ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL AND

civilized empires in the early history of
Asia Minor was that of the Hittites, a people
of Indo-European connection, who were
supposed to have come to Cappadocia (now a
part of West Turkey) early in the second
millennium. By 1600 B.C. they had established
a flourishing kingdom, and by 1400 B.C.
they were masters of all Asia Minor. Much of
their success was due to their ability to as-
simulate readily many of the best aspects of the
cultures they overran: from the Syrians and
the Mesopotamians, they derived both gods and
rituals which they forcefully and artistically
represented in their art and in the architecture
of their temples; and, although having a hi-
eroglyphic writing of their own, they adopted
cuneiform writing from the Babylonians
for their codes of law and business transactions.
Certainly very important to their success
was the knowledge gained from the Mitanni
concerning the training of horses. ¶ Until
the middle of the second millennium, armies
consisted mainly of foot-soldiers, support-
ed by supplies hauled in heavy four-wheeled
carts. Although the horse, as evidenced
by sculpture and drawings and in language,
was generally known to all Indo-Euro-
pean peoples, it was not used to any extent by
armies until the light two-wheeled char-
iot, drawn by horses, had been developed and

refined by the Aryans from the Black and Cas-
pian Sea areas, especially those Hurrians,
or Khurites, in Mitanni. The use of horses and
chariots in battle preceded by many years
the emergence of armies of riders. The success
of warring armies stood in direct relation
to the endurance of the horses. Therefore, in
the correspondence of the kings of the
time, royal good wishes for horses and chariots
ranked second only to the good wishes for
members of the royal family. ¶ The Mitanni
transmitted their skill and knowledge of
horse-training (which they may have first
acquired in Mesopotamia) to the Hit-
tites after the latter had conquered them under
their great king, Supiluliumash I, in the
early part of the fourteenth century B.C. Al-
though the conquerors, the Hittites had
realized the superiority of Mitanni horses and
apparently commissioned a recording for
their own use of Mitanni-Hurrite knowledge
of the training of horses. As a result, we
have the so-called *Kikkuli Text*, written in the
Hittite language about 1350 B.C., the ear-
liest known record, or 'manual', of the training
of horses. ¶ The original of the *Kikkuli
Text* is contained on four clay tablets and writ-
ten in a cuneiform Hittite with a number
of Hurrite words interspersed — obviously be-
cause the Hurrian writer found no Hittite
word for his translation. There is a fragment

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