Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On Sun 28 Mar 2004 (09:39:06), villandra AT austin.rr.com wrote:
> Our leader in our bible study class Wednesday said that in those days
> everyone in the Near East, certainly Pharaho's armies, used horsedrawn
> chariots, not rode horses, and that noone rode horses until the 8th
> century. I don't know if this is true.    But I sure would have
> expected Pharaoh's horses to have been mainly pulling chariots - unless
> the passages taht talk about horse and rider actually mean something
> else or have another origin.

 Dora,

 My understanding was that the Chariot MeR:KaBaH (Genesis 41:43) was a four
 wheeler, drawn by four onagers (donkeys). This was a ceremonial "State
 Landau", not a military chariot. Root RKB means 'to Ride'; this is a
 passenger-carrying vehicle. They are mentioned in the Kueltepe Tablets from
 Asia Minor in the 19th century. See DJ Wiseman, /Illustrations from Biblical
 Archaeology/, London, 1958, p 18f. This depicts Sumerian chariotry et al from
 Ur c. 2500 BCE. (British Museum 121201).

 These heavy vehicles were superseded in the first half of the second
 millennium BCE by light 2-wheeled chariots of wood and bronze, without seats
 and without room for passengers. There was just one "bus-bar" for the riders
 to hang on to. The 2-man crew consisted of a driver and a fighter. They were
 drawn by one or two horses, the newly domesticated SuWS, imported from the
 steppes of what is now Russia.

 The Babylonians had horses in the time of Hammurabi c. 1750 BCE; and they
 were used with devastating effect by the Hyksos against Egypt in c. 1730 BCE.
 This was chariotry, not cavalry.

 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF                                 ZFC Yb
 <ben.crick AT NOSPAM.argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 Acorn RPC700, RO4.03+Kinetic Card, 126MB, 4.3GB HD, x32CDROM