Evolution of horse gear and the relative chronology of sites of the Pazyryk culture This paper presents an analysis of assemblages of horse gear from typical kurgans of Pazyryk culture. The sampling examined included finds from 14...
moreEvolution of horse gear and the relative chronology of sites of the Pazyryk culture
This paper presents an analysis of assemblages of horse gear from typical kurgans of Pazyryk culture. The sampling examined included finds from 14 barrows at six burial grounds (table 1). These burials contained 129 horse skeletons; also parts of at least 85 saddles and 112 bridles were preserved. The sampling was based on 9 barrows with dendrochronological dates available for comparison. One of the kurgans (Pazyryk, barrow 2) was radiocarbon dated to a narrow range of 290-300 BC. In order to extend the sampling, considered were also finds from the barrows regarded by most of the researchers as the earlier (Bashadar, barrow 2, Tuekta, barrow 2) and younger (Shibe, Karakol) monuments of the Pazyryk culture. In addition, taken into consideration was the 6th Pazyryk kurgan dated by a mirror of the “Qin” type found in it to a period not earlier than 311 BC. The sites enumerated above are noted for the fine preservation of the organics enabling us to interpret reliably separate parts of the horse trappings. Moreover, they yielded fairly expressive typological series of the elements of gear which at ordinary sites are commonly represented only by single items. These facts allow us to regard the mentioned sites as the standard ones. Examination of the complexes of horse gear from these standard kurgans had enabled us to divide the latter into three chronological groups differing in the funerary rite of the horse burials (tables 2-7; figs. 4-7, 9-16, 18).
Features of the 1st chronological group.
1. Rich amounts of bronze furnishings and ornamental parts (table 2).
2. Two-piece saddle-girth fastenings are typical saddle furnishings These fastenings consist of a loop used as a pulley and buckles with a fixed bar bent inwards. They are represented by three varieties (figs 4-7; 12: 1-3; table 3). The “bronze loop-buckle” and ‘bone loop-buckle’ variants have been found only among group 1. Recorded exclusively in group 1 have been also bronze saddle-girth buckles with the bar bent outwards (used as the pulleys were the frames of the buckles) (figs 4: 1; 7: 1).
3. Characteristic of the horse burials is the presence of complete saddle sets including the saddle-girths with buckles.
4. The ornaments of the bridles and breast-plates are characterized by large wooden pendants in the form of asymmetrical leaves, palmettes, griffin heads, feline beasts of prey and elks. The base of the pendants is shaped like a circle or an elongated plank. The terminals of the cheek-pieces were decorated with the same motifs as the pendants.
5. Saddles typically had decorative coverings with flame-like edge, bladed pendants, felt “medallions” on semicircular projections in the front and rear part of the cushions, bunches of straps with pendants in the rear of the saddle, sets of plates (S-shaped, sickle-shaped, circular, shaped like commas or four-petalled rosettes).
Bronze two-piece girth fastenings and side-rein blocks from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the Early Scythian period (figs. 1, 2, 14: 1-5). Most of the analogues (bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze pendants with asymmetrical leaves) come from sites of the end of the Early Scythian period in the Altai or nearby regions. At present these sites are dated to the second half of the 6th – beginning of the 5th century BC. However, furnishings (fig.3), bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze fastenings of the throatlashes which in the 1st chronological group are already absent. Ornaments of the horse gear of group 1 reflect the evolution if only some of the elements represented at transitional sites (iron cramps and tablets with transversal cylinders plated with gold – imitations of the bronze spacer-rings and wooden comma-shaped plates-clasps). The S-shaped cheek-pieces with zoomorphic terminals from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the northern Black Sea area of the 5th century BC.
Features of the 2nd chronological group.
1. The use of bronze was limited to making bronze bits (about 8% of the sample).
2. Saddle-girth fastenings were mostly of bone with an outturned bar, however the combination type of two-piece fastenings with leather loops also continued in use (figs. 9; 12: 3, 4; 18: 1-2).
3. Most of the saddles from the burials have no girth fastenings (table 3).
4. In the decorations of the bridles and saddles, elements of the ornamentation both of groups 1 and 3 are combined suggesting the transitional character of the sites of group 2 ((figs. 15,16; tables 5-7).
The horse gear of the 2nd group lacks the elements of furnishings rooted back to the Early Scythian period. The replacement of the type of two-piece girth fastenings with the one-piece examples gives us a possibility to synchronize the sites of group 2 with those situated in other regions of the Eurasian steppes of the 4th century BC (fig.8).
Features of the 3rd chronological group.
1. The furnishings are close to those of group 2 in a number of characteristics: the limited use of bronze (bits, rods of the cheek-pieces, certain small parts of the ornaments), predominant use of one-piece bone girth fastenings, preservation of the variant of two-piece fastenings with leather loops (strengthened with bone mounts – fig.13), and the absence of fastenings on most of the saddles buried (figs. 9, 11, 5, 16; tables 2-7).
2. Saddle bracings and complicated side-rein blocks (fig. 14; 9-16) are found only at sites of this group.
3. Of the decoration of bridles and breast-plates characteristic are figured wooden plates while pendants were not used.
4. The main elements of the decoration of saddles were shield-like pendants and arched or lens-shaped mounts on the semicircular projections on the front and rear of the cushions of wood, bone and leather (fig.11).
The girth buckles and complicated blocks have analogues at sites of the Hunnic-Sarmatian period. Shield-shaped pendants similar to the Pazyryk ones are found at sites of the Qin and Western Han dynasties (late 3rd – 1st century BC) (fig.17). Numnahs with breast covers from kurgan 5 at Pazyryk are similar in their appearance to the ancient Iranian horse-rugs for riding which were used not later than the 3rd century BC (they are not found at sites of the Arshakid dynasty).
In horse burials of the 2nd and 3rd groups, damaging or lack of accompanying grave-goods has been noted: most of the saddles were buried without a saddle-girth into knots or cut out (table 3; figs. 11, 18).
Conclusions. The horse trappings from standard sites of the Pazyryk culture are dated by dendrochronological and absolute methods, as well as on the basis of the parallels mentioned above, to within the bracket of the 5th - 3rd centuries BC. The chronological groups of the horse gear distinguished within the culture in question may be tentatively dated as follows:
Group 1 – 5th (second half of the 5th) – beginning (first half) of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 2 - second half of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 3 – second quarter – the end of the 3rd century BC.
