The Coming of the Greeksthe chariot had only peaceful uses ca. 1800 B.C. For Near East-
erners of the time, after all, it would have seemed to roll with
breathtaking speed.
The simplest explanation for both the rarity of the chariot
and its employment in nonmilitary contexts is that in the
eighteenth century B.C. an effective means of chariot warfare
had not yet been devised. As we have seen, there is positive
evidence that the bit was not yet in use in the Near East in the
early eighteenth century. It is also possible that the composite
bow was still a rarity at this time, although here the argument
is e silentio. 6 "* If, as is likely, the chariot began to be used for
hunting soon after its development, several generations of
charioteers may have tried various devices to better guide and
control their horses. At the same time, chariot archers may
have experimented with self bows and composite bows before
perfecting a dependably lethal weapon (construction of the
composite bow was an intricate business, and a good bow was
five to ten years in the making). 66 The earliest evidence for the
chariot's use in hunting comes from a Syrian cylinder seal dat-
ing from the eighteenth or seventeenth century B.C. The horses
in this scene are evidently controlled by bits: the driver himself
shoots the bow, having tied the reins around his hips. 67
For more than a century after the time of Shamshi-Adad and
Zimri-Lim, the horse may have remained an extraordinary
spectacle in Mesopotamia, used only for rapid transportation,
for hunting, for ceremony, or for royal recreation and amuse-
ment. In our copious documentation from the Age of Ham-
murabi, there are no references to chariot forces anywhere in
the Fertile Crescent (needless to say, the horse is not mentioned
in the Code of Hammurabi). Nor is there a representation of
the light chariot in the monumental art of the age, a fair
- The earliest preserved specimen comes from outside a Seven-
teenth Dynasty tomb in Egypt. Cf. McLeod, "Egyptian Composite Bow,"
397"- 4- - Ibid., 400.
- Littauer and Crouwel, Wheeled Vehicles, 63 and fig. 36.
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