The First Horse Warriors | Bronze Age Warfare

Horses were domesticated on the Eurasian steppe thousands of years ago and were first used for their milk, meat and hides, and at some point people began riding them. But when were they first used in warfare? Where was mounted combat first practised? And who were the first people to perfect it? This is the story of the first horse warriors. Two papers published in 2021 have helped shed new light on the development of horse domestication. One focused on dairying and showed that horses were first kept for milking on the Pontic steppe by the 3rd millennium BC. This study suggested that the exploitation of the horse was related to the expansion of steppe peoples at this time from Eastern Europe into Northern and Western Europe and into the Balkans, and also further to the east, to the far ends of the Eurasian steppe. The data to support their conclusions came from analysis of chemical signals in the teeth of ancient humans. So now we know that horses were being milked before 2600 BC north of the Black Sea, but of course this study can't tell us how these horses were being managed. Interestingly there was no evidence of horse milk consumption in the samples from 4600 BC to 4000 BC. So perhaps we can say that the process of horse domestication was occurring between 4000 BC and 2600 BC amongst the Yamnaya and related peoples of the steppe. The second study published in 2021 looked at using genetic samples from horse remains dating to between 5000 BC and 200 BC taken from across Eurasia. This paper seems to agree that the first domestication events happened in the lower Volgodon region of the western steppe between 3500 BC and 2600 BC, which tallies very well with the dairying study. But this DNA study also shows a huge expansion of a specific line of horses, a specific breed perhaps you could say, including mares and stallions from about 2200 BC to 2000 BC. This expansion came specifically from the Sintashta culture and I'll talk all about them in a minute. So people in Europe and Central Asia certainly kept horses for meat and milk for perhaps more than a thousand years before the Sintashta breed was developed and exported around 2000 BC. And perhaps these early horse herders were riding them too. But we must bear in mind that those horses five or six thousand years ago were of course not the same as horses today, not physically and not behaviourally. They would have been much closer to their wild ancestors. The domestication process is as much about behavioural changes as physical ones, even more so in fact. Just like the aurochs is not a cow and the wolf is not a dog, the wild horse was not the same animal as the domesticated horses developed from it over thousands of years. When people today think of wild horses they perhaps imagine something like the American Mustang. After all they can be captured and broken and ridden. But the Mustang is not a wild horse, it is a feral horse, a modern domesticated animal. So just because someone can train and ride a modern horse without any equipment today, it doesn't mean it was possible 5,000 years ago. Now having said all that it may well be that during this time horses were used militarily in some places between the Volga and the Atlantic. Perhaps corded wear culture raiding parties on the North European plain or Yamnaya warbands in Ukraine used some form of simple organic harness to help control their horses with a girth around the horse's belly to hook their feet into and a blanket for comfort. Equipped in this way, small warbands could advance swiftly to an enemy location and so take them by surprise. No doubt these raiders would have dismounted to engage in combat and plundering before fleeing once more on their horses back over the horizon. We can only speculate because of course none of this equipment, leather straps, hemp rope, woolen blankets would survive in the ground other than in exceptional circumstances and there are no artistic depictions of riding this early. But after 2200 BC something changed and it was because of the people of the Sintashta culture. Now the Sintashta are a fascinating and very important ancient culture in the Eastern steppe and they are actually the result of a huge folk migration of corded wear people from Bronze Age Northern Europe or a series of migrations over multiple generations rather. The Sintashta people were also the inventors of chariots. They invented the spoked wheel and the light but strong frames necessary for high-speed war chariots. We know this because they buried some of these chariots in the graves of the warrior elites who drove them and thanks to the 2021 horse DNA study we now know that they also bred horses with traits so superior that from about 2200 BC they replaced all previous domestic horse breeds found from the Urals to the Atlantic by around 1500 to 1000 BC. Analysis of specific genetic variants suggests this Sintashta breed had a better temperament, were more resilient to stress and had improved endurance running and weight bearing abilities. It was primarily this combination of war chariot technology and the new horse breed that spread widely. In some places it was carried by conquerors whose utilization of the horse in warfare enabled their expansion into new regions. In other places these innovations were spread by trade along with specialized horse trainers and chariot builders. So let's talk now about the first charioteers, a people who would change the world. I'll tell you all about that in a minute but first I'd like to take a moment to thank Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes where you can explore new skills and deepen your existing ones. Personally I've enjoyed the class called YouTube Success by Marcus Brownlee. He's got something like 15 million subscribers on YouTube so obviously he knows about this stuff. One thing he says in that is I should try to hook viewers in the first 10 seconds of every video so I'm going to do my best with that in future. Anyway I really like Skillshare and it's curated specifically for learning meaning there are no ads and they're always launching new classes and actually I've been thinking of making my own classes one day on there for creative writing and the first 1000 of my subscribers to click the link in the description will get a one month free trial of Skillshare so you can start exploring your creativity today. The Sintashta culture is named after a settlement east of the Ural mountains in the northern steppes. It was a fortified circular town 140 meters or 460 feet in diameter surrounded by a timber reinforced earthen wall with timber gate towers. Outside the wall was a v-shaped defensive ditch as deep as a man's shoulders. It probably had 50 or 60 houses inside. When we think of the horse riding cultures of the steppes we probably think of wagons and tents whether we're thinking of the Yamnaya people in the medieval period and yet Sintashta was a heavily fortified metallurgical industrial center. Outside of this town were some spectacular burials that contained amongst many other wonderful things the oldest chariots ever discovered. They also buried whole horses up to eight in a single grave with bone disc-shaped horse cheek pieces, bronze axes and daggers, flint and bone projectile points, bronze socketed spearheads, polished stone mace heads, some ceramic pots and a few silver and gold ornaments. It's significant that they were rich in resources and skilled in metalworking and yet almost all their efforts, all their skill went into making weapons rather than shiny trinkets. These were the graves of powerful chariot warriors and their impressive large swift horses were often sacrificed for their funeral rites. These funeral rites within sight of their town would have been spectacular events with competitive chariot races and other forms of competition, perhaps competitive songs and dancing, wrestling and foot races, perhaps even thundering horse races across the flat landscape with spectators lining the walls and cheering them on. Certainly there was great feasting on huge numbers of sheep and cattle as well as the sacrifice of the most precious valuable animal of all. Sintashta wasn't the only site. There are more than 20 fortified Sintashta towns known, such as the famous Arkaim. In this resource-rich area their numbers and wealth grew and the elites took ever greater steps to guard their own wealth while they sought to take that of their neighbours. Indo-European cultures had been this way more or less for at least a thousand years. They're accorded where ancestors raided one another and fought with stone battle axes while cattle rustling and seeking glory and fame on the North European plain. But here these people developed impressive technological innovations and their society became especially warlike and the chariot was perhaps the ultimate physical expression of their way of life. Sometimes you will see the four-wheeled wagons of Mesopotamia depicted in some ancient images described as chariots but of course they weren't. Wagons with four solid wheels had been around since perhaps 3500 BC from Northern Europe to the Near East, pulled in most cases by oxen and in Mesopotamia by Onagas, also called the Asiatic wild ass or Onaga donkey hybrids. There are Mesopotamian accounts of the Sumerian war wagons present at battles but they could only have trundled slowly along and were likely used as mobile platforms for the elites to stand on. From an elevated position they could observe their conscripted troops and they could throw javelins at the enemy after being delivered into place by their driver and perhaps protected by a third occupant with a shield. The fact that they were heavy and terribly slow is demonstrated by one battle account where the routed army left 60 of them behind. Clearly it was faster to run away on foot than it was to drive away in one of these war wagons. Sintashta chariots on the other hand were very light with strong but lightweight spoked wheels, a critical development, and they were pulled by swift powerful horses with great endurance. So these charioteer elites formed distinct tribal units and engaged in warfare with their retinues against one another as a way of life. They used the weapons of their ancestors, bronze axes and spears, stone maces and bows and arrows but they also developed specialized weapons for this new style of warfare, namely javelins. Of course throwing a spear was hardly an innovation but they developed a range of new warhead types in various shapes and sizes. The Sintashta then waged war at high speed, flying along in their noisy chariots, being pulled by teams of swift horses with a single driver launching javelins at his enemies as he swerved past or charged back and forth, his enemies being other charioteers supporting infantry and perhaps horse riders. Some of these chariots were large enough for two men, a driver and a warrior, but others were wide enough only for one man to stand with legs planted and it was certainly possible for a single charioteer to shoot a bow or launch a javelin as he drove with the reins around his hips. This technique is actually shown in later depictions. On the battlefield these charioteers worked with one another in small squadrons supported by infantry and perhaps by a small number of warriors on horseback, but launching projectiles was not the only way these elite warriors fought. Sintashta charioteer graves also contained daggers, axes, polished stone maces and heavy spears for hand-to-hand combat. There were many ways to win undying fame on the battlefield. Building these war machines and training and maintaining the horse teams required specialist skills, time and resources so only the Sintashta elites could be charioteers and the driving itself required immense skill. After all, it was incredibly dangerous even outside of battle. No doubt these lightweight frames could be turned over at high speed, maiming or killing the driver and so just practicing would have required a special kind of bravery. The horse was central to the Sintashta culture along with bronze working and warfare. The archaeological assertion that they were expert horse breeders and traders has now been confirmed with genetic evidence. Their enormous success in these areas, metal working, warfare, chariotry and horses meant that these charioteers expanded from their homelands as they conquered their neighbors and as they expanded their culture evolved into what archaeologists call the Andronovo culture and they are the ancestors of the Indo-Iranian peoples who expanded further into India and into Iran. Over the centuries chariot technology spread from the Andronovo to neighboring peoples. Chariots and this Sintashta horse breed reached the near east by about 1800 BC and it wasn't only by trade either. Chariot driving steppe warriors created the Matani dynasty in northern Syria in the heart of the urban near east by 1500 BC. At the same time Andronovo chariot technology and horses spread west through the Ukrainian steppe deeper into Europe reaching Mycenaean Greece by about 1600 BC. There are chariots depicted in Bronze Age Scandinavian and Iberian rock art and in the east chariots reached China by 1200 BC. In 1274 BC perhaps 5,000 Hittite and Egyptian chariots would clash at the Battle of Kadesh and chariots continued to be used in warfare into the Iron Age, famously at the Battle of Gargamela in 331 BC by the army of Darius III. By this time however their effectiveness was not what it once was and the superb Macedonian cavalry under Alexander the Great was critical in his victory over the Persians. All over the world, especially after the late Bronze Age collapse, the chariot slowly became a ceremonial and ritual object, important in mythology not in warfare. The last gasp of chariot warfare was to be found 4,000 km, 2,500 miles away to the west from where it was invented, amongst the late Iron Age Britons. When the Romans crossed the English Channel to conquer them, they were astonished to find these barbarians were still thundering across the plains of southern England in chariots. For the Romans it was almost as if they had stepped back in time, witnessing a sight straight out of the Trojan War. So chariot warfare exploded from the steps in the late Bronze Age to change the world, but when and how did proper riding first develop? Now, it's difficult to find archaeological evidence that demonstrates military horse riding as opposed to chariotry. Some people have suggested examining horse skeletons for evidence of bone deformities resulting from long-term riding, but that's easier said than done. For one thing, horse vertebrae don't survive well in the ground like long bones and skulls do. The vertebrae go a bit spongy. Others have suggested examining human skeletons for characteristic riding or falling evidence on the bones, but again it's easier said than done. We do have some ancient horse gear though. The disc shaped cheek pieces with inward facing protrusions are considered characteristic for chariot horses because they are found in Cintashta graves along with horses and chariots. These inward protrusions pressed painfully into the horse's cheeks and it's thought that these were developed for the immediate turning response for controlling a chariot team at high speed. But in the lands along the middle Danube, various other kinds of organic cheek pieces appear suddenly in the 17th and 16th centuries BC, including decorated antler cheek pieces. The argument goes that these less painful cheek pieces would have been inadequate for controlling chariot horses and so this is considered by some evidence that by about 1600 BC there were horse warriors in western Romania and eastern Hungary using slashing swords and long-handled axes to ride down their enemies. These styles of antler cheek pieces spread back eastward across the steppe, suggesting that this method of mounted warfare spread with it. However, this theory is based on the idea that these antler cheek pieces were not useful for controlling chariot horses and this view is not necessarily accepted and there is no other good evidence for sword wielding mounted horse warriors this early on. There's no record of them attacking the extraordinarily wealthy Mycenaeans or being recruited as mercenaries by them or by anyone else and there's no depictions of them so it's hard to say what was going on. What we can say is that the use of bridle bits in the Pontic-Caspian steppe increases dramatically from about 1000 BC. The development of the horse bit, a bar passing through the mouth, was certainly an important development in horsemanship and the spread of this new technology appearing widely and in great numbers coincides with the mass abandoning of towns and villages on the steppe. So it seems that from about 1000 BC, riding became truly widespread, perhaps for the first time, facilitating a genuinely mobile way of life. It's also around this time that the first evidence of trousers and the first leather saddle is found, both from the Tarim Basin. The local conditions here helped preserve organic material that doesn't survive elsewhere but of course it's possible or even likely that both of these were in wide use right across the steppe. Woollen trousers made days on horseback more tolerable and for the civilized writers of antiquity they were the mark of the wild barbarian. Another site famous for its preservation is in southern Siberia, an elevated cold plateau with rich burial mounds sealed by stones and ice. Descendants of the Bronze Age Andronovo, these Iron Age Saka chieftains were interred here over a 48 year span, at some point between about 430 BC to 300 BC. They were buried with retinues to serve them in the afterlife and the horses and harnesses to take them there. In all, there were 54 horses buried in the five burial mounds and there was even a wall hanging depicting a rider in trousers and his horse is saddled and bridled. Some actual saddles were preserved too, again these are early pad saddles of cloth or leather but some had wooden elements. Saddle technology would continue to develop over the millennia, enhancing the rider's ability to stay in the seat and transfer force through their mount without falling off, all very important for mounted warfare. The most spectacular burial of this kind came from a much earlier site, 300 miles further east. Here a mighty Scythian king was buried with his wife and 15 sacrificed retainers and over 150 horses. The royal tomb was built of larch logs arranged in a radial fashion, segment divided into chambers and in these chambers were groups of horses with their owners or grooms. The grave goods with the horses suggest many had been brought in from considerable distances and so they represent the power of this truly mighty king to command the allegiance of other chiefs from far away. Radiocarbon dating shows this burial took place in the late 9th century BC and so we know that all the key elements of the Iron Age Scythian cultural system was already in place by this early date. I'll talk more about the Scythians in a moment but what about other evidence for early horse riding beyond the steppes? While there are horse warriors depicted in the Scandinavian rock art of Bursland, this panel has been dated to the end of the Nordic Bronze Age, between about 750 BC and 500 BC and is probably the earliest pictorial evidence of mounted warriors in Northern Europe. The Greeks seem to have taken to riding in the late 8th century BC and had become good at it by the middle of the 7th century BC. Far to the east, textual and pictorial evidence shows that the Chinese did not begin to ride their horses until the 4th century BC. There are stele from Assyria that might date as early as the late 10th century BC, showing skilled but unarmed riders with bit and bridle. Another stele from Tel Halaf, dated to around 900 BC or maybe earlier, shows an armed rider protecting himself with a round shield. Written evidence mentioning a horse rider comes from Assyria in the year 886 BC and Assyrian wall reliefs from 883 to 824 BC show both Assyrian and enemy mounted archers. There are no saddles, only saddle cloths and the Assyrian horses are still controlled by a noseband while those of the barbarian enemies to their north are controlled by bits. Assyrian horsemen are shown riding with their knees drawn up and their thighs almost horizontal and lower legs gripping their horse's sides, shooting bows at their enemies ahead. An enemy horseman is shown turning to shoot an arrow behind his horse, perhaps the earliest example of the famous Parthian shot practised by many Iranian horse cultures. Shooting a bow behind you while riding of course requires enormous skill. So this shows the Assyrians were riding in battle from the 9th century BC and their enemies, living to the north and east of Assyria, were still the superior horsemen. The evidence shows then that most early horse warriors were horse archers and they were shooting composite bows. These were made of wood, horn and sinew glued together and the construction enabled them to be shorter than a wooden bow of comparable power. The short bow is of course much better, much more practical for shooting from horseback. Developing coordinated mass horse archery was an enormously important military innovation and we know for certain tactics like the Parthian shot were already being practised by 900 BC. From later historical accounts of the Huns and the Mongols for example, we know how devastating horse archers could be when used effectively. They could also put away their bows and draw swords, axes and spears and ride down their enemies. Although of course horse archers on light swift horses or stocky ponies were not quite the same as medieval heavy cavalry, Iron Age infantry could still be weakened by an arrow storm and broken by a charge. Once fleeing, they could be slaughtered. There were other important tactical advantages. A wholly mounted force where every man was on horseback with two more horses in reserve could cover enormous distances in a short time and so could take opponents by surprise. I wonder how many city dwellers and settled farmers over the span of the Iron Age looked up to find an army of Now let's talk about the epitome of the Iron Age horse warriors, the Scythians. As I mentioned earlier, people from the Bronze Age Andronovo culture expanded into the Iranian plateau and also into Northern India, often utilising the chariot for their military conquests. Their descendants like the Aryans, Medes, Persians, Parthians and Bactrians continued to thrive and expand in these new lands. Back on the steppe, Andronovo descendants like the Saka, the Scythians and Cimmerians mastered mounted warfare and burst forth against the urban civilisations to their south. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, from the western steppe, the Cimmerians poured around the shores of the Black Sea into Anatolia and the Hungarian plain. Herodotus claims that they were chased from their territories by the Scythians who took their place north of the Black Sea and also moved south across the Caucasus in great raids against the Medes, who were their ancient cousins, and the Assyrians, who were not. Herodotus also claims that the Scythians were forced westwards by the Massagetae, one of the Saka peoples of the eastern steppe. Now it was probably never as simple as that, but whatever set it off, this was an enormous incursion of mobile horse warriors into the world of stunned and horrified settled peoples. For generations they faced a series of great raids by many warbands of various sizes, smaller groups joining together when necessary, that could last for years at a time. Imagine thousands of young Scythians riding south from the steppe with their bows and a couple of spare horses, seeking glory. Many of these returned home years or even decades later as wealthy men in the prime of their lives, carrying enormous wealth and driving slaves before them. These returning horse warriors often sparked new conflicts in their homelands and started further displacements. It must have been a great time to be a Scythian warlord, riding across the fertile plains and river valleys, descending on the settled peoples at will and carrying off great wealth or extracting it through tribute and trade. However, no good times last forever. After about 600 BC, after generations of contact with the Greeks for example, the Scythians gradually became more sedentary and Scythian settlements started to grow along the Dnieper. These more domesticated Scythians were in turn conquered by their wilder steppe cousins east of the Don, the Sarmatians, at the start of the 4th century BC. When the ancient Greeks wrote about their barbarian neighbours, they liked to emphasise and perhaps exaggerate their uncivilised qualities and of course there is always the possibility of misunderstandings. But it's from this time that we get the legends of the Amazons, the all-female tribes of steppe horse warriors and nothing could be less civilised than women warriors. This legend might stem from the customs of these steppe peoples where some of the daughters of the elites took part in raids and battles before marriage. We might imagine this as a reflection of the ancient Kourios war bands of male youths, except there is no indication that these young women were ever ejected from their tribes. Instead, elite young women who were so inclined were trained in military riding, in horse archery and javelin throwing, but most were not lifelong warriors. Instead it seems that by their actions in battle, they demonstrated their value as potential wives and as the future mothers of strong sons. Once married, they hung up their bows. However, around 20% of the Scythian-Sarmatian warrior graves contained women, accompanied by warrior gear. Some are young women, perhaps fallen in battle before they could be married, but others are of childbearing age and some are older women. So perhaps whenever they died, the women who chose to take up arms when they were young retained their horse warrior status for their whole lives and no doubt there were some women who could never bring themselves to hang up the bow, choosing life in the saddle over a life in the tent. There is a story about Tomyris who was the ruler of the Massagetae. Cyrus the Great invaded her lands intending conquest. The Persians won the first battle through treachery and Cyrus captured Tomyris' son. In the second battle however, Tomyris' horse warriors defeated the Persians and captured Cyrus the Great in the largest cavalry battle of the ancient world, telling him I warned you that I would quench your thirst for blood and so I shall. She cut off his head and shoved it into a wineskin filled with human blood. Now whether this was really how Cyrus the Great died, we don't actually know, but it's a good story and it demonstrates that these first great horse warriors had the ability to challenge and defeat the most powerful settled empires the world had ever seen. This was a pattern to be repeated by later incarnations of the steppe horse warriors like the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Huns and eventually the Mongols and there would be generations of horse warriors across the world from the Numidian cavalry allies of Carthage in North Africa to medieval Arabs and French knights and the Comanche of the Great Plains, but the evolution of the horse warrior from the early Bronze Age Yamnaya Raider to the late Bronze Age charioteers of the Sintashta and Andronovo was fully realized in the form of the Scythian mounted archers of the Iron Age steppe. If you enjoy these videos please support the channel on Patreon or by picking up my novels on Amazon and as always the sources are in the video description. Now please watch this video on the emergence of the warrior aristocracy in Bronze Age Europe, it goes really great with this one. Thank you for watching.