Myshkin V.N. Horse Forehead Pieces from Nomadic Barrows of the Scythian Time in the Southern Urals
Vladimir N. Myshkin, Candidate of Sciences (History), Head of Archaeological Laboratory, Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education, Leninskaya St., 127, 443041 Samara, Russian Federation
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Abstract. The paper is devoted to the description of horse forehead pieces, which were used by the nomads of the Southern Urals in the 6th – 4th centuries BC for protecting the horse’s head and / or decorating bridle. The research is based on the analysis of sample consisting of 47 finds. The author proposes the typology of the items under consideration, characterizes the types of lamellar forehead pieces with and without zoomorphic images, rodlike and rod-lamellar forehead pieces, forehead pieces in the form of zoomorphic images, representing a round sculpture. All the finds are divided into two chronological groups. The first group includes forehead pieces, which were part of horse equipment mainly at the end of the 6th – 5th centuries BC. This period was charactized by the prevalence of forehead pieces in the form of fairly large trapezoidal or subrectangular plates depicting the heads of prey birds in profile on one or both short sides. The second group unites the items referring to the end of the 5th –4th centuries BC. The most common type in this period is represented with forehead pieces in the form of a rod, the upper part of which is bent as a loop and ends with a spherical thickening, and the lower part is loose in the form of an elongated plate. A significant difference in the nomenclature of the two chronological groups of the horse forehead pieces has been revealed. This was probably due to the ethnocultural changes that took place in the nomadic society of the Southern Urals in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, including those in the nature and direction of external relations.
Key words: Early Iron Age, Southern Urals, barrows, nomads, Scythian time, horse equipment, horse forehead pieces.
Citation. Myshkin V.N., 2018. Horse Forehead Pieces from Nomadic Barrows of the Scythian Time in the Southern Urals. Тhe Lower Volga Archaeological Bulletin, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 5-17. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/nav.jvolsu.2018.2.1
Horse Forehead Pieces from Nomadic Barrows of the Scythian Time in the Southern Urals by Myshkin V.N. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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