[Elfsea] How Queen Boadicea stayed on the wagon

[Ciarlariello, Keith W]

London Times (02/19/02)

     How Queen Boadicea stayed on the wagon

     By Robin Young


     ARCHAEOLOGISTS have finally discovered how Boadicea, the early British
     warrior queen, managed to ride her chariot into battle without falling
off it.

     In previous reconstructions of Iron Age chariots as depicted on coins
of the time,
     passengers were unceremoniously bumped out of the cart as soon as it
got up
     any speed or hit rough ground.

     Yesterday the British Museum was presented with a faithful replica that
actually
     worked, and to prove it the chariot was put through its paces in the
Museum
     forecourt and across its lawns.

     It carried two passengers and was drawn by two diminutive horses. Iron
Age
     horses are known to have been the size of ponies.

     The chariot, built by Robert Hurford, a wheelwright from Taunton,
Somerset, is
     based on finds from a newly excavated chariot burial at Wetwang, east
Yorkshire.
     A woman found in the grave has been referred to as "the Yorkshire
Boadicea"
     although no weapons were buried with her.

     The secret of the chariot's rideability lies in two pairs of arches
flexed at each side
     of the cart. With his knowledge of horse-drawn vehicles, Mr Hurford
realised that
     these arches, which are shown on representations of chariots, were not
a
     decorative feature but an integral part of the vehicle's suspension
system.

     The arches, made of supple ash, each supported a Y-system of rawhide
thongs
     that helped the chariot, floored with a further flexible webbing of
rawhide straps,
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