Chariotry in ancient Egypt

Archaeologist Joost Crouwel writes that "chariots were not sudden inventions, but developed out of earlier vehicles that were mounted on disk or cross-bar wheels.

This development can best be traced in the Near East, where spoke-wheeled and horse-drawn ‘true’ chariots are first attested in the earlier part of the second millennium BC...".

With technological improvements to their structure (such as a "cross-bar" form of wheel construction to reduce the vehicle's weight), the use of chariots for military purposes began.

In ancient Egypt, members of the chariot corps formed their own aristocratic class known as the maryannu (young heroes).

[citation needed] The heroic symbolism can be seen in contemporary paintings in which the King is shown riding with the elites, shooting arrows at the enemies.

Accounts reveal that the Hyksos, who were lording over the northern territories in his reign, were startled when Egyptian chariots started to roll in the battlefield at Nefrusy, north of Cusae (near modern Asyut).