Mary Littauer

It was at the prestigious Boots and Saddles Club in New York that she met the dashing Russian cavalry officer who was to become her husband. Captain Vladimir Littauer, having escaped from Russia via Japan at the time of the Revolution, eventually made his way to New York with his father and sister. He tried various jobs before opening a riding academy, and later became a highly respected trainer of show jumpers and dressage horses. He wrote eight books on riding and training.

They married in 1935 and bought a farmhouse on Long Island, with paddocks and stabling, where they built up a library of books on horses and history — especially old Russia — in which they both shared a deep interest. They travelled widely, and Mary learnt Russian and German in addition to being fluent in French. She later studied Ancient Greek.

Among the books they acquired was a set of the archaeological journal Antiquity, which sparked off her interest in ancient horse equipment and its use. Relating her knowledge of horses and their equipment to items discovered in Egyptian tombs, she submitted an article entitled The Function of the Yoke Saddle in Ancient Harnessing (1968), followed by other articles and comments, always both practical and well-researched.

This led to correspondence with many distinguished archaeologists, and the forming of many lasting friendships.

On a visit to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Littauer was introduced to the young Dutch archaeology graduate, Joost Crouwel, who was researching Mycenaean chariots for his doctoral thesis. Typically, Littauer shared her practical knowledge with him, leading to a collaboration that was to last more than three decades.

Dr Crouwel was appointed professor of Aegean archaeology at the University of Amsterdam, and together with Littauer published some 65 articles in academic journals, sometimes individually and occasionally in collaboration with other scholars. These were republished under the title Selected Writings on Chariots and Other Early Vehicles, Riding and Harness, edited by Peter Raulwing in 2002.

They wrote two books together that became standard reference works: Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East (1970) and Chariots and Related Equipment from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (1985). For the latter they were allowed access to the archives of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and Littauer later recalled the excitement of crawling underneath the chariots in the exhibition cases to take measurements and look at details of the construction, while being hurried by the attendant because the time allowed for the cases to remain open was strictly limited.

She had a prodigious memory for everything she had read, combined with the faculty of critical appraisal — arguing, for example that the imprints of early spoked wheels at Sintashta in south Russia did not necessarily prove the use of war chariots, but simply the existence of light vehicles. Her proposals were always entirely practical: she held that the mobility of the ancient horse-drawn chariot, combined with its vulnerability and equine psychology, made it far more suitable as a mobile firing platform than as a tank.

Consulted by scholars and students, she always responded with great generosity and encouragement. Her response to any query would be accompanied not only by information, but often photocopies of pictures and further source material.

Littauer’s husband died in 1989, aged 96. She is survived by their son.

Mary Littauer, historian, was born on February 11, 1912. She died on December 7, 2005, aged 93.