Chariots

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

In a message dated 3/5/99 7:31:44 PM Mountain Standard Time,
iffr762 at utxvms.cc.utexas.edu writes:

>But if this is true, it has implications (however circumstiantial) for the
>development of true cavalry, for as of about 2000 BC chariot cavalry was
>evidently regarded as the latest most terrifying thing by all concerned (as
>various nomads burst out of various steppes employing it) and so this would
>suggest that the development of true cavalry must have been later. >>

-- depends what you mean by "cavalry", which is not the same thing as "riding
horses".

Chariots were generally used as mobile missile platforms for archers.
Developing the proper type of bow for use from horseback, and the techniques
for employing it, took time.  Shock action from horseback needed developments
in weapons and horse-harness.