DATES |
EVENTS |
ca. 8000 BCE |
Modern speicies of camel devleops fully. |
ca. 4000 BCE |
Domestication of horse |
4000-3000 BCE |
Domestication of camel in SW Arabia or NE Africa |
ca. 3500 BCE |
Discovery of solid, heavy wheel in Near East |
ca. 2400 BCE |
Earliest image of camel in Iran |
ca. 1800 BCE |
Discovery of light, spoked wheel in Near East |
ca 1500 BCE |
Chariots, cheek-plates, bits. |
ca. 1500-1000 BCE |
Birth of true nomadism in Eurasia |
ca. 1200 BCE |
Chariots being used in China |
ca. 1000 BCE |
Biblical evidence of the value of camels |
900-700 BCE |
Birth of mounted archery, requiring use of saddle, stirrups and better bridles |
800s BCE |
Assyrian depictions of Bactrian camels |
ca. 100 BCE |
Chinese awareness of value of camel enhanced due to interactions with the Xiongnu nomads |
ca 100 BCE-ca. 100 CE |
Growth of importance of Bactrian camels in Iran, Central Asia, and China on account of opening of "Silk Road" |
7th-9th c. CE |
Famous T'ang glazed statues of camels |
Sources: Thomas J. Barfield, The Nomadic Alternative (Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1993).
Richard Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel (Cambridge, Mass., 1975).
Laszlo Torday, Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History (Edinburgh etc., 1997)..