Dun and grullo Sorraia horses of Iberian Peninsula

 Salvete Omnes,

convex profile 

I am always interested in the rare breeds of horses, and the Portuguese Sorraia horse is one of them

dorsal stripe on a foal

2007 genetics study of the Portuguese and German herds. 

  Sorraia horses from Portugal (but also bred in the US, Canada and Germany) are usually dun or grullo (Rata in Portuguese) with primitive markings.

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Zebra stripes on the foal's legs

Canada 

Iberian Sorraia phenotype is present in the Black Hills sanctuary in South Dakota,  in Kiger Mustangs of Oregon, and some Pryor Mountian mustangs of Wyoiming etc.

Dr Sponenberg on the American Sorraias - interview. 

Iberian Origin of the New World horse - DNA study. 

Iberian horses from the Ice Age onward  - 2024 DNA study.

images are from Wiki Commons

Valete

Bison & Indigenous People of the Plains

 Salvete Omens,

The Memorial Day weekend came and went and let us share this video of Bison, People and Plains from Ancient Americas Yt channel. 

Before the coming of the horse the bison (Plains and Wood Bison) 

and indigenous people lived in a particular relationship, with perhaps as many as 30 to 35 million bison living in the North America, hunted by the Indians and thus providing them with food, skins for tents and clothing, bone tools and many, many other uses. 

The dogs pulled smalledr travois and thus their tipis were smaller. During the 1500s the Plains Apaches who were the nomads lived in their wickiups in their Plains rancherias.

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The dominant pre-Columbian Plains  inhabitants were the  horticultural tribes  who lived in the Plains from time immemorial. They lived by the rivers in the river valleys with fertile soil, in their permanent earth lodge villages (eg Pawnees, Mandan etc) or like the Caddo confederacies in large towns made out of the grass houses.  

Their hunts were seasonal and when hunting they also used tipis for dwellings during this communal hunts. 

enjoy 

ps there is a project Hunt Primitive in North America, where they hunt animals, including bison, with stone weapons - bow and arrows, atlatal, spears etc.

Valete

Stefano Della Bella's Allegory of Death on horseback

 Salvete Omnes,

the end of Spring is coming up in the next 4 weeks (or like in the US, Springs ends and Summer begins with this Memorial Day Monday weekend) but the terrible war in Europe between the Russian Federation and Ukraine supported logistically, with intelligence & especially with Starlinks by US & EU shows no signs of abating. Recently Ukrainian (the war in the Persian Gulf seems to have better prospects of ending). Several nights ago Ukrainian drones hit a college dormitory in Starobilsk, Luhansk province, and in retaliation (?) for the studnets/kids deaths and injuries  the Russian drones and rockets bombarded Kiev/Kyiv (in Polish: Kijow) and other targets across Ukraine last night.

 
Longer this war lasts more dangerous and bestial it will become (more on the level of the Israeli wars in Palestine), until reaching the next level as the potential nuclear arms use could be looming on the horizon in Europe. 
so in the spirit of deadly dangers and the utmost & urgent need for peace in Europe (devoid of any real leadership on the part of EU) - allegorical images of Death by Stefano della Bella.

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let us hope the Death will not triumph across Europe like it is shown  in the paintings by Pieter Breugel the Elder (in Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain) and the Younger .

ps

the famous XV century  'Triumph of Death'  fresco from Palermo, Sicily, we will save for another day.

Valete

Apache drawings from Fort Sill, Oklahoma

Salvete Omnes,

on April 13 passed 140th anniversary of the arrival of the first Chiricahua Apaches deported to Fort Marion, Florida (San Augustine) - April 13, 1886. 

From Carli Digital Collections (Newberry Library) comes a set of ink and watercolor drawings created by an Apache (White Mountain) artist Frederick Gokliz, son in law of the famous leader  Cochise, who was deported, along with the Chiricahuas and  Warm Springs as prisoners of war, first as prisoners to Fort Marion in Florida, and then to Mount Vernon, Alabama, until 1894 and finally at Fort Sill, Oklahoma since 1894 to his death in 1901. 

Gokliz drew and painted his plates  most likely at Fort Sill , where they were acquired  for Edward E. Ayer.

warriors - 

  . Apache warrior and a woman on horseback

hunting bear & bison 

more images at the Carli portal

Valete