in different regions. In this case, in order to identify a
possible origin, one must not focus in a specific location, but rather in trans-regional
connections between different regions; namely, the Eurasian steppes and West Asia.
It is the objective of this work to review the antagonistic theories regarding the
origin of the war chariot, addressing each component individually, in order to build a
composite view of the vehicle, and thus presenting a new understanding of its origins,
based on both West Asian and steppe evidence. Furthermore, the cases of India and
China will be addressed, with the objective of highlighting the connection between
these regions and the potential origin of the war chariot, while at the same time
demonstrating the existence of a single and continuous chariotry tradition across Asia.
Considering the complete lack of investigation in this particular field in
Portugal, much of the present work seeks to establish a starting point to new forays into
the subject. Rather than a final word, it should be understood as the first step of a future
investigation. While the basic connecting lines between Eurasia, West Asia, India, and
China, regarding the war chariot are presented here, a closer in-depth approach to each
one is necessary. However, such thorough task is far beyond the scope of a master
thesis. It should be noted that an encompassing study of the subject must also include
Europe. However, the current work is focused exclusively in Asia, a limitation imposed
by the geographic specificity of the relevant master‟s course.
Furthermore, considering the lack of specialized collections and the virtual
inexistence of volumes pertaining to chariot warfare and steppe archaeology in
Portuguese generalist libraries, the current thesis aims to be a readily available source of
useful and quality information regarding the subject.
Because the present work represents the first attempt to address such matters at
this scale in Portugal, the English language was chosen. This seems to be a paradoxical
statement. However, considering that no prior tradition exists in Portugal, any hopes for
the future rest solely in internationalization, in the sense that further Portuguese research
must be made available to foreign scholars so that a channel of communication can be
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