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1300 Years in the
Making
The
two-wheeled vehicles known as carpentum in Antiquity
and carpat in the earliest Irish texts have long been
thought as not related to each other else than by name. New
research indicates that this opinion can no longer be
sustained: these actually are the same type of vehicle, used
from as early as 500 BC on the European continent to as late
as 800 AD in Ireland.
Images
of Cú Chulainn, racing to battle, immediately come to
one's mind if the term "chariot" is mentioned in connection
with Ireland. Until the middle of the last century, it would
have been thought to have been a "Celtic" Iron Age chariot,
like those found in burials in East Yorkshire and
Continental Europe. But, about 50 years ago, the "window on
the Iron Age", that the Irish texts had formerly been
believed to be, shattered as we realised that the Early
Medieval Irish literature was a painting of the past as the
Medieval Irish monks imagined it rather than a faithful
description of a far distant past. Then, archaeologists told
us that there was little if any evidence for any Iron Age
chariots in Ireland at all, backed up by linguists,
reconstructing Cú Chulainn's allegedly spectacular
chariot as not at all that spectacular, humble farm carts.
Láeg, Cú Chulainn's charioteer, probably would
have wondered what had happened to his wonderful vehicle.
But now, the chariots are back.A new analysis of all the
available evidence, from Iron Age Europe and Britain as well
as Early Medieval Ireland, has allowed us to demonstrate
that, in fact, the carpentum, the chariot used by the
ancient continental Celts as well as their British cousins,
and it's Irish counterpart and linguistic cognate, carpat,
were used in very similar ways by similar social groups.
Very similar vehicles they were, used for 1300 years, on the
roads of Iron Age Europe as well as Early medieval Ireland,
and while the Iron Age archaeological record allows us to
reconstruct their outer appearance, the Irish texts allow us
insights into their terminology, and the feats that could be
performed with them by daring drivers.
Combining
the information gained from all the sources available, the
carpentum/carpat can be reconstructed to have consisted of a
substructure, to which the wheels and the superstructure,
the latter mounted in a flexible spring suspension, was
attached (see illustration).
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The substructure consisted of: cuing
- the yoke, which was used to strap the horses to the
chariot, síthbe - the pole, a solid beam of wood (of
which Caesar tells us that the British charioteers performed
stunts of running along it to stand on the yoke),
tét, refed or foloman - the ropes, fithis - (the)
ring(s), fertas - the axle, and fert, usually used in the
dual dí feirt - the beams to mount the flexible
suspension for the chariot platform. The feirt each had, at
their end, a fertbaccán- the suspension hook, used to
fix the suspension. Attached to the axle were the roth or
droch - the wheel(s), which had a fonnad - an iron tyre,
giving additional strength to the wooden wheel. Each wheel
was fixed by a linch pin, which might have been called delg
(literally "thorn"). Mounted on this was a superstructure
consisting of crett - the frame, which was lightly built,
holding together the light platform formed by asnae
(literally `ribs`), and, one to the left and one to the
right, clar - the sideboard. The whole platform was covered
with forgaimen or fortchae - covering sheets or cloth, to
allow for additional comfort. Above the platform, not
necessarily, but at least sometimes, suide - seat(s) and a
puball (a loanword from latin, so probably not used in the
Iron Age) or anbluth, a "tent" could be placed on the
chariot, adding even more comfort and, if necessary,
protection from the elements.
Of
course, there were some minor differences between the
chariots of the European Iron Age and Early Medieval
Ireland, the former, at least as far as we can tell from the
remains found in chariot burials, making much more use of
metal elements, both for functional and decorative purposes,
while almost no such parts are known from the Irish
archaeological record. But by and large, they were pretty
similar, and we can even assume that they probably were
painted in bright colours, to be even more impressive,
whether they were built with metal parts as decorative
elements or not. So, rather than thinking of Cú
Chulainn as driving along in a humble, ordinary farm cart,
even the medieval Irish monks, in painting the past in
bright colours, envisioned him as racing to battle in a
flashy, shining, well-built and technologically advanced
vehicle, a vehicle which the early medieval Irish associated
with nobles, kings and bishops, not with the farmer next
door.
They
did not, however, see the carpat as primarily a vehicle of
war, in which past heroes would have fought out epic
battles, but rather thought of it in the ways they knew it
was used in their times by the well-off that could afford
such luxury. And this, first and foremost, was as a stately
transport, used by those of high social rank in their
travels, wherever they might go, whether it would be
visiting their neighbours, or distant relatives, or whether
it would be driving to a battle - as it is pretty obvious
that, for the actual infighting, the warrior would step off
his carpat to fight afoot. As that carpat was built as light
as possible, it was not only suited as, but also used as a
race car, with contests at the communal feast, the
óenach, definitly being one of the main attractions.
And finally, what would be more appropriate to carry someone
who had been associated that much with this vehicle that
cairptech, "chariot owner", became a term synonymous for
"noble", on his last journey, than his beloved vehicle? As
such, it was also used as a death bier, in early Medieval
Ireland only for the last farewell, while, in the European
Iron Age, sometimes even as the final rest of his owner,
interred with him in the grave.
But
during his lifetime, it was a vehicle intended to show off
the rank and status of its owner, many of them imagining
themselves as daring young men in their chariots, performing
spectacular stunts, like running along the pole to stand on
the yoke, as attested by Caesar, or jumping logs and ditches
at full speed. The latter, a truly back-breaking (if not
neck-breaking) stunt if performed in a humble farm-cart,
might work not at all too badly if performed in a carpat
that had a flexible spring suspension, that might have
allowed to actually lift the vehicle off the ground like a
modern skateboarder would do with his board, and to dampen
the impact sufficiently when it touched down again. Still,
as the early Medieval Irish sources tell us, more than once
in a while, they might have been less successful than they
would have wanted to be: Benaid Cú Chulaind omnae ara
ciund i sudiu + scríbais ogum ina taíb. Iss ed
ro boí and: arná dechsad nech sechai co
ribuilsed err óencharpait. Focherdat a pupli i sudiu
+ dotíagat día léimim ina carptib.
Dofuit trícha ech oc sudiu + brisiter trícha
carpat and. (TBC 827-831) - "Cú Chulainn felled a
tree there and wrote an ogam inscription on it. It read: no
one should pass by it, unless a warrior in his chariot had
leapt it. They set up their tents there and begin jumping
with their chariots. Thirty horses stumbled and 30 chariots
were broken."
As
such, it might have been wiser to drive them on a road. But
that's another story, one that I already have told
elsewhere.
R
Karl. "....on a road to nowhere"
Further
reading
R. Karl (2001),
"Zweirädrig bis ins
Frühmittelalter". Archäologie in
Deutschland 4/2001: 34-5.
R. Karl and D. Stifter (2002),
"Carpat - carpentum. Die keltischen Grundlagen des
‚Streit'wagens der irischen Sagentradition".
In: A. Eibner; R. Karl; J. Leskovar; K. Löcker; Ch.
Zingerle (eds.), Pferd und Wagen in der Eisenzeit. Wiener
keltologische Schriften 2, Vienna.
R. Karl (forthcoming),
"Iron Age chariots and Medieval texts. The necessity
to break down disciplinary boundaries". EKeltoi
webjournal.
 ©
Raimund Karl MMII
About the
Author
Raimund Karl studied Prehistoric
Archaeology and Celtic Studies at the University of Vienna
and has been lecturing Iron Age Archaeology, Celtic Culture
and Theory in Celtic Studies in Vienna for several years. He
is currently Research Fellow for European Archaeology at the
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic
Studies
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