PIE Speakers and the Horse
logical, it appeared at the time—put forward by Franz Hangar
in his Das Pferd in prahistorischer undfriiher historischer Zeit, pub-
lished in 1956. Like Hermes (and on the strength of a far more
thorough sifting of the evidence), Hangar concluded that the
chariot originated in eastern Anatolia, or Armenia. Unlike
Hermes, however, Hangar regarded such a provenance as in-
compatible with the view that the PIE speakers had pioneered
chariot warfare. As he saw it, the evidence for the chariot's
development in the Near East, and above all in eastern Anato-
lia, "eliminates from the pages of history the image of an in-
vincible wave of Indo-European chariots, everywhere over-
whelming the land." 19 In place of the PIE speakers, Hangar
suggested the Hurrians as the people responsible for perfecting
and disseminating chariot warfare.
Hangar's conclusions were immediately reinforced (and
given wide currency among orientalists) by Annelies Kammen-
huber. This respected Hittitologist, whose publications in-
clude not only the definitive edition of the Kikkuli treatise but
also a monograph on the Aryans in the Near East, 20 clearly and
emphatically denied that chariot warfare in the Near East was
introduced by Indo-Europeans. 21 Kammenhuber believed that
the Kikkuli treatise confirmed Hangar's suggestion (which had
been based almost entirely on archaeological evidence) that the
- The argument is developed especially at pages 525-35 of Das
Pferd. Although acknowledging Indo-European exploitation of (and expert-
ise in) chariot warfare, Hanqar emphatically rejected the view that the Indo-
Europeans were instrumental in perfecting it, or that the Indo-Europeans
were responsible for bringing it to the Near East. The Near Eastern data
"streichen die Vorstellung der alles Land siegreich uberrollenden indoger-
manischen Streitwagengeschwader... aus dem Geschichtsbild" (p. 525).
- Kammenhuber, Hippologia Hethitica, and Die Arier im Vorderen
Orient. Kammenhuber's publications on the subject began with her "Philol-
ogische Untersuchungen zu den 'Pferdetexten' aus dem Keilschriftarchiv
von Boghazkoy," Miinchener Studien zur Sprachwissemchaft 2 (1952): 47-120.
- In her own words (Die Arier, 238), her several studies have
demonstrated that "man die Arier endgiiltig nicht mehr fur Pferd und
Wagen im Vorderen Orient verantwortlich machen kann."
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