The horse in New Kingdom Egypt: its introduction, nature, role and impact

To date much scholarly attention has been paid to the development of the light spokewheeled chariot, its spread throughout the Near East, its design and uses. There has also been much concentration on the domestication of the horse and its proliferation through the ‘horse cultures” in those regions. Apart from the work of Rommelaere in the early1990’s, interest in the Egyptian horse has been limited to short articles or sections of other works dealing mainly with chariots, where mention of the driving force behind the chariot – the horse has been brief. This work addresses this omission by reviewing the faunal, iconographic, textual and archaeological evidence for the horse in New Kingdom Egypt. A brief examination of the origins of this animal and its proliferation throughout the Near East provides the introduction to a study of its arrival in Egypt and the means by which that occurred. The faunal remains will be examined in order to establish the physiological nature of the Egyptian horse and then these will be used in concert with the extant iconographic, textual and archaeological material to determine the role that the horse played in the New Kingdom, how that role changed over time and what impact the acquisition and use of the horse had on Egypt.