Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

domesticated in this large area, according to HanÇar’s work and some recent studies 138
it is only with the beginning of the II mil. B.C. that we find direct evidence of its military
use to draw chariots in the Ancient Near East; to the same period belonged the looped
rods which had earlier been identified as bridle-bit cheekpieces. 139 Before that period
the proto-chariots (without yokes, poles and spokes) were drawn by oxen 140
(indications about these older devices are also found in the descriptions of battles in
archaic Hurrian mythological poetic texts, particularly in the Song of Ullikummi from
the God Kumarbi Cycle).
The Hurrian data found by the Mozan/Urkesh excavations are quite exceptional
from this point of view. Here for the first time the use of horses in a palace economy
and everyday life is documented in the last part of the III mil. B.C. (also in connection
with the more advanced type of chariots 141 ). In the beginning of the next millenium the
role of horses as well as of special officials (RABI SÍ. SÉ. E ) who were in charge of them
is known through Old Assyrian tablets from Asia Minor. 142 An archaic Hittite poem
(originally composed in the old capital of Nesa = Kanish) mentioning the god Pirwa
belongs to approximately the same period (known through a copy from a later period).
In Hittite texts the god is described as being connected to the horse 143 , and his name can
be traced back to an Indo-European one. 144 Theophoric names containing this element
are well represented in Old Assyrian tablets. The military function of chariots drawn by
138 HanÇar 1955; cf. Bosch-Gimpera 1961, 71. For the same view, see Levine 1990; Trifonov 1987, 26, n.28.
139 Trifonov 1994, 358; detailed literature in Kuz’mina 1996, 84, 79-81 (arguments against the early
spread of horseback-riding, which still do not seem to contradict the assumption of primitive
horseback-riding as a possible initial step of domestication).
140 On Littauer’s point of view, see Anthony 1995.
141 Häuser 1998.
142 Kammenhuber 1961, 13 with references. On the meaning of this Old Assyrian term (probably “an
official in charge of charioteers”?) cf. Starke 1995, 121, n.244; Jankovskaja (1968, 38 and 220) suggested
the meaning “chief of stall-keepers”.
143 Kammenhuber 1961, 36, n.142; Otten 1952-1953; Haas 1994, 412-425, 499, 782 a.o. (with
bibliography). In later Hittite texts, besides a sacred horse, Erama, a deified horse (written
logographically .KUR.RA “the God-Horse”, K Bo XX 245 I 5’), in the (H)iÍuwa festival is
mentioned (Haas 1994, 417, 856, n. 32). But the name of the god is missing here as well as in many places
where the horse deity is meant; see the chapter on horse deities and horse cults in the recent handbook
by Haas (1994, 412-428).
144 Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1984/1995, 695-696.