Invention of stirrup - evidence from Three Kingdom and Jin Dynasty China

 Salvete Omnes, 

this is a short post about the early stirrup evidence from China- the evidence from the tomb of general Ding Feng during the Three Kingdom period (AD202-280) in Chinese history. Note that the oldest stirrups and saddles with wooden tree with pommel and cantle come from the north: the Mongolian Altai. 

During the last 70 years Chinese archaeologists have been making many monumental and spectacular discoveries, like the 8,000 terracotta army of the First Emperor etc. In the history of equestrian development the discoveries made in the PR of China provinces shed more light on that special history and relationship of the horse and rider, development of the saddle and its variations, tack, chariot, draft harness etc.

In the 1950s and later Chinese researchers discovered tombs of the  Jin Dynasty period (AD266-420).

 Within the artefacts discovered within the site at Changsha there  were ceramic figurines of horses and riders, where the  saddles are present and on the left side of some of the saddles a single  representation  of a stirrup can be seen. 

Dated to AD 302 of the Western Jin in Changsha, the stirrup had been the earliest evidence of a stirrup within the Chinese cultural territories. 

Wu dynasty period ceramic horse, treed saddle without any stirrup

Starting in 2021  the PR of China archaeologists have been excavating and cataloging the discoveries made inside the family tomb of general Ding Feng in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. The tomb was pillaged in the past so the archaeologists have been working within the many broken remains and debris.

Among discoveries made there the archaeologists found a ceramic figurine  of a rider astride a saddled horse.

The figurine is damaged - both arms and left leg are missing. 
On the left side clearly there is a shape similar to a stirrup. It would make this representation the oldest image of the horse stirrup thus far. 

@Global Times

The missing left foot was not placed in the  stirrup, hence the theory that a single stirrup on the left side was used especially for mounting a saddled  horse, and here clearly we see a saddle with high pommel and cantle. 

Note that in the Eastern Jin Dynasty tomb at Xiangshan Mountain, Nanjing, another  figurine was found where the saddle had two stirrups, thus showing that the Chinese were adopting the steppe technology even more rapidly. this discovery was dated to AD322.

Finally, within the tomb of Feng Sufu,   

Liaoning Province, the Chinese archaeologists found two actual stirrups of some remarkable craftsmanship, and this was dated to AD415. 

Feng Sufu tom, metal stirrup, 23 cm high,  

Photo and article from the Global Times portal. 

Note that this type of stirrups appeared  in the Korean Peninsula (Gaya & Silla kingdoms) and later in the  Kofun Period Japan. 

Valete

Graff Anton of Oldenburg and his horse Kranich

 Salvete Omnes,

a short a quick XVII century entry.

Graf (count) Anton (Anthony) Gunther of Oldenburg (1583-67)  was one of the longest ruling, 1603-1667, aristocrats of the Imperial lands and cities. 

Kranich was bred Graf's studs circa 1640.

Graff astride his horse Kranich (Crane) - Jacob Sandrart's print circa 1671

Graf Anton, having inherited numerous fine stallions and stables from his predecessor count Johann XVI, also bought stallions for his stables: Neapolitan, Spanish, Danish, Polish, and Turkish. He had his stable masters made these stallions available to the local Oldenburg breeders, who in turn bred their local mares to these fine horses. Thus Graf Anton has been credited as the founder of the Old Oldenburg horse, that became famous carriage horse of the XVIII century, and today is a famous warmblood. 

Mural on the Haus Graf Anton Gunther in Oldeburg

the horse and graff have been subject to reenactment eg (from Wiki Commons)

Valete

Bronze Horses from MET

 Salvete Omnes,

so we have entered the last month of this 2025.  Christmas is almost around the corner, and the San Silvestre/New Year.
In 2023 I posted a short entry on the Maciejowski Bible (now also sadly known as the Morgan Bible) and the knightly aquamanile from the fabulous museum in NYC  aka MET.

From MET come these XV century Imperial bronze vessels aka aquamanile. 

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and the second horse 

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enjoy

Valete

Kingdom of Poland cavalry - uhlans and chasseurs a cheval 1815-31

 Salvete Omnes,

The very end of November brings back the story of the November Uprising of 1831, when during the night of 29th to 30th of November, a 80-plus company of  cadets and second lieutenants marched out of their barracks in Warsaw and aided by their civilian co-conspirators attacked the Belvedere Palace( the seat of the king's representative) and the Arsenal of Warsaw. In process they murdered 6 Polish army generals (out of the 30-plus of the whole number of the Polish army generals at this time).  Numerous pubs and alcohol magazine had been broken in and the inhabitants of the Old Town Warsaw got drunk and for the next two days there was mayhem in the city center.  Instead of putting the rebellious cadets and young officers on trial the ruling Polish elites could not decide on any concrete course of action, and faced with the Russian armies marching onto Warsaw in the winter of 1831 had to fight the war against their king  (well, the parliament, in the act of mass formation psychosis,  deposed the king, cutting off any road to 'salvation') and his armies, which had to end in failure due to the lack of any international support and especially due to the Russian supremacy in the field and in logistics (eg the problem of horses for cavalry and artillery for the Polish army).  Thus ended the Army of the Kingdom of Poland established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and since 1832 the kingdom existed in the name only, without any special Polish army, laws nor Polish symbols until 1916, with the Russian direct rule and with the Russian army and police forces policing the territory.

Congress Poland or de jure Kingdom of Poland was a state established on the ruins of the Duchy of Warsaw (minus the Greater Poland, Kujawy, Torun, and Free City of Gdansk/Danizg that were re-attached to Prussia, and Free City of Krakow as a separate Polish entity) joined with the Russian Empire by the person of the king (personal union), first it was tsar Alexander I who was crowned the king of Poland in 1815 (nota bene, he discovered that the Prussian monarchy destroyed by melting historic Polish royal crowns and regalia in 1818-11) and then his brother tsar Nicholas II, crowned the king of Polish Kingdom in 1829. Grand Duke Constantine was king's representative and the commander-in-chief of the kingdom's army residing at the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw. 
Kingdom had its own army - colonel Bronislaw Gembarzewski wrote and illustrated a very nice monograph on the kingdom's army in 1900s-20s.

The army consisted of the regular regiment and  guard regiments, which included:

one guard regiment of the chasseurs  a cheval (strzelcy konni) (renamed to 5th reg of the chasseurs a cheval in January 1831)

one battery of horse artillery.

the Cavalry of the line or Cavalry Corps of Polish Kingdom, commanded by general Aleksander Rozniecki,  consisted of:

the chasseur a cheval division - four regiment of  chasseurs named: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th .

from the left - 1,st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th regiment

3rd chasseur - stable uniform

1st reg. chasseurs  in their field  uniform

3rd chasseur regiment -field uniform

4th chasseur - horse trumpeter 

the Uhlan/lancer  division's regiments were  named:

1st uhlan, 

2nd uhlan, 

3rd uhlan, 

4th uhlan.

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2n uhlan regiment - lancer in his stable uniform

Each cavalry division was divided into 2 brigade, each brigade consisted of one uhlan regiment and one chasseur a cheval regiment.

Each cavalry regiment was divided into two divizions, each divizion consisted of 2 full squadrons. A full squadron had 160 soldiers, 13 NCOs and 8 officers. Each squadron was divided into two half-squadrons, and each half-squadron was divided into 4 platoons, in turn platoons were divided into thirds, each third was divided into 3 'rotas.' The 1st and 4th platoon had the best men, then the 3rd could pick from the remainder of all men and the 2nd had to take whoever was left. There platoons were commanded by the platoon commanders and 3 officers 'ou-or-rota', who sort of were to oversee but did not interfere. Squadron formed in two lines, the first line had the best men and best looking horses. For the marching order, the squadron marched in threes (or like the Russians in 6-men abreast ).

The uhlans/lancers were armed with lances and sabres, each squadron had 1 carbine-armed platoon, or equally possible was the arrangement where there were 4 carbine-armed rotas in each platoon of the squadron. The flanking carabine-armed uhlans were supposed to form in two skirmish lines and even to dismount  and defend the squadron, when necessary. They were trained to do these tactics with the use of trumpeters and their signals.

The chasseur a cheval (szaserzy) regiments, beloved of grand duke Constantine,  were armed with a sabre, a cavalry carbine, and a pair of pistols. although they were taught infantry drills and fire drills of the infantry, they were horse-fighting 'dragoons,' using essentially the same tactics as the lancers.

Additionally , every regiment had one more reserve squadron of 100 men. NCOs and officers, where recruits were trained and schooled. (Tokarz, Armia Krolestwa Polskiego 1815-30).

In total 6788 officer, NCOs and soldiers and horses as of  the late 1830.

This was the most beautiful, led by the most experienced officer  and best trained army in the Polish history since the Jan III Sobieski's reign(1674-1699).  

Eagle on the uhlan 'czapka' according to Bronislaw Gembarzewski's research

Valete