PIE Speakers and Chariot Warfareand the Sumerogram GISH.GIGIR (both of which usually denote
a chariot in second-millennium texts) occur in a number of
texts from the third and early second millennia. 12 The argu-
ment makes no mention of the fact that "narkabtu" and
GISH.GIGIR originally stood for any two-wheeled cart, includ-
ing the solid-wheeled cart drawn by oxen (which is the only
kind of two-wheeled cart attested for third-millennium Meso-
potamia). Secondly, Kammenhuber read a chariot into the
Hymn of Shulgi (Shulgi does not specify whether his speedy
horse was ridden or driven).' 3 On the basis of these two argu-
ments, she concluded that before 2000 B.C. the Sumerians had
developed not only the chariot, but chariot warfare. Her ar-
gument makes no reference to artistic representations, to
spoked wheels, or to archaeological evidence of any kind.
Nor is there much to be said for the thesis that the Aryan
speakers, while lodging on the outskirts of Mitanni, learned
about chariot warfare from the Hurrians. The thesis, of course,
supposes that the Aryans were at the time embarked upon a
massive pastoral Volkswanderung, migrating from the fertile
lands of eastern Europe (Kammenhuber assumed that the Indo-
European homeland lay west of the "beech tree line" from K6-
nigsberg to the mouth of the Danube)' 4 toward the Zagros
Mountains and the Persian desert. According to Kammenhu-
ber's reconstruction, upon reaching the fringes of Mesopotamia,
the Aryans quickly and completely learned the art of chariotry
from the Hurrians. Such adept students did the Aryans prove
to be that within a few decades they not only were able to use
their newly acquired skills to conquer India, but also came to
be regarded by many Near Easterners (and even by their Hur-
rian instructors) as experts in the arts of chariotry and horse
breeding. Thus, although conceding that by the middle of the
second millennium the Aryan speakers enjoyed a remarkable
- Kammenhuber, "Zu den hethitischen Pferdetexten," 120, and
Die Arier, 237. - Hippologia Hethitica, 11—12.
- Ibid., 15.
143