ABSTRACT

From the Late Bronze Age of the Near East, Egypt and the Aegean we have plenty of evidence, both textual and pictorial, to be quite certain what was important to the kings who dominated those areas. Until the destructions ca. 1200 BC the highest priority for a ruler-whether a Great King or one of his vassals-was his chariot force. This included the vehicles themselves, the drivers and archers who manned them, and the specially trained horses that drew the chariots. On the other hand, the copious evidence for the Late Bronze Age shows clearly enough that riders were not yet of any military significance. As indicated in Chapter 3, representations of (and references to) riders are rare in the Middle Bronze Age but become rarer still in the Late Bronze Age. And in both periods the few men who did ride tended to seat themselves over their horses’ loins, without saddle or saddle-cloth.