(Replying to PARENT post)

Yes, but the chariot originated as a military vehicle. Fast transportation was provided by horses, while bulk transportation was provided by boats, wagons, or, in China, a vehicle commonly called a "wheelbarrow", though it's very unlike the common modern device by the same name. The chariot, by virtue of holding two men, allowed an archer to travel at the speed of a galloping horse, while also protecting them to some extent from the arrows, axes, and swords of others.

It was an unbeatable battlefield combination for centuries, and the accounts of Bronze Age battles—in Hatti, Egypt, India, and China—are basically accounts of battles between chariot formations.

And then... it wasn't.

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(Replying to PARENT post)

My question was that while this particular chariot seems like it might have been used for ceremonial purposes, was that true for all chariots? The military context is interesting, but its surely only part of the picture.

To put it a different way, after its military significance faded, was it actually relegated to purely ceremonial uses or was it a popular means of transportation?

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(Replying to PARENT post)

(See my correction above at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26296411 about short-distance transport and 'taxi' chariots.)
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