Bronze Age ‘covered wagon’ emerges as Armenia’s best-preserved ancient vehicle

The Lchashen wagon features a complex mortise-and-tenon construction with bronze fittings that join at least 70 components, while its canopy frame alone required hundreds of precisely mortised holes.

A four-wheeled canopy wagon was recovered from the Lchashen cemetery near Lake Sevan, Live Science reported on Monday, citing Armenian archaeologists and the History Museum of Armenia.

The wagon is said to be one of the best-preserved early covered wagons.

The Late Bronze Age vehicle, dated to the 15th–14th centuries B.C., was unearthed with five other oak wagons in an elite burial ground and later conserved for display in Yerevan. According to the museum and published studies, the discovery followed the Soviet-era drainage of Lake Sevan, which exposed more than 500 graves and rich grave goods.

The Lchashen wagon features a complex mortise-and-tenon construction with bronze fittings that join at least 70 components, while its canopy frame alone required hundreds of precisely mortised holes.

The wagon measures roughly 2 meters in length, and its two-piece wooden wheels stand about 160 centimeters tall. Archaeologists note that four of the cemetery’s vehicles carried superstructures, suggesting ceremonial or prestige use as well as transport.

While sometimes described as the “oldest,” scholars stress that wheeled transport predates the Lchashen find by millennia. Research on the emergence of rotational tools and the wheel points to much earlier innovations, from Near Eastern mining environments to pre-cart technologies.

What makes this wagon stand out

Experts say Lchashen’s canopy wagon is exceptional for preservation and craftsmanship, including its spoked wheels mounted on two axles and the meticulous woodworking that locked slotted elements with metal fasteners.

Two wagons at the site were open platforms, but four, including the museum piece, carried framed superstructures likely covered with hide or textile. The combination of scale, joinery, and context makes the Yerevan display a reference specimen for early covered vehicles.

The cemetery’s assemblage, which included full-size wagons and bronze chariot models, indicates elite funerary practices in which vehicles accompanied leaders in life and in death. According to the museum, such burials appear in Armenia from the Middle Bronze Age and become especially common later, reflecting both technological adoption and social display.

The Lchashen find, conserved in Yerevan, offers a rare opportunity to study an early covered wagon in three dimensions, from axle mechanics to canopy framing. Its towering 160-centimeter wheels and hundreds of precision mortise holes remain the most striking facts of the build.

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-881946