On the construction of a bridle with cheek-pieces of an early type, spread from Mycenae to China in the second millennium BCE
On the construction of a bridle with cheek-pieces of an early type, spread from Mycenae to China in the second millennium BCE

Summary/Abstract: Reconstruction of the device of the earliest bridle of the period of domestication of the horse in IV-III millennium BCE in the territory of steppe and forest steppe Eurasia is still a special problem. We have only horn (bone) cheek-pieces in the steppes of the early stage, and in Greece, Anterior Asia, Egypt and the Caucasus – bronze cheek-pieces and bit, on which it is impossible to establish the arrangement of the bridle reliably. In our view, the appearance on the cheek-pieces of the frame for fastening the «sub-directional» belt is connected with the use of bit. Thanks to it, the cheek-pieces together with the bit were attracted down to the toothless part of the jaw. This device did not allow the horse to eat and bite the belt bit. It acted like the North American Indians' simple belt loop device, which covered the toothless portion of the horse’s mandible. Such an assignment could have characteristic frames on bronze discus cheek-pieces from Mycenae and Anterior Asia, or oblong side openings on horny shield cheek-pieces from steppe Eurasia.

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