I was intrigued recently by a video from LindyBeige about Roman War Waggons, during which he brought up that some folks argue about how a horse might have been tacked to a wagon in that era.
Where by some etchings show only a single "pole" attaching a wagon to oxen or horses.
I looked at the image and wondered perhaps if it was a full length trace, which would be on the wagon frame, but he was totally right about the perspective and the image clearly being fanciful.
I today therefore was having a think about whether swingletrees would have been in use, they certainly are in ploughs and oxen drawn materials from the medieval period; I've read and seen etchings which come from contemporary sources.
My driving position has a single articulated pole, but this is not for the driving power, that is just for direction; and the swingletrees, to the horse traces, they are the power.... so there's a very intricate interplay between all of them to keep things in balance....
And to be honest.... I reckon in some form, this would have existed just a few years after starting to use horses, let alone a few dozen millennia as the turn to the common era would have been (year 0 by the Gregorian Calendar).
No comments:
Post a Comment