Items of harness and horse care in the hoards of the paleometal age in the Middle Yenisei region

This article describes the objects related to harness and horse care, which have been discovered in a number of hoards of the Paleometal Age in the Middle Yenisei region. The so-called “items of unknown purpose” which were interpreted as components of chariot harness, are a part of the hoard of the Late Bronze Age discovered on the Kamenny island. Most harness elements from the hoards in the Middle Yenisei region are Tagar bronze objects; they include various types of stirrup-shaped and annular bridle bits, cheek pieces, bridle beads, plates, as well as specialized horse care items (knives for cutting hooves, horse combs, and branding implements). A series of zoomorphic plates representing horses, which were found in several hoards (the First and Third Tersky hoards) reveal specific features of horse appearance typical of the Early Iron Age. Hoards from the Xiongnu and Xianbei period (the Sayanogorsky hoard) include not only items of bridle and harness sets but also metal saddle plates and imported objects (bells). Collections represented exclusively by such objects appeared in the Early Middle Ages in addition to the hoards of the Paleometal Age, which contained individual items or sets of items related to horse harness. One of such collections is the Katyushkinsky hoard with the composition of objects similar to cache from burial mound 6 at the Kopyonsky chaatas. Taken together, hoards of the Paleometal Age from the Middle Yenisei region include the full set of objects associated with horse breeding from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages. All these items not only reflect the historical transition from chariot driving to riding, but also a gradual evolution of individual parts and elements of horse equipment, such as bridle bits, cheek pieces, and saddles. Considering the prestige and importance of elements of horse harness and equipment, these items can be described as valuable parts of hoards with possible ritual semantics.