Wooden Saddle-Trees from Yaloman II in the Altai: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
Wooden Saddle-Trees from Yaloman II in the Altai: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.3.047-055
V.P. Mylnikov1 and A.A. Tishkin2 1Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia 2Altai State University, Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia
The equipment of a riding horse is a key element in the material culture of nomadic pastoralists, very informative in terms of the ethnic and cultural history of the various nomadic groups of the Scythian, Hunno-Sarmatian, and Old Turkic periods, when horses were buried with their owners. This equipment is highly relevant to assessing the age of the burial. We describe wooden saddle-trees from a Hunno-Sarmatian Age cemetery Yaloman II in the Altai, and compare them with similar fi nds from other places. The technological features of pommel, cantle, and bars are assessed, the tools needed to make them are evaluated, technological operations involved in assembling the saddle-tree are listed, and a graphic reconstruction of the wooden saddle-tree is proposed.
