Thracian Bit - another example from the MET

 Salvete Omnes,

MET is  greatly 'stuffed' with art and artefacts. 

In the past I presented various surviving ancient bit from the MET and other museum collections.

Well, a couple days ago i had a chance to look at some Thracian bit reconstruction in combination with a headstall done by a Romanian author and artist Radu Oltean - here Radu's books are listed - goodreads .

So following me studying his reconstructions in his book on the Getae and Dacians, I looked up various Thracian bits in the MET collection.
Therefore today I would like to bring to your attention another MET example of these early ancient curb-bits (I wrote about two - here and  here):

this bit - dated to II-I centuries BC, is made out of bronze somewhere in the Balkans.

height - 15,2 cm

width (of the mouthpiece? )- 14cm

weight - 462,1 g

The mouthpiece looks more or less like  a jointed-snaffle one, but instead of rings where reins would be attached etc there are two longish shanks attached to the mouthpiece by another small ring, and instead of a curb-chain there is a horizontal 'curb-bar,' with three available positions for the bar.  Above the mouthpiece there is a large  'lyre-shaped' cheekpiece  on each side of the mouthpiece, although not part of a shank, but once attached to the headstall it could have acted in unison with the shank.
I think the bit is beautiful, the workmanship of the smith who made it quite exquisite and precise, and somewhat flowing.
The bronze used to make the mouthpiece in the horses mouth could have tasted sweet to the horse and thus caused the horse's mouth to stay 'wet' and 'pliable.'

A great example of the beauty of ancient horsemanship and blacksmith art I daresay.

ps
you can also peruse this article about the ancient curb-bits, I made it available in 2017.

Valete

Scythian saddle - articles

Salve,
long time ago I put some information and drawings regarding the Scythian pad saddle.

Recently I have been studying articles by Elena V. Stepanova, one fine Russian scholar from Sankt-Peterburg (Saint Petersburg) Russia, where she is the Hermitage Museum curator and scholar.
The articles deal with the saddles that have survived in Pazyryk, Ukok Plateau of Altai Russia, kurhans (kurgans), and other archaeological sites in Central Asia with references to other sites of Eurasian steppe. One article deals with the reconstruction and usage of such pad saddle from the Altai's Pazyryk kurgans discovered long time ago by the Soviet archaeologists led by Rudenko - English translation calls it a soft saddle, but I think this is the wrong terminology... :)

 The articles are very, very interesting and informative,and practical too. For me it means I have got to rethink and redo some of my drawings and comments on the said Scythian saddles,
so you can download the English translation from the Silk Road Foundation , volume 14. - on the reconstruction of one of the  Pazyryk (Barrow nr. 3) saddles, preserved at the Hermitage, and some interesting observations on the Bosporan saddles as visible on that kingdom funerary artwork.

Qin/Chin Shi Huang Di terracotta army of China - cavalry mount wearing a very Scythian saddle, late 3rd c. BC

or you could read the articles from Ms Stepanova's page on Academia, or you could register there and then download these articles one by one.

Getae Thracians - warriors  riding using saddles similar to the Scythian ones in this Letnitsa, Bulgaria find from IVc BC - note that the Thracian horsemen were allies of the Philip IV of Macedon and Alexander III of Macedon and took part in the conquest of Achaemenid Empire

enjoy