A groundbreaking study is overturning the long-held belief that the Assyrian Empire was the birthplace of cavalry in the ancient Near East.
Researchers now argue that organized mounted warfare first developed among the smaller Luwian and Aramean states of the Syro-Anatolian region in the late 10th century B.C.—decades before the Assyrians deployed their own horse-riding troops.
For generations, historians credited Assyria with pioneering the shift from chariot warfare to true cavalry in the 9th century B.C. But new evidence from inscriptions and stone reliefs suggests that the first independent horsemen appeared earlier, outside Assyrian territory. These depictions from northern Syria and southeastern Anatolia show individual riders firmly astride their horses, armed for battle and fighting without the help of a second man holding the reins—a key difference from Assyrian depictions of the same era.
The study sets new criteria for identifying genuine cavalry units: mounted soldiers must control their own horses, fight while in motion, and operate as coordinated combat groups. Early Assyrian riders, the researchers note, still functioned as extensions of chariot teams, with one man driving and another shooting—an arrangement inherited from older Bronze Age tactics.
By contrast, the Syro-Anatolian evidence points to a true revolution in warfare. The riders’ posture, weaponry, and independence from chariot systems indicate a sophisticated new form of combat that later spread eastward. The findings reposition the Luwian and Aramean states as innovators rather than imitators, challenging the view that Assyria was the sole engine of military progress in the ancient Near East.
If accepted, the revised timeline pushes the origins of cavalry back by at least a century and suggests that the world’s first horse-soldiers rode not for the Assyrian Empire—but for forgotten kingdoms on the western edges of its power.
