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I think there was a bunch of evidence already that also strongly indicated technology transfer throughout Eurasia in the last few millennia BCE, especially mili
by sillyquiet 5y ago
I think there was a bunch of evidence already that also strongly indicated technology transfer throughout Eurasia in the last few millennia BCE, especially military technology.
For example, two-wheeled light military chariots probably originated in Central Asia with the Sintashta culture around 2000 BCE, and spread from there to everywhere from Egypt to East Asia.
In addition, though I dunno if you want to consider it a technology transfer, their particular horse breeds, bred to drive those chariots, also spread to the extent those breeds are the ancestors of every living domestic horse (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04018-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04018-9)
- hannasanarion 5y agoThe remarkable thing here is that the technology transfer was not by contact and osmosis over the centuries, but literal and intentional transit. We now know that there were two people, a shock troop and a horseman, who served in the same Assyrian imperial army at or around the same time. Then after they retired from the army, one stayed in the region, and the other moved to China.
- sillyquiet 5y agoWell the horses at least were quite intentionally traded, and I would be very surprised if chariots were not either, although admittedly, they spread mostly by some poor saps being pounded to dust by the folks in chariots and then those poor saps adopting chariots themselves (e.g., the Egyptians and the Hyksos)