The Coming of the Greeksinclines toward the conclusion that—whatever the sixteenth-
and thirteenth-century scribes may have thought—the original
author of the text presented the teams as part of the booty taken
out of Salatiwara and not as part of the the city's defenses. 72
Houwink ten Gate also inclines toward the wider conclusion
that ca. 1800 B.C. chariots were not used at all in Anatolian
warfare. On the other hand, as Erich Neu's translation sug-
gests, it may be that the horses of the "Anittas Text" pulled
war chariots. Even if that could be established, however, we
still would not know how to imagine the king of Salatiwara
employing his battle chariots. To imagine them as drawn by
bit-controlled horses, and as carrying archers armed with com-
posite bows, would almost certainly be anachronistic. We
must leave the matter in uncertainty. It is possible that ca.
1800 B.C. a few Anatolian kings had begun experimenting
with the chariot in battle. But if such experiments did occur,
they evidently were unsuccessful, since for the next century and
a half, nothing more is heard about war chariots.
The effective use of chariots in battle, for which the bit was
undoubtedly a prerequisite, does not seem to have begun until
well into the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, we have very
little literary evidence on this period, and no contemporary ref-
erences to chariot warfare. Yet there are grounds for supposing
that the chariot was used in battle in Egypt ca. 1650 B.C. In
his excavations at Tell el Ajjul (ancient Gaza), Sir Flinders Pet-
rie discovered bronze bits in a level that he identified as "Hyk-
sos," and that today is usually dated to the seventeenth century
B.C. 73 The earliest evidence for the horse in Egypt during his-
und ziindete seine Stadt an, und [ ] jene ei[n},
die Einschliessung der Stadt (bestand in) 1400 Fusstruppen,
und 40 Pferdegespanne, Si[lber (und) Gold
jener aber hatte (mit)gefuhrt, und er war (davon)gegangen.- Houwink ten Gate, "The History of Warfare according to Hit-
tite Sources," 59 and 80—8in.66. - For a full discussion of "die Hyksostrense," see Hermes, "Das
gezahmte Pferd im Alten Orient," 379—81. Hermes dated the bits to ca.
IO2