DISCONTINUED 72-AN-1107 ASSYRIAN CAVALRY WITH SPEAR + INFANTRY

Cavalry in the Assyrian army, and more precisely in the army of the neo-Assyrian state (from about 950 BC to 612 BC) was used for the first time in the 9th century BC, during the reign of King Tikultininurta II. Interestingly, initially the fighting methods known from the use of combat chariots were adopted in these units. Originally, therefore, the smallest cavalry unit consisted of two soldiers and two horses, with one soldier responsible for the use of weapons (bow, less often a spear) and the other for controlling both horses. It was probably only in the 8th century BC that a fundamental change took place in this matter and a single soldier was already responsible for both the fight and the control of his mount. Probably then the cavalry was used primarily for liaison and reconnaissance tasks. Perhaps it played auxiliary tasks during the battles. Already a century later (7th century BC), cavalry units were definitely used in open battles, and Assyrian cavalry received nice lamellar armor, and spears became their main weapon. Presumably they were much on par or slightly higher in this century with the war chariot formations.