The New Warfaretorical times is a horse skeleton, found by W. B. Emery in
1959, from Buhen, a fortress near the Second Cataract. 74 The
skeleton was found on the brick rampart of the Middle King-
dom fortress that was destroyed between ca. 1680 and 1640
B.C. 75 The horse was presumably killed during the destruction
of the fortress in the hyksos wars. The Buhen horse had appar-
ently for much of his life been controlled by a bit, for an ob-
servant excavator noted that "the wear on one tooth was caused
by a bit." 76 Additional evidence for the horse in hyksos Egypt
comes in the form of two horse teeth found in the Delta, in a
context of ca. 1650-1600 B.C. 77 Most Egyptologists are per-
suaded that chariot warfare was brought to Egypt by the Great
Hyksos, who seem to have established a regime over most of
Egypt in the middle of the seventeenth century B.C. The Great
Hyksos certainly had chariotry when they were expelled from
Egypt ca. 1550 B.C. , for Kamose's account of his victory refers
to "their horses" confined within their camp. 78
1700 B.C. , a somewhat earlier date than is now preferred. Piggott, "Char-
iots in the Caucasus and in China," 74, assigns them to the seventeenth
century. Littauer and Crouwel, W heeled Vehicles, 870. 59, would put the
Gaza bits still later, but do not confront Hermes's arguments.
- The skeleton was first published by J. Clutton-Brock, "The Bu-
hen Horse," Journal of Archaeological Science i (1974): 89—100. - If we follow Bietak, "Problems of Middle Bronze Age Chronol-
ogy: New Evidence from Egypt," we would date the destruction closer to
the end than to the beginning of this period. - Littauer and Crouwel, Wheeled Vehicles, 56. For a very clear pho-
tograph of the teeth, see Clutton-Brock, "The Buhen Horse," fig. 2. Cf.
Glutton-Brock's remarks on pages 92-93: "The excessive wear on the lower
left second premolar (the lower right second premolar is missing) estab-
lishes that the horse was not kept as a curiosity or as a valued member of a
menagerie. It was ridden or driven with a bit which would have been made
either of bone or bronze. According to Littauer (pers. comm.) this is the
earliest material evidence for the use of the bit." The teeth indicate that at
its death the Buhen horse was about nineteen years old (Clutton-Brock, pp.
91-92). - Littauer and Crouwel, Wheeled Vehicles, 56.
- See John Wilson's translation of the document, ANET, 233
103