transportation: Asia and the Pacific rivers, carrying goods and people Sometimes oceangoing ships sailed up the rivers, transporting goods from the east Smaller boats made of animal skins stretched over wooden frames were commonly used on the rivers to transport only a few people or for fishing ASIA AND THE PACIFIC BY KIRK H BEETZ Most ancient peoples of Asia traveled on foot Even after the domestication of draft animals and the introduction of the wheel, transportation usually meant people walking, carrying loads on their shoulders and backs One of the remarkable things about ancient peoples was the large amounts of goods they transported in this manner, trekking through dangerous, frequently very dry or very cold environments The paths they wore in the earth on these journeys often became the roads of empires On the many large Asian islands between the Indian and Pacific oceans dense tropical forests often impeded land transportation On such islands as Sumatra and Java water transportation was the better choice for moving goods over any but the shortest distances People poled or paddled boats such as dugout canoes and bamboo rafts over the sinuous waters of rivers, streams, and swamps Even on the mainland, in Indochina and much of southern Asia, dense forests inhibited travel People walked the trails of tapirs and elephants to make their way to streams where they could use boats On many Pacific islands, forests were thick enough to inhibit travel The islanders often found it easier to travel by boat in the ocean around their islands than to try to travel great distances inland For large islands, such as New Guinea, islanders made their ways to streams and used dugout canoes to carry themselves and goods In open areas such as those in Australia, people of the Pacific continued to rely on transportation on foot through the ancient era The amount of goods a walker could carry was obviously limited by his or her strength In many parts of Asia poles were set across the shoulders of two people, enabling them to carry weights greater than one person could bear From very early times people also used sledges for heavy loads The early sledges, little more than rough wooden frames on which goods were dragged across the ground, were soon improved by the addition of sledlike runners This innovation may have occurred in the far north of Asia Even after the introduction of the wheel, sledges remained the preferred mode of transportation over mud, marshes, snow, and ice For the nomadic peoples of Siberia sledges became essential to their way of life because they frequently had to pack up and move their heavy animal-skin-and-wood tents and other goods to new places When the domestication of draft animals reached Asia is not known, but by 3500 b.c.e farmers near the mouth of the Yangtze River were using oxen to pull plows The wheel as a means of transportation was first used in Sumer, in the Near East, before 3500 b.c.e and spread from there The original wheels consisted of three boards held together by two 1115 boards fitted crosswise on the inside of the wheel These solid wheels were very heavy The Harappans of the Indus River valley (2600–1500 b.c.e.) probably used four-wheeled wagons pulled by two oxen apiece These heavy vehicles enabled them to transport enough grain to fill the huge granaries in their cities, providing a food reserve against hard times For many centuries in ancient India oxen remained the favored animals for hauling carts and wagons They were so valuable that in some places in India it was punishable by death to kill one Even long after the domesticated horse was introduced to India, oxen were preferred for pulling wagons By 300 b.c.e Indian traders formed long caravans of hundreds of wagons pulled by oxen Ox-drawn carts of supplies followed Indian armies to war Oxen were slower than horses but tolerated India’s climate better Thus horses served mainly to carry riders or to pull light chariots Two-wheeled chariots had the advantage of being faster than four-wheeled wagons They transported elite warriors to battle and the rich through cities Sometime after 2000 b.c.e spoked wheels—lighter and therefore faster than solid wheels—were introduced to India Another innovation improved maneuverability: Originally, axles and wheels formed one unit, rotating together, which made chariots, carts, and wagons difficult to turn Eventually, wheelwrights found ways to allow wheels to turn independently of each other The wheels could thus rotate at different speeds, allowing fast, tight turns without skidding By 2600 b.c.e wheeled vehicles had appeared in China, probably introduced by nomads from central Asia who had learned this technology from Mesopotamians Solid wheels and wheels fi xed to axles presented the same problems to the Chinese as they did to the Indians, but the use of solid-wheeled carts persisted in southern China and southern Asia as they did in India, probably because of their durability and ease of construction Although China had two great river systems, the Yangtze and Yellow River, the rivers wound through the landscape so much that the Chinese found it took longer to move on the rivers than to travel by land, which led to many road building projects to improve land transportation It was probably also nomads of central Asia who introduced war chariots to China By 2000 b.c.e people in what is now northern China were using wheels with 18 spokes Chariots with spoked wheels, pulled by horses, were of great value to the Shang Dynasty (ca 1500–ca 1045 b.c.e.) The chariot, even a heavy, lumbering one, gave Shang armies a big advantage in battle and in the transportation of military supplies against enemies who often were limited to being on foot The advantage became even greater when Chinese wheelwrights, like those in India, discovered how to let wheels turn independently Meanwhile, Shang four-wheeled wagons appear to have remained clumsy vehicles because the forward axle was fixed in place and could not easily shift to follow a winding road, but they were nevertheless important for transporting heavy cargoes The Scythians of central Asia introduced the stirrup to the Chinese A Scythian stirrup was just a leather loop, but it