Abstract
This study introduces ceramic protomes of horses from the southern taiga zone of Siberia: specifically, from the Middle Irtysh region (Novotroitskoye I) and the Angara region (Strelkovskoye-2). These artifacts are part of a crosscultural phenomenon. The analysis of their decorative elements suggests that they represent bridles. Close resemblance to Assyrian reliefs showing bridled horses makes it possible to identify the main details of Middle Eastern horse trappings, such as a bridle, a head-rope, and a breast-collar. Also, Siberian specimens display indirect parallels to the archaic classic tradition of using horse protomes in ritual ceremonies. The most important factor behind the appearance of ceramic horse protomes in the southern taiga zone of Siberia was the adoption of horse-breeding and eventually horse-riding, as evidenced by Late Bronze to Early Iron Age bits, cheek-pieces, and parts of harness from the same region. In the early first millennium BC, horse protomes become a common iconographic marker throughout Eurasia. They were a typical feature of Early Iron Age art, a prestigious symbol widely used in rituals, possibly associated with bronze casting.
Highlights
IntroductionIn the Late Bronze to Early Iron Ages in Eurasia, protomes were commonly used as artistic elements of figurative decoration on various items, including rhytons, furniture, various jewelry, elements of weaponry (handles, pommels, crossbars), and sculptural adornment of architectural details (columns)
In the Late Bronze to Early Iron Ages in Eurasia, protomes were commonly used as artistic elements of figurative decoration on various items, including rhytons, furniture, various jewelry, elements of weaponry, and sculptural adornment of architectural details
If we ignore the artistic stylization of horse heads in Siberian artifacts, these items can be correlated with representations of horses with the so-called “swan necks”, which were widespread in toreutics from the Metal Ages up to the Early Middle Ages in southwestern Siberia and the Far East
Summary
In the Late Bronze to Early Iron Ages in Eurasia, protomes were commonly used as artistic elements of figurative decoration on various items, including rhytons, furniture, various jewelry, elements of weaponry (handles, pommels, crossbars), and sculptural adornment of architectural details (columns). Long use of protomes in the first millennium BC as one of the most expressive details of decoration on various items and structures was one of the factors of their spread over a vast territory, including Central Asia and Siberia. Among such artifacts from these regions, noteworthy are quite numerous “horse-headed” stone staffs of the Bronze Age, as well as isolated metal socketed pommels from various regions of Kazakhstan, Urals, and the forest-steppe region of the southwestern Siberia Trufanov / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 47/4 (2019) 77–84
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