Long before the Iron Age, right in the middle of the
Bronze Age, men fighting on horseback (
cavalry) became the deciding factor for victory in warfare. Light horse-drawn chariots were used by the Sintashta-Petrovka warriors of Central Asia and nomadic
Indo Iranians around
850 BC or earlier
. And Greeks even learn to ride the first horse around 750 BC.
[see the Greek timeline image below]
The horse driven chariot was soon adopted by the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom of Egypt as well as Assyrian and Babylonian ruling class.
Cavalry techniques were invented by Nomadic Horsemen of the Central Asian and Indo Iranian tribes such as the
Persians, Parthians, Sarmatians and Aryan Ksatriyas. See the inscription dated
860 BC.