The New WarfareB.C., it would thus appear, the Hittite kings commanded a
chariotry numbered in the hundreds. In contrast, an epic text
known as "The Siege of Urshu" tells us how one of the early
Great Kings of Hatti (almost certainly, in this context, Hat-
tusilis I) deployed "eighty chariots (narkabat) and eight ar-
mies" around the city of Urshu. The same epic ascribes thirty
chariots to a Hurrian city opposed to the king. 82
Although not numerous, the chariots of Hattusilis I and his
successor, Mursilis I, seem to have been crucial to the trium-
phant careers these two kings enjoyed. Hattusilis's selection of
Hattusas to serve as his capital suggests a reliance on chariots:
Hattusas was an abandoned, unwalled citadel overlooking a
vast plain (to the north, the plain extended to another ridge,
fifteen miles from Hattusas). Even more suggestive are the
long-distance raids for which the first two Great Kings of Hatti
were famous. As we have seen, Hattusilis traveled almost three
hundred miles to sack Alakkh on the Orontes, and his succes-
sor Mursilis made the amazing march to Babylon. It is difficult
to imagine that long-distance overland raids through hostile
lands (both Hattusilis and Mursilis were attacked by kings
from the cities of Hurri) could have been conducted without
chariots. Relevant here is the saddle boss from the yoke of a
chariot found at Alalakh. Woolley discovered the boss in the
leveling layer (Alalakh VI—v) just above the ruins of the palace
destroyed by Hattusilis I (the archives of Alalakh, it is worth
noting, do not indicate that Alalakh itself had chariotry). 8 '
The pankus convoked by the first Great Kings of Hatti, I
would assume, included a small but indispensable corps of
charioteers.
That the light chariot was in existence several centuries be-
fore 1650 B.C. is quite clear. And it is even possible that some
Anatolian kings tried to use chariots on the battlefield as early
- For the text, see Guterbock, "Die historische Tradition bei Ba-
byloniern und Hethitern," 114—25; both of the references occur on the re-
verse side of the tablet, at lines 5 and 26; cf. also line 11 for an unclear
reference to narkabati. - Moorey, "Emergence," 205.
105