ABSTRACT
I shall illustrate these notions by dealing with the iconography of terrestrial transportation (wagon, chariot, horse and rider) in later European prehistory. In doing so I shall hope to demonstrate that, as we may already infer from the material finds themselves, horse riding for military purposes was not seen in Europe until the first millennium BC (the Iron Age), and that claims for the earlier military signficance of the horse are without foundation. This point has significance for European prehistory, since the myth of the nomad warrior horseman in the Bronze Age has had and continues to have a baleful influence upon IndoEuropean studies. These issues are relevant to the central theme of the present volume for two reasons.
