MHCL 2024 conference

Abstract: Light chariots with spoked wheels were developed initially in Syria or Northern Mesopotamia at about the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. and quickly propagated all over Middle East. The two-wheeled horse-drawn chariot was one of the most important inventions in history. It gave humanity its first concept of personal transport, and for two thousand years it was the key technology of war. Information on chariots of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Mycenaean and Archaic Greece, China, and Europe, with light and flexible spoked wheels from extant findings of ancient chariots, stone reliefs, and vase paintings is used for a design study of the dual chariot and its evolution in the centuries. The development of the dual chariot incorporates the seeds of a primitive design activity along with the development of an efficient ground transportation system.

Thomas G. Chondros
Associate Professor
University of Patras, Greece
Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics Department, 265 00 Patras

Kypros F. Milidonis
Research Associate
University of Patras, Greece
Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics Department, 265 00 Patras)

Cesare Rossi
Professor
University of Naples “Federico II”

Nenad Zrnic
Professor
University of Belgrade
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering