A Tale of Two Chariots: Hittite and Egyptian Forces Vied for Mastery of Wheeled Warfare
Military History, May 2010

In this article I analyzed the Battle of Kadesh as a clash between competing chariot technologies and chariotry tactics. In particular, I explained how the course and outcome of this climactic encounter between the rival Bronze Age powers was significantly affected by prior changes in Hittite chariot design, which were in turn made possible by an innovative equine conditioning regimen perfected by a Mitannian “horse master” named Kikkuli.

It was (and remains) my contention that these changes enabled the Hittites to dispense with the stodgy conventions of parallel battle to fight what was, both literally and figuratively, a freewheeling battle of tactical maneuver. It’s an original theory that I’ve developed in a series of articles, of which this is the most recent, and which will be fully explicated in the book I’m presently writing – provisionally titled Chariots Like a Whirlwind: A History of Chariotry and Chariot Warfare.