Horses in War

[Stanley Friesen]

At 12:53 AM 1/25/00 -0500, X99Lynx at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 1/17/00 6:48:58 PM, sarima at friesen.net wrote:

><<But that is probably irrelevant anyway, as the true war chariot seems to be
>post-PIE unity in date.>>

>Well, that was my original point - that PIE was apparently not being spoken
>by charioteers in the 2d millenium BC Near East.

Umm, I am still not sure we are in synch.  To be clear: I would suspect
that the earliest charioteers spoke an IE language (perhaps
Proto-Indo-Iranian), but not PIE itself.

>Cav".  Neither mentions what I think was a major role for the chariot -
>jeeping around the top brass - the guys who the court poets gave the credit
>for the victory that was probably actually won by the slingers, archers and
>your basic grunts.

That was actually a *later* development, after it ceased to be an effective
war weapon.  Prior to 1250 BC all of the major powers made the chariot
corps the mainstay of their army.  Entire combat units operated out of
chariots, not merely the brass. They would not have put so much money into
this sort of combat unit if chariots were useful only as non-combat transport.

>(from Tom Clancy - who also mentions cavalry's superiority to chariotry:)

Only once the modern stirrup was invented.

>"Cavalry has rarely been a decisive arm by itself.

Well, naturally.  That is why the major powers also kept infantry.

>The real impetus to chariot warfare came from the introduction of the two
>wheeled, light horse-drawn chariot. This was introduced from India by the
>Mitanni around 1600 BC, soon adopted by Hatti and Babylon and then became
>common throughout the Near East.
>There are records indicating that the Egyptians were familiar with the
>chariot prior to the Hyksos conquest but the chariot did not come into use in
>Egypt until then...

The light chariot is known even earlier from northeast of the Caspian.
(Still Indo-Iranian, just not Indian).

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at ix.netcom.com