Ugarit - Chariots and horses

 Salvete Omnes,

the subject of today's postingi is the late Bronze Age city of  Ugarit in northern Syria, the city most famous for the so called Ugarit texts - 

Urtenu's house (in French Ourtenou & numbered 18 on the map) excavations brought to life hundreds of clay tablets containing texts dealing with chariots and horses.  

royal fortress 

houses

.

Ugarit had a force of chariots ( 2-horse chariots invented and brought to the Near east from Eurasian steppes) and their riders (  maryannu class, of Mitanni and other Indo-European chariot societies, functioning within the administration of polis at the top of the society),  warriors, including archers, and perhaps later on in the period also some horsemen .

horses appear in the Ugarit myths 

Ugarit was engaged in the horse trade with other states, like Cyprus, Mari, Karkemish & Hatti 

Many chariot parts - yoke saddle bosses and finials  have been found in Ugarit archaeological excavations (eg Caubet 1991), also bronze bits and fragmentary blinkers  - see linked article below.

arrow bronze points

horseman from Ugarit 

. they used armor - bronze

armor scales 

see this huge article on the chariots on Academia by  Caroline Sauvage & Mariann H. Feldman  - Object of Prestige? Chariots in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.(2010)

diagram from the said article

Valete