Page 242 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

jots The earl would drive out to meet his lord at the head of the
valley, at the border of his demesne, and shortly afterward the
cortege would be seen winding down the rough road. It was a
magnificent spectacle, with the chariots, and the horse palan­

quins of the queen and her ladies, and the outriders, and the
spearmen and swordsmen on foot. Pennons flew, and everywhere
was the flash of bronze and of gold. Every year there seemed
to be more bronze accoutrements among the followers of the
king, bronze swords and even bronze helmets and bucklers. The

men of the village, while not aspiring to the splendors of the

THE PROBLEM OF REPRESENTING TEAMS OF ANIMALS DRAWING VE­
HICLES WAS TACKLED DIFFERENTLY BY THE SWEDISH ROCK CARVERS
AND BY THE ARTISTS OF THE NEAR EAST (SEE PAGE 13). AND THE

LIGHT TWO-HORSE CHARIOT WITH SPOKED WHEELS IS A VERY DIF­
FERENT THING FROM THE HEAVY SUMERIAN ASS CHARIOT OF SEVEN
HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE.

court, began to feel a little ashamed of the slim flint daggers of
which they had once been proud. Their wives, who without ex­
ception had succeeded in attending the banquet at the manor,

either as guests at the lower tables or as serving-women in the
kitchen, returned with tales of the bronze beltplates worn by the
queen and her retinue of ladies, and spoke pointedly of the ar­
rival of the next ship and of the good prices paid—in bronze—
for amber jewelry.

When the king departed it was not unusual for one or two
of the older youths to leave with him, recruited into the service