Historians claim the Nepihtes would not have known about the chariot, that it was not really developed until after Lehi left Jerusalem, however, the facts prove otherwise. In fact, from the fourteenth century BC onward (at least 800 years before Lehi left Jerusalem), the chariot was in use in Mesopotamia and the near east. The main purpose of these chariots was in war since they moved fast, could turn sharply had both a driver and a sharpshooter with bow and arrows, as well as spears secured by a leather restraint inside the chariot. This usage was quickly associated with war in Israel, as well as the horse, ridden by regimental cavalry units, and was forbidden by the Lord for the people who he wanted to reject war and a warrior elite, except in the defense of the nation, and on a personal level, in the defense of one’s family. As for the knowledge of chariots, they were used throughout Mesopotamia, just to the north of Israel by the Assyrians, Mitnani, an Indo-Iranian empire centered in northern Mesopotamia that flourished from about 1500 to about 1360 BC, and the Hittites, another people north of Israel, which many served in David’s army around 1000 BC.
In fact, Mary A. Littauer and Joost H. Crouwel have argued that the light war chariot was developed within the Near East as a practical response to the imperial need for a prestigious vehicle combining speed with maneuverability (Mary Aiken Littauer and Joost H. Crouwel, Selected Writings on Chariots, other Early Vehicles, Riding and Harness, Culture and History of the Anc8ent Near East, vol.6, 2001).
It is also clear that from as early as the third millennium the chariot was associated with both gods and goddesses throughout the Near East. In Hittite representations of wheeled vehicles of the second millennium BC and with the appearance of actual vehicles within Mycenae shaft graves, the chariot seems to have been associated with success in war and the hunt. By the time the image of the chariot appeared in Central Europe, as in Camonica Valley of Northern Italy, its image had come to function more as a sign represented schematically either with or without bovines or horses for traction and frequently accompanied by stick figures with raised arms, suggesting heroic figures of war divinities, causing the understanding that the chariot was a symbol of the warrior class of an aggressive culture.
In all cases, the chariot has been associated with horses. On some occasion, bovines are shown hauling the chariot, but these are often four wheeled vehicles, with two-wheeled chariots, pulled by horses, which are always associated with a warrior elite.
Artemis (Diana), Greek goddess of the Hunt, with her deer pulling her chariot
On the other hand, Peter Gelling and Christopher Hawkes both editors and authors, claim the distinction between wagons, carts, and chariots has too often been neglected; anything wheeled becomes referred to as a chariot and the chariot is associated with both worship and the warrior hero. Quite often, the chariot is associated with the gods, where one is riding with swift horses, representing a solar deity.
Unquestionably, these associations by which a wheel or wheeled vehicle becomes a chariot emblematic of a warrior class and a warlike culture depend heavily upon a number of assumptions, including an understanding that wheeled vehicles came into South Siberia from a western and Proto-Indo-European or Indo-European culture—that in that culture, wheeled vehicles were a sign of the warrior class and high status, and wheeled vehicles emblematic of the chariot.
With few exceptions, throughout central Asia and south Siberia, chariots are pulled by horses, along occasionally with a horse and a bovine, but rarely two bovines. And most often, the archer on the chariot is shown with bow and arrow shooting at a deer, usually a large deer of the type known from the Mongolian deer stones. Chariots are even shown being pulled through mountainous regions, tough scientists doubt such were real depictions; however, chariots in hills and mountains show up in numerous carvings and stone depictions, even crossing rugged and high mountain passes that experts in the field doubt the possibility of such actually occurring—though one might wonder why such drawings were depicted at all, if they were not real. Experts also look at light-bodied chariots of the two-wheeled variety for prestige and warfare since they could be pulled rapidly; however, solid wheels or four spikes suggest a much slower moving vehicle, one not suited for hunting or warfare.
Generally, in these petroglyphs, the use of bovines, according to Esther Jacobson, Professor Emeritus in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Oregon, typically represents pastoralism within the economic life of the people, the deer images refer to the figurative and literal source of being and sustenance, and are considered to represent a commonality of cultural reference throughout that region. While there are numerous drawings of chariots, horses and a few bovines, along with the hunter in all of the petroglyphs, while male and female deer, elk or reindeer are also shown numerous times pulling carts, wagons or chariots—but usually shown as the subject or target of hunting (Esther Jacobson-Tepfer, The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia, Brill, UK, 1993).
In fact, in almost every study where deer are associated with chariots, wagons or carts, it is in connection with gods and goddesses, nymphs, leprechauns, and the like, or as a symbol of something, like in the painting Triumph of Time, showing Father Time based on an allegorical poem, 14th century.
Nowhere in all of the work reviewed was an actual, realistic use of a deer pulling a cart of any kind found. The images located had to do with myths and legends, of gods and goddesses, of poems and verse. No doubt, such can be found somewhere, but the suggestion is simply that it would have been extremely rare, if at all, since the hundreds found show only a connection with deity.
A change in the chariot wheel
The earliest spoked-wheel chariots, allowed them to be built even lighter for agility in war, while not sacrificing stability and strength, and date to 2000 BC. Use of the chariot peaked around 1300 BC, and lost their military importance by the 1st century A.D.
(Image D – Approximate historical map of the spread of the spoke-wheeled chariot, 2000 to 500 B.C.
The earliest fully developed true spoke-wheel war chariots known are from the chariot burials of the Andronovo (Timber-Graves) sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka Proto-Indo-Iranian culture in modern Russia and Kazakhstan from around 2000 B.C. Chariots are also figure prominently in not only Indo-Iranian mythology, but are also an important part of both Hindo and Persian mythology, with most of the gods in their pantheon portrayed as riding them. Some argue that the chariot was most likely a product of the ancient Near East early in the 2nd millennium B.C. The oldest chariot warfare in the ancient Near East is the Old Hittite Anitta text of the 18th century BC, which mentions 40 teams of horses at the siege of Salatiwara, but the first actual word of chariots dates to the Hittite 17th century BC, and later a horse-training text attributed to Kikkuli the Mitanni of the 15th century B.C.
The Hittites were renowned charioteers, and developed a new chariot design that had lighter wheels, with four spokes rather than eight, and that held three rather than two warriors because the wheel was placed in the middle of the chariot and not at the back as in the Egyptian chariots. Hittite prosperity largely depended on Hittite control of trade routes and natural resources, specifically metals. As the Hittites gained dominion over Mesopotamia, tensions flared among the neighboring Assyrians, Hurrians, and Egyptians. Under Suppiluliuma I, the Hittites conquered Kadesh and, eventually, the whole of Syria in 1274 B.C., with the Battle of Kadesh likely to have been the largest chariot battle ever fought, involving some over five thousand chariots.
The point is, despite critics and historians claiming the Nepihtes would not have known about the chariot, it is definite that Lehi, Nephi, Sam and Zoram would have known of such items. Definitely they would have been known and understood by both the Nephites and Lamanites—at least via defectors
Nephi copied text from Isaiah in his writings and that text mentions chariots. Nephi probably got his Isaiah quotes from the brass plates. So anyone reading the brass plates or the small plates of Nephi would know about chariots.
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