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Author Willekes, Carolyn, author

Title The horse in the ancient world : from Bucephalus to the Hippodrome / Carolyn Willekes
Published London : I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2016
©2016

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 272 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (some color)
Series Library of Classical Studies ; 10
Library of classical studies ; v. 10.
Contents Introduction: horses and humans -- Methodology -- The horse -- Prehistoric horses -- The ancient horse types -- The military horse -- The sport horse -- Conclusion: riding into history
Summary The domestication of the horse in the fourth millennium BC altered the course of mankind's future. Formerly a source only of meat, horses now became the prime mode of fast transport as well as a versatile weapon of war. Carolyn Willekes traces the early history of the horse through a combination of equine iconography, literary representations, fieldwork and archaeological theory. She explores the ways in which horses were used in the ancient world, whether in regular cavalry formations, harnessed to chariots, as a means of reconnaissance, in swift and deadly skirmishing (such as by Scythian archers) or as the key mode of mobility. Establishing a regional typology of ancient horses - Mediterranean, Central Asian and Near Eastern - the author discerns within these categories several distinct sub-types. Explaining how the physical characteristics of each type influenced its use on the battlefield - through grand strategy, singular tactics and general deployment - she focuses on Egypt, Persia and the Hittites, as well as Greece and Rome. This is the most comprehensive treatment yet written of the horse in antiquity
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Horses -- History -- To 1500
Domestication.
Human-animal relationships -- History -- To 1500
HISTORY -- Civilization.
HISTORY -- Essays.
HISTORY -- Reference.
HISTORY -- Social History.
Domestication
Horses
Human-animal relationships
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781786720092
1786720094
178673009X
9781786730091