Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
Egypt, one of the great civilizations of
antiquity.
It was here that one of the world's
first writing systems was developed and
where vast monuments in stone were
built.
>> Then a thousand years after the
pyramids, another technological
revolution took place. A revolution in
warfare.
The chariot arrived.
Over the next few hundred years, the
pharaohs of ancient Egypt pushed back
their borders and built a mighty empire.
>> Egypt's new kingdom empire was the
greatest empire that the world had seen.
It really was on a massive scale.
Was the chariot the Egyptian secret
weapon, giving them a crucial lead in
the arms race?
Were there innovations built into the
Egyptian chariot that gave them an edge?
>> If you gave this to a modern designer,
they could not do any better.
Now, a team of experts will work from
3,000-year-old clues to rebuild a
replica of an Egyptian chariot and test
it in simulated battle.
>> Imagine a thousand chariots. It would be
like Armageddon coming to you.
>> Recreating the Pharaoh's chariot. We'll
test the claim that this was the weapon
which built an empire.
Building Pharaoh's chariot right now on
Nova.
[Music]
As an American-based supplier to the
construction industry, Carlilele is
committed to developing a diverse
workplace that supports our employees
advancement into the next generation of
leaders from the manufacturing floor to
the front office. Learn more at
carilele.com.
[Music]
In about 1550 B.CEE, more than a
thousand years after the building of the
pyramids, a new age dawned in Egypt.
This was a golden age of Egyptian power
and wealth known to historians as the
new kingdom.
Over
the next 300 years, the Egyptians built
the largest empire the world had ever
seen.
It's a period known for the astonishing
treasure of Tuten Common.
A time when the ancient Egyptians
constructed many of the mighty temples
which can still be seen today, 3 and a
half thousand years later.
But at the dawn of this golden age,
Egypt was a country beset by enemies.
When a new young king, the pharaoh Akmuz
came to power, northern Egypt was
occupied by a foreign people from the
east known as the Hixos.
What happened next is recorded in a tomb
cut into a rocky hillside in a
settlement called Elcab.
[Music]
This tomb contains an account written by
a soldier who fought in the pharaoh's
army.
Here, this man is telling the story of
his military career and his life.
These hieroglyphs tell how the young
soldier followed his pharaoh as he drove
the Hixos out of Egypt.
The account also highlights a remarkable
fact. The Egyptians now had a new and
devastating weapon, the chariot.
[Music]
And the exciting thing in this text,
he's actually describing how he fought
alongside the king's own chariot. And we
see the sign of the chariot here. One of
the earliest images we have of the
chariot in Egyptian writing.
[Music]
In the years that followed, chariots
appear everywhere on tomb and temple
walls.
And inscriptions alongside the chariots
relate how Akmas and other new kingdom
pharaohs went on to build the most
powerful empire the world had ever seen.
As they overcame Kushites, Nubians,
Canaanites, and others, their empire
stretched from Sudan up into what is now
Turkey.
So, was the chariot the key to the
Egyptians military success?
[Music]
>> In old Cairo, a team of experts has come
together, hoping to uncover the chariot
secrets. design or fabrication.
>> Drawing on the skills of expert
craftsmen, they plan to assemble and
test what may be the first accurate
working Egyptian chariot to have been
built in thousands of years.
Carriage maker Robert Hurford, who has
built Roman and Assyrian chariots in the
past, will be in charge of construction.
>> It's a very complicated structure. The
wheels are very odd. the yolk. It's very
difficult first to make and secondly to
make work.
>> Robert has teamed up with equin expert
Kathy Hansen who thinks the harness for
the horses was a vital component of the
chariot.
>> I've done a lot of studying and I think
we know how they built their harness and
I think I know how they trained their
horses. So now we have an opportunity to
put that to the test.
>> For military expert Mike Loads, this is
an opportunity to explore the chariot as
a weapons system.
>> We know chariots were used in battle,
but we don't exactly know how. So we
need to test it. We need to drive it,
shoot the bow from it. So that's what's
exciting. This is undiscovered
territory.
The team's first task is to find local
craftsmen who can help them build the
chariot.
It's made of wood, so their priority is
a skilled carpenter. Abdul Muhammad is
said to be one of the best in Cairo.
>> I got this model we made.
>> Robert has brought with him a model to
demonstrate what he is trying to
achieve.
>> This is quarter scale. So you multiply
everything by four and you've got the
real thing. Many of the parts are curved
and Robert will have to find another
workshop where the wood can be bent into
shape. But this is where most of the
chariot will be built and assembled
>> and they're obviously made that way for
a reason.
>> Abdu has never tackled anything like
this before.
>> To my mind, I'm used to
>> it's a new idea and he will try to prove
that he's a good student.
>> Abdu, I look forward to working with
you. The team has only eight weeks to
complete the chariot before Mike returns
to test it. Their goal is not just to
build a chariot, but to understand what
might have given the Egyptians a
military advantage.
This new war machine was not invented in
Egypt. These engravings reveal that
chariots could be found hundreds of
years earlier in nearby lands.
The Egyptians, meanwhile, were fighting
on foot, using sleds to pull heavy
loads,
and then, as now, relied on donkeys for
personal transport.
Horses appear to have been unknown for
much of Egyptian history.
Around about 4,000 BC, we know that
people were probably domesticating
horses and creating the first chariots
in places as far away as southern
Russia. And over time that moves west
into Syria, Lebanon, and up into Turkey.
And the Egyptians felt they had to get a
hold of it in order to compete on the
world stage.
When Egypt first obtained the chariot,
it was probably quite basic with a body
that could carry two people supported on
an axle with two wheels
and a central pole.
And there was a harness which allowed
the chariot to be pulled by two horses.
But however basic, for the Egyptians,
the chariot was a revolution in warfare.
And building it required ancient skills
which are hard to find today.
In a Cairo suburb, Robert and local
organizer Magdi Rashidi track down one
of the few steam vendors in the country.
[Music]
>> The owner, Muhammad El Salam, and his
son Wed show Robert around their
workshop where they make chairs, bending
the wood by saturating it with steam to
make it supple.
Robert demonstrates again what he's
trying to achieve using his model and
shows them the parts which need bending.
>> That's a piece.
>> Shaping the pieces won't be easy, but
Muhammad seems confident he can adapt
his equipment. He'll need to work fast
to meet their schedule.
>> They seem enthusiastic, anxious to uh to
get it done.
Robert based his model on published
descriptions, but to understand how the
Egyptians transformed the chariot, he'll
seek advice from a man who has been
investigating them for many years.
Here from the University of Wisconsin,
engineer Bay Sandor has been studying
some of the chariots found among the
treasures of Tuten Common's tomb, now in
the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
They were found in 1922 by archaeologist
Howard Carter, who carefully reassembled
and restored them.
Sandor has been looking closely at their
design, trying to work out how the
Egyptians improved their new war
machine.
>> The first time I saw these chariots, I
just walked through like like most of
the tourists, barely looking at them.
Two years later, I came back. I started
realizing that there was more to these
than just primitive structure.
>> After years of careful analysis, Sandor
has concluded that the Egyptians
transformed a machine that was slow and
cumbersome into one that was fast and
maneuverable.
His
calculations have convinced him that
this is the world's first
high-performance vehicle
with high-tech wheels,
parts which function as springs
and shock absorbers,
even a device to stop it from rolling
over.
He now believes that the chariot was the
pinnacle of ancient Egyptian
engineering.
If you gave this to a modern designer
with computers and formulas, they could
not do any better.
Kathy Hansen believes that the
technology of the harness was also a
vital part of the chariot's success.
She's in the Cairo Museum looking for
clues to how it was put together, like
this ancient bronze horse bit.
[Music]
Mostly she has to rely on depictions of
the harness in action.
No one knows exactly how this system of
straps work to pull the chariot.
She will have to depend on her own
expertise to puzzle it out.
>> It looks theoretically like the
Egyptians did all of the things
necessary to create a functional
harness. The proof will be in when we
actually design the harness, pitch it to
horses, and drive it.
>> Robert now wants to select the woods
he'll use for the chariot. The ancient
chariot builders used a range of
imported woods, including ash and elm.
But visiting local timber yards, he sees
no sign of these. He looks instead at
some of the local woods.
Although much of Egypt is desert, in the
fertile areas of the Nile Delta, there
are plenty of trees to be found.
Robert thinks that a local wood like
malberry might be good for building the
bent parts of the wheel. It's a good
substitute for ash.
>> Malbury is is quite springy, which is
nice. It's what we want.
[Music]
But for the pole and the body, he
settles on an imported wood, beach. It's
a reliable close-grained hardwood
suitable for bending and similar to elm,
used by the ancient builders.
>> Before Robert starts building, he's now
arranged to meet up with engineer Bay
Sandor, who has identified some
remarkable design features.
One of them is the joint above the axle
which the main pole fits into.
>> Yeah. Now when
>> Sandor believes this apparently simple
socket was probably one of the ancient
Egyptians most brilliant ideas.
>> We are looking at
a fantastic marvel of ancient
engineering because it has more than one
function.
Sandor maintains the joint was
deliberately left loose, allowing the
pole to move back and forth.
This makes the floor frame flex and act
as a shock absorber, giving a more
comfortable ride,
but the design has a second important
function
>> to prevent rollovers of the axle.
Sandor thinks the pole was made flat at
the end so it could engage firmly with
the socket like a screwdriver.
Now the pole resists any tendency of the
axle to rotate and tip on uneven ground,
helping to keep the chariot stable.
This simple looking joint is a key
detail for the chariot Robert is
building.
>> Now we'll have a look at the whole
thing. Robert has now learned enough to
instruct the carpenters on how they can
make a start. Abdu's first job is to
make the floor frame.
Robert takes particular care to explain
the importance of the socket.
>> Not in the corner. We want that corner.
Yeah, that's good.
>> They can also start to fashion the wheel
hubs
and shape the axle.
The task of building the chariot is now
underway.
>> That one's too tall, honey. I need short
ones.
>> Kathy is now looking for horses and has
also enlisted some local help.
>> 14 hounds,
140 cm.
>> She has teamed up with Sed Makud, an
expert horsemen. Together they travel
around some nearby horse farms.
She's looking for small horses like the
ancient Egyptians used and they must run
well together.
>> She finds a mixed pair, one brown, one
black, that she thinks will work well as
a team.
>> Oh yes.
>> As a precaution, Kathy and S also choose
a reserve pair. two very similar gray
stallions.
All four horses are brought to the
Sakara Country Club on the outskirts of
Cairo where they need to be trained in
just one month.
>> The grays are put into the same corral
to get to know each other. Stallions can
be aggressive and two powerful horses
could quickly smash the chariot to
pieces.
>> The early signs are not promising.
But S believes they will settle down
>> two three days like that. We can use
each other. I think it's okay. They
become more friendly.
[Music]
>> Although work is well underway, Kathy
and Robert still have much to learn
about the design of these ancient
chariots. The Valley of the Kings is
behind the ridge.
>> They travel down to Luxor, Egypt's
capital city on the Nile 3,000 years ago
to see what secrets they can glean.
On a hilly ridge on the west bank of the
river are the tombs of ancient nobles
and officials.
[Applause]
Each tomb is richly decorated with
scenes of life from thousands of years
ago.
>> Oh, Robert, look. I think this thing's
amazing. That's a beautifully drawn
chariot.
>> Look, you could see your thong through
your lynch pin.
>> The little details.
>> Yeah,
>> they're going to be so helpful to us.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> For Robert and Kathy, the paintings and
reliefs are like blueprints.
They provide a wealth of detail which
gives them a real insight into the
chariot's construction.
>> It's clear to them both they have a
challenge ahead if they're to bring the
chariot back to life.
[Music]
The paintings also show chariot building
with craftsmen shaping the wood to make
the frame and other pieces.
The area in the middle where you've got
spokes, wheel, and there's the pole up
the top there and the yolk. Those are
the steam bent parts of this chariot.
It's almost a manual of how to do it.
>> Yeah.
[Music]
And this is one of the few places where
Kathy can study the harness.
>> Here is where your whole back strap
comes down in your breastplate. And here
are the rounded pads that were early.
And there's your top of your neck fork.
And you can clearly see the nose piece.
[Music]
The information gathered from images in
the tombs and the Cairo Museum is
invaluable. And Kathy is now ready to
take her design to one of Cairo's
harness makers.
She has drawn a plan and made a model of
how it should work.
>> Kaya Kada.
>> Okay.
The Egyptian harness is unlike any
modern harness. It uses a pair of neck
forks combined with breast straps to
create a form of collar which the horse
then pulls from its shoulders. She
thinks the horses were attached to the
chariot by binding their neck forks to a
yolk which was lashed to the chariot
pole.
The harness also includes a bridal
designed, she believes, to keep the
hor's heads down and their weight back,
making the chariot more maneuverable.
>> That's the theory. But will it work? The
first step for the harness makers is to
cut out the leather following Cathy's
design.
Back in the Luxor tombs, Robert and
Kathy are still hunting for clues about
the chariot itself.
>> The paintings reveal how the chariot
evolved as the Egyptians perfected their
new war machine.
The first major change is in the
position of the axle and the wheels.
They start centrally under the floor,
but gradually they move
until eventually they are right at the
back.
[Applause]
This shift reveals great mechanical
insight and Bayless Sandor thinks he's
worked out its advantage.
>> If uh the axle is somewhere in the
middle of the platform, it creates for a
harsh ride because the driver is
standing directly on a stiff bouncing
axle.
>> Moving the axle back has a dramatic
impact on the suspension system. It
shifts the driver's weight forward onto
the pole.
The wooden pole now flexes up and down
and begins to act like a leaf spring on
a modern vehicle, which softens the
ride.
[Music]
>> In the tombs, Kathy and Robert spot
another key development. At first, all
the wheels had just four spokes, and all
the early Egyptian chariots were the
same.
But that began to change. Soon they were
building chariots with eight spokes.
So why did they abandon the four- spoke
wheel? In this position, all of the
weight is born by this single spoke. But
as soon as the wheel rolls, that same
weight will deform the unsupported arc
length of the rim and then it comes back
up again. So the axle is moving up and
down and up and down. The human body
cannot tolerate this.
The ancient Egyptians solution to this
problem was to stiffen the rim by
increasing the number of spokes to
eight. But this also made the chariot
heavier, reducing acceleration.
So they tried six spokes.
And this apparently worked so well they
stopped experimenting.
But the most unusual thing about the
wheel is the way the spokes were
constructed.
Each spoke is actually made up from two
V-shaped pieces of wood.
To make the wheel, these V-spokes are
glued together and glued around the
central hub.
The V apex makes it stronger and more
durable.
Robert is eager to put his newfound
knowledge to the test. He's never made a
wheel like this before, and bending the
V-shaped spokes to the correct angle
could be tricky.
The steam benders have adapted their
machines,
[Music]
but they soon discover that making the
spokes is more of a challenge than
they'd realized.
Their machines can't cope. The bend is
just not tight enough.
>> The problem is that they haven't thought
this out before they did it. They need
to get the arms of the bender up
at a different angle.
They try again, adding wooden blocks to
make the bend tighter.
>> So, you can't do it
>> without success.
>> After a complete rethink, they come up
with a way of bending the spokes
manually, just like their ancestors used
to do.
>> I think that's good. This is just the
right shape. At last. At last. We got
there. Well done.
>> After the spokes, they tackle the rims
of the wheels. They're getting into the
swing of doing it all manually now.
Although it's not as easy as it looks on
the tomb walls, but they've lost a lot
of time.
Next day, the steam bent parts for the
wheels arrive at the carpenters.
Robert can start to assemble the wheel
with a carpenter Abdu. They lay out the
newly bent spokes.
>> We got several things to worry about.
One of them is that the spokes run in
line. new line. Yeah.
>> After clamping the spokes together, the
next step is to shape and fit the hub.
It's a complicated process and
completely different from making a
normal wheel. There are no joints
between the V-shaped spokes in the hub,
just pressure and glue.
I don't know how strong these wheels
will be at the end. They must have been
strong enough. They made them for
hundreds and hundreds of years in this
way.
Back in Luxor at the Temple of Car,
Robert and Kathy are meeting
Egyptologist Steven Harvey, to find out
about a special chariot that was built
around 1450 B.CEE for one of Egypt's
greatest warrior kings, Tutmos III.
The story of his military campaigns is
inscribed on the walls of the temple.
Although some of this may be propaganda,
few would dispute that he conquered many
surrounding territories.
[Applause]
[Music]
>> A major victory was at Megiddo in the
north of modern-day Israel, where Tutmos
was fighting an alliance of Syrian
rulers.
[Applause]
The battle is recorded in great detail
here.
And the pharaoh, we're told, led his
army in a chariot of shining electro, an
alloy of silver and gold.
You can see here we have a
representation of the chariot. And it
just says there, a chariot worked in
electum.
>> Electrum, silver, gold. These materials
would all be used to express the wealth
and the power and the symbolic value of
the chariot.
>> This shining chariot was the war machine
used when the Egyptians were carving out
their empire.
Kathy and Robert agree that this would
be the ideal chariot on which to base
their replica.
the chariot they plan to build and test
in simulated battle.
>> I think it's quite inspiring that we
should try to make one along the lines
of the biggest and the most aggressive
pharaoh of of those days. Why don't we
make one that could have been to Moses's
thirds?
>> They go to the Cairo Museum to look for
clues to what the electum chariot might
have been like.
This chariot body was found in the tomb
of Tutmos III's grandson, Tutmos IVth.
The front panel is built from layers of
wood, linen, and gesso, a mixture of
gypsum and glue, and was originally
decorated in silver.
It would have looked stunning. And they
want to model the Electrum chariot on
this.
But while at the museum, they learn of
an amazing find which could provide
vital new information. In the endless
atticss and cupboards of the Cairo
Museum, the leather parts of a new
kingdom chariot were recently
rediscovered.
The leather is now being restored by a
team led by Andreveltier and Selma
Ikram.
>> This is the only harness that anyone,
including Kathy, has seen from ancient
Egypt. We have two of those and they
both have the same decoration. That's
right.
>> Are they Are they offset? So like one
could go on one horse on the outside and
one
>> This chariot had a front panel made of
leather. And Robert is particularly
interested in the way the panel was
attached. A drawstring threaded through
the leather would have kept it in place
and allowed them to easily remove it.
>> Here's a drawring. That piece for
example,
>> use to tie it tightly to the frame.
>> It's got a drawstring through it. It
means it's removable, doesn't it?
>> You can change it.
>> Robert is so intrigued by the removable
leather panel that he decides to make
two chariots instead of one. He will
make the Pharaoh's chariot as planned
with an electrum panel and another with
just a lightweight leather panel.
In the carpenters shop, Robert and Abdu
have now assembled several wheels.
Bayless Sandor takes a look. He believes
this design is inherently stronger than
a wheel with normal spokes.
Robert is worried that with nothing but
glue connecting the spokes to the hub,
the wheel could break apart in tight
turns.
>> I hope we've left enough. But it's all
untried. Yes.
>> At the Sakara Country Club, Baya and
Robert decide to put the wheels to the
test. Their idea is to check their
strength by towing a complete axle
assembly behind a Jeep.
>> We're doing no more than 30 kmh, but
perhaps not absolutely flat out on the
sharpest of the turns.
>> Robert wants to make tight turns of the
kind they expect the chariot to do.
>> Not much.
>> If the hubs have a weakness, this should
reveal it.
Three barrels of sand strapped to the
axle simulate the weight of a driver and
an archer.
The wheels and the hubs seem to stand up
well to the test.
>> It's only a stone. It's only a stone.
That's not actually what we're worrying
around, is it?
>> No.
>> I think he has a couple of beautifully
built wheels. They were very, very good
tests for a short period of time on a
reasonably rough grounds.
>> I feel a lot more satisfied now that
we're going to get away with get away
with using as hard as we intend to.
[Music]
>> Meanwhile, the steam benders face their
biggest challenge so far. They have to
bend the main pole of the chariot, which
at 8 ft is longer than anything they
have ever bent before.
Its size requires a new and bigger steam
chest
and a new jig to bend it.
[Music]
What makes this really tricky is the
complicated S shape that it must be bent
into.
After 4 hours, the beach pole is removed
from the steam chest.
They have just a few seconds before the
wood becomes less pliable.
>> The first attempt does not go well.
There is a severe fracture in the bend
of the pole.
3,500 years ago, the Egyptians were
turning these out by the thousands.
These modern craftsmen will be happy
with just two. They'll have to keep
trying.
We have had to make a new equipment and
now we have to adjust it. That's the
problem.
Next morning, the best of the poles
they've produced and some body sections
are delivered to the carpenters shop,
but there are still some cracks.
>> We've got a small one here and a se
severe one there, which is halfway
through. We've had a lot of trouble with
all this steam bent stuff and we now
really are up against it.
>> Most of the other parts are now almost
ready, but they cannot be assembled
without a usable pole.
Robert, who now has two chariots to
produce in a week's time, is under
enormous pressure. While he waits for
the steam benders to try again, he
decides to see if it's possible to
repair the damaged hole.
[Music]
Kathy is also up against it. The harness
that she has designed has been finished,
but the first fitting reveals some
problems.
>> I'd asked him for 10 cm here, and he
gave me 11. I'm worried about this point
of the shoulder. If we drop them this
low, it's going to hit the point of the
shoulder here.
The harness is too big. It will have to
go back for adjustments.
But she's happier about the bridal. It
includes a bit she's had specially cast
based on the ancient bit in the museum.
It's an integral part of the bridal and
is fixed to a low nose band. Kathy
believes this keeps the hor's heads down
and their weight on their back legs,
making them more maneuverable.
This is based really a lot on their
artwork. We have nothing in modern terms
that is even close to this. And it it
looks to me like it's going to work.
[Music]
>> By now, Robert has successfully repaired
the damaged pole
and it can be planed and shaped.
The finished pole fits perfectly in the
box joint.
If the theory is right, this should
improve the ride of the chariot.
All the parts for the first leather
chariot are finally ready and can be
lashed together with rawhide unccured
cow skin.
>> This in fact is your bronze age
substitute for nuts and bolts. So it
wants to be tight.
>> Robert also weaves rawhide strips to
make the floor. Then there is a crucial
drying period where the rawhide shrinks,
tightening the whole structure.
There is no time to lose. He has just 2
days before testing is scheduled to
begin.
[Music]
Next day is a big moment for Robert and
Abdu at the carpenters shop. The first
chariot is finally ready.
>> Just 24 hours before they are due to
start testing the chariot as a weapons
platform, it is taken by truck to the
Sakara Country Club.
For the first time, horses and chariot
will be brought together.
But almost immediately, there's a
problem. Kathy is unhappy with the
lashing of the yolk, which she feels is
too rigid.
>> I can't do that to the horses. I just
can't do that to the horses.
>> There are degrees of freedom in that.
>> I yanked on that. There is no rotation
front to back. What I've got to have for
the horses is this. We already talked
about this because if one of them goes
forward, he's going to hit his
shoulders.
>> But if so, you've got a certain degree.
I know and I can tell you for a certain
that if we let that lashing be loose at
any point in this, the pin will break
and the lashing will work looser and
looser and looser.
>> If it's not loose,
you get rebellion and horses.
>> So, how did they solve it?
Robert and Kathy have reached an impass
and can only agree to disagree.
>> We're not so much at loggerheads over
this as anxious that
uh our own particular aspects of it
should work properly.
>> To me, the yolk and the neck forks are
part of the harness. To Robert, they're
part of the chariot. So, you slash them
down hard.
So nothing wiggles, you know, it's just
a difference of viewpoint.
>> Before testing begins, Robert fixes the
new leather panel to the chariot. He's
based it on the one he saw in the
museum, and he's worked out how to
attach it with drawstrings.
Then it's time to see how the harness
and chariot work.
Kathy agrees to try it Robert's way with
the yolk firmly lashed to the pole.
>> Nobody's ever really done this before.
Be interesting to see if it actually
works.
>> Kathy, I was expecting more padding
underneath these forks.
>> I was expecting more padding underneath
these forks as well. It will come in.
Despite Robert's concerns about the
padding under the neck forks, they go
ahead. They use the smaller and less
powerful grey horses.
It soon becomes clear that the neck
forks are sliding back.
>> I don't like where that neck fork is
now.
>> The horses seem uncomfortable and one
kicks out at the chariot.
Robert believes it's because the harness
is not tight enough to hold the neck
forks in position.
Kathy thinks that's not the function of
the harness.
>> The harness doesn't hold anything.
>> Well, what's it for?
>> The furnace is to provide draft.
>> So, when they're in draft, hopefully it
will hold them there. But at the walk,
it's very little draft.
>> But, I mean, it's it's because the neck
forks aren't fixed in the harness.
The second pair of horses is harnessed
and they too become unsettled. Robert is
becoming fearful for his chariot. If we
pull the chariot to pieces because we've
only half finished the harness, it's
wasted an awful lot of time. So, I'm a
bit troubled with that.
>> Although the leather chariot is now
ready, Robert still has another one to
complete. For weeks, the steam benders
have been struggling to make the pole.
They are steaming the wood for 6 hours
now, and they finally produce a pole
with a near perfect bend.
As soon as it arrives at the carpenters
shop, Robert and Abdu can finish
building the Electrum chariot.
It is now at an advanced stage, and it
only remains for the wooden panel to be
shaped and fitted, and for all the parts
to be assembled.
When it's completed, the chariot will be
taken to a specialist team that is
standing by to decorate it.
Next day, the time has come for the
planned tests with weapons expert Mike
Loads.
They take the leather chariot to Dasher,
a short way from Cairo.
Dasher has a readed lake bed on the edge
of the desert in the shadow of the bent
pyramid and the black pyramid.
>> I can support that with one hand. I
mean, two men could carry this, couldn't
they?
>> Because the chariot is so light, the
team is hoping it will work on the range
of surfaces found here, even on soft
sand.
Mike, an experienced charioteer, is the
first to try it out.
But the harness is still causing
problems. As before, the yolk forks are
not staying in the right position, and
the horses are in obvious discomfort.
[Music]
Again, they kick out at the chariot.
>> Come on,
get on. Get on.
>> Mike is becoming increasingly
frustrated.
>> And you see, this is the problem that we
get. You see, as soon as one horse jibs
a bit and it digs in and then that yolk
comes off, you need three or four people
to come in to lift the yolk up and put
them back in. You cannot have that on
the battlefield. This is not a military
setup. We're already putting in extra
bits of strapping and it's now looking
like a lashup.
>> Kathy agrees to tighten the neck forks
to the harness as Robert had urged.
>> Good luck. Good luck. Almost
immediately, there's an improvement.
>> They're going much better.
>> Tightening the neck fork seems to be
working, and Mike is getting a much
better response from the horses.
>> Only by building a chariot and testing
it could they have found this out.
>> So, we're on a learning curve. It's
going fairly well, and we just move on.
>> There must be mountainous terrain where
a chariot would be of limited use. But
the team now try it successfully on
compacted rocky sand, on soft sand,
uneven hilly ground. They even take it
into the lake itself.
>> Yeah, things coming better and better
for sure.
The team is even able to put the chariot
through maneuverability test to assess
how well it can perform the tight turns
that they think are critical to its
success as a war machine.
It's clear the ancient Egyptians
succeeded in designing a fast, agile
machine.
Although the harness still needs some
adjustment, the experiment is yielding
real concrete results.
I'm very impressed. I'm very impressed.
It's It's a bit of ancient history
coming to life.
Next day, the team is keen to find out
just how fast the chariot can go. To
help keep the harness and neck forks
securely in place, the grooms add more
padding. Now they're confident they can
take the horses up to a gallop and
measure the speed in miles hour
21 22
and 24 actually it's 24 now
>> versus Gallup full out with a jockey
about
26. So, they did really well.
>> And then the key test. How stable is it
as a platform for archers? Mike wants to
find out how difficult it is to hit a
target from a moving chariot. He
approaches a simulated line of infantry.
The first thing we're trying to find out
is how easy is it. That chariot is
superbly made, superbly designed. The
suspension is terrific.
>> Just as everything seems to be going so
well, a problem.
[Music]
One of the grays has kicked out again,
managing to get its leg on the wrong
side of the pole, tripping and snapping
the pole in half.
>> Just as we were making the turn, this
horse got its hind leg over the pole and
got stuck and straddled and was just
panicking and it just snapped the pole.
So, we're done with that for today.
>> Now, the second chariot needs to be
finished urgently. Mike is already
planning the next day's tests.
>> I don't think it makes a great deal of
military sense to run along a line of
men like that. I think it would be
suicide. I think what makes more
military sense is what I would call a
wheeling charge. And I think the
chariots would come up this line and
about here, probably about 30 yards out
from the enemy, they would start raining
their arrows in as they went round here
at the gallop. So, they're exposing
themselves for a limited amount of time.
I would like to try that theory tomorrow
if we can get a working chariot.
>> Fortunately, back in Cairo, the Electrum
chariot is nearing completion.
A team of experts has added a layer of
gesso, calcium carbonate glue, and water
to the wooden panel, which has cutouts
to reduce the weight. Like most Egyptian
chariots,
they are now sculpting intricate
patterns onto the panel, like this
vulture, a deity whose wings offer
protection to the king.
They are also applying gold leaf and
electrum to the body and the wheels.
Most of the chariot needs decorating in
much the same way, and it will be a big
task to finish it for the morning.
They'll be working through the night.
Early the next day, the chariot is
delivered to the test site. As it's
carried out of the truck, the team can
see for the first time how the full
battle chariot of Tutmos III might well
have looked, respplendant in gold and
electrum.
As it stands gleaming in the desert, it
proclaims the name of Tutmos III in the
form of a cartou.
And on its pole, the chariot carries the
gilded figure of the falcon god Horus
with the sundisk, symbol of the
pharaoh's godlike status.
[Music]
Sed hitches the horses and slowly at
first puts the chariot through its
paces.
But Mike is eager to test the chariot as
it might have been used in battle.
I get an upgrade. I have now got the
wonderful Electrum chariot. This is very
exciting.
Mike's testing the idea that the
Egyptians developed new tactics to take
advantage of their improved chariot.
Riding hard at the enemy and turning
swiftly away while firing their arrows.
[Music]
The demonstration is convincing. The
speed and agility of the chariot allow
it to perform the tight turns that would
have given the Egyptians a crucial
military advantage.
>> You've got to grin from ear to ear.
>> Well, that was super fun. It's working
as it should. We're making thundering
charges, bearing down on the enemy.
Tight turn and away. That was the
Egyptian battle chariot in anger. I
found the use of the cutout to anchor my
knee in really made sense of the shape
of these cutouts. The platform was an
organic balance center. It became part
of my body. Working with my knees and
hips, it just felt like an extension of
the body.
This war machine that the team has
managed to build is the weapon which
spearheaded Egyptian advances for
centuries from the time of Tutmos III.
200 years later, chariots like these
were still in use. They took part in
what might be the biggest chariot battle
in history. When Ramsy's II battled
against the Hittites at Kadesh in
western Syria,
the Hittites were the new rising power
based around modern Turkey. And the
story of the battle is recorded on the
walls of Luxor Temple, recounting that
thousands of chariots were involved.
But by now, the Hittites had developed
an advanced three-man chariot of their
own.
Both sides claimed victory, and many
military experts have concluded it
probably ended in a draw.
[Music]
Perhaps in the chariot arms race, the
Hittites had caught up and their
chariots were now a match for the
Egyptians, bringing Egypt's military
dominance to an end.
But seeing the chariot in use has left
the team in no doubt of its role in the
Egyptians earlier success.
>> The sight of it, the speed, the dust,
the thunderous noise, it would be like
the gods attacking them.
>> We did find out things. As well as being
an immensely practical hitandrun weapon,
it was also a very powerful
psychological weapon. The splendor, the
noise, the dust clouds. Terrifying.
>> The chariot represents a huge turning
point in military history, and the
Egyptian chariot is really key among
these ancient technologies.
Over
the last three months, the team has
succeeded in their aim of revealing
secrets of the Egyptian chariot, how it
was built, and how it was used in war.
They've established a wealth of new
information.
>> This is like an alpha test. We just have
to see what works and what doesn't work
and try to rediscover how the ancient
Egyptians used those systems and
equipment.
We knew at the beginning this was very
very very complicated and I think what
we've got is more or less the right
thing.
>> Tests like this are hugely valuable.
It's only through replicating them and
testing them under various conditions
that we can really understand what
exactly it was that the ancient people
achieved and how they did it.
[Music]
This program is available with PBS
Passport and on Amazon. on Prime Video.
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