Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

in the early Indo-European migrations. Recent studies 333 have shown an absence of the
exact correspondence between the probable area of the domestication of the horse and
the early spread of wheeled vehicles, particularly of the light two-wheeled chariots that
by the II mil. B.C. had become the main weapon of separate groups speaking Indo-
European dialects and of their neighbors. It seems that the intersection of the two
achievements—the invention of light chariots (for technological reasons more probable
in a region near the Near East) and advanced methods for horse training—was decisive
for the Indo-European migrations of the II mil. B.C. as well as for the use of chariots
drawn by horses in the armies of the Near Eastern empires of this period. From this
point of view the discovery of this type of chariot in Mozan/Urkesh seems extremely
important. 334
A study of the temporal and spatial distribution of the main terms for wheeled
vehicles may serve as an introduction to the topic. The word hu/iluganu(m) in Old
Assyrian tablets from Asia Minor, considered as a borrowing from an indigenous
language as well as a Hittite term for this kind of a chariot ßuluga-nni- (already in the
most archaic texts 335 ), seems to have been borrowed from
333 Haudricourt 1987; Häusler 1985; 1986; 1994; Littauer 1977; Littauer and Crouwel 1974; 1977a; 1979;
1977b; 1986; Piggott 1968; 1969; 1974; 1979; 1983; 1992; Sherratt 1986; Kozhin 1985; Gorelik 1985;
Trifonov 1987; Kuz’mina 1997, 87, n.28 (bibliography); Anthony and Vinogradov 1995; Adams and
Mallory 1997, 640-641. For earlier literature, cf. Wiesner 1939; Childe 1950; 1951; 1954a; 1954b;
Piotrovskij 1962a. The earliest types of Urartian vehicles (carts and chariots) of the II mil. B.C. are
described in detail in Esajan 1966, 131-143; 1994.
334 G.Buccellati, personal communication.
335 The Old Hittite ritual K Bo XX 18 + K Bo XXV 65 Rs. 7’, Neu 1980, 140; 1983, 69-70, n.291.
Particularly interesting is the ritual KUB XXIX 1 I 23-24 (a later copy of an archaic Old Hittite text) in
which the king says that the (divine) Throne has brought him the power and the vehicle ( ßu-lu-gaan-ni-en),
on the interpretation of which, see: Ardzinba 1982, 88-89, 194-195 (with literature). Cf. also
the role of this symbol in the rite of the tempest: K Bo XII 74 + K Bo XXI 25 + ABoT 9 Vs. I 28; the ritual
of Hattic women zintuhi: K Bo XI 73 Vs. 14’, 21’; a fragment concerning the Hattic god Zithariya: KUB
X 61 II 6 5; a fragment on the royal journey to Nerik: K Bo 2691 Rs. VI 5’; the festival of AntahÍum: KUB
X 17 I 21, 22, 27; the autumn festival: K Bo XXI 78 III 13; ritual fragment VAT 7474 Vs.II 2’, a fragment
mentioning the god of Defense: K Bo 3339 Vs.II 9’; a fragment of a rite for the queen and the king: K Bo
2689 Rs. V 8’: Alp 1983, 210, 239-240, 252, 286, 290, 296, 358; see also below on this word in connection to
the royal palace gate.