Stele for the fallen horseman

 Salvete Omnes,

stele of Dexileus - @ Andrzej Baranasz

   so the new terrible war started in the south western Asia - US, Israel, Persian Gulf States vs Iran (and perhaps Houthis and other Shias muslims in Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain? etc), on top of the other wars: between Pakistan and Afghanistan, civil war in Sudan, and the horrible war in Ukraine. 
Allegedly it was the Israeli attack that killed the 86-years old leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, in effect making the old leader a martyr. The Shias are like us, the Roman Catholics, they love martyrdom, saints, feasts of martyrs and suffering to no end. 

   Many good soldiers &  innocents will die on all sides (like these schoolgirls yesterday), the world economy will suffer if the Persians close the Strait of Hormuz and oil & LNG gas will go up on the markets. Some industrial states, like PRCh, South Korea, Japan etc depend on the Gulf oil. European Union, cut off from the Russian oil & gas, will have to rely more on our American oil & LNG gas.. Hardships may be coming if this war is not ended quick.

   I would like to just post these ancient, VI c.- IV c.BC,    Athenian stelea for the fallen cavalrymen, in order to just remind myself and all of you that any and all wars of aggression are evil and malice combined, unless in self-defense. 

Stele for Meknes, @ Giovanni Dall'Orto 

In this interview  prof. Ted Postol on the technology of ballistic missiles and interceptors (Iron Dome, Patriots etc) , the oil export economy and human suffering. I recently read the great work by American journalist Annie Jacobsen - The Nuclear War (2024), and prof. Postol's name and research & theories & experiments are aplenty in the Annie's book. 

stele 560-550BC, from the tower at the Dypilon Gate - @Ad Meskens

Valete

Stanislaw Bohusz-Siestrzencewicz - horses and wagons

 Salvete Omnes,

Polish turn of the XIx century painter and graphic artist - Stanislaw  Bohusz-Siestrzencewicz (1869-1927), disciple of Bogdan Willewalde and Jozef Brandt. Artist was very much rooted in Polish culture of Warsaw and Wilno (Vilnus nowadays). Author of many articles  eg Piekno i Sztuka (Wilno 1916) [Beauty and Art]. The world depicted in his paintings was eradicated by the Red Bolsheviks 1917-1921, and later by the Nazis, Soviet Communists and Banderites 1939-45. 

painting of Tatar captivity and slavery - painted by Jozef Brandt and Stanislaw 

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also author of these wonderful drawings done in quill pen and ink, published in Wilno 1913, (the printing of drawings was done in Warsaw)

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. enjoy

Valete

Bronze Age Cyprus chariots - Enkomi etc

 Salvete Omnes,

Cyprus - Late Bronze Age - had a vibrant chariot culture. Cyprus polis were trading with Ugarit and other trade centers in the eastern Mediterranean. 

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Enkomi - British Museum - an article by Veronica Tatton-brown. 

Valete

Ossendowski u Tatarow - arkan

 Salvete Omnes,

[in Polish]

F. Antoni Ossendowski o swojej przygodzie i studiach w Azji Centralnej i Syberii npaisal i wydal ksiazke pot 'W ludzkiej i lesnej kniei' 

W ponizszym fragmencie opisuje lapanie koni, same ogiery stepowe,  na arkan i poskramianie tych ogierow tatarskich przez junakow tatarskich.

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Valete

F. Antoni Ossendowski - modern Ulysses

 Salvete Omnes,

 I already mentioned Polish adventurer, traveler, game hunter, and writer Ferdynand Antoni  Ossendowski here, and today I would like to share this article published in the American magazine Cavalcade in 1954, almost 10 years after this passing in Poland. 

 One vital correction to this text - pan F. Antoni  Ossendowski was a Pole, of the noble Polish Tatar family, coat of arms Lis. 

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enjoy

Valete

Ugarit - Chariots and horses

 Salvete Omnes,

the subject of today's postingi is the late Bronze Age city of  Ugarit in northern Syria, the city most famous for the so called Ugarit texts - 

Urtenu's house (in French Ourtenou & numbered 18 on the map) excavations brought to life hundreds of clay tablets containing texts dealing with chariots and horses.  

royal fortress 

houses

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Ugarit had a force of chariots ( 2-horse chariots invented and brought to the Near east from Eurasian steppes) and their riders (  maryannu class, of Mitanni and other Indo-European chariot societies, functioning within the administration of polis at the top of the society),  warriors, including archers, and perhaps later on in the period also some horsemen .

horses appear in the Ugarit myths 

Ugarit was engaged in the horse trade with other states, like Cyprus, Mari, Karkemish & Hatti 

Many chariot parts - yoke saddle bosses and finials  have been found in Ugarit archaeological excavations (eg Caubet 1991), also bronze bits and fragmentary blinkers  - see linked article below.

arrow bronze points

horseman from Ugarit 

. they used armor - bronze

armor scales 

see this huge article on the chariots on Academia by  Caroline Sauvage & Mariann H. Feldman  - Object of Prestige? Chariots in the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.(2010)

diagram from the said article

Valete