Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (3) 2009

Annotation:  Middle Paleolithic Industries of the Early Late Pleistocene (OIS 5) in the Southwestern Part of East Evidence of Environmental Instability of the Lake Baikal Area after the Last Glaciation (Based on P Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures in Yakutia Clay Balls from Suchu Island as Neolithic Sacral Symbols Models of Metal Production in the Near East (Chalcolithic – Middle Bronze Age) Chinese Inscription on the Lacquer Cup from Noin Ula Mound 20 (Mongolia) Horse Forehead Pieces from the Kuban Region The Pakhomovskaya Culture of the Late Bronze Age Stone Stele Bearing a “Sun-Headed” Deity on the Tuim River, Khakassia (In commemoration of the Finni Methodological Issues in the Digital Mapping of Archaeological Sites The Church of the Saviour from Zashiversk: The Dendrochronological Aspect The “Harlequin”: An Ostyak Idol “Technological Eschatology” in Modern Traditions of Popular Orthodoxy and among the Old Believers o Mummery in the Calendar Rites of German Settlers in Siberia Silver of Kazakh Zergers: Traditions in Modern Jewelry Art Dental Remains from Mound 20 at Noin-Ula, Mongolia The Origin of the Medieval Population of the Novgorod Republic) (10th–13th centuries): A Craniometri   

Horse Forehead Pieces from the Kuban Region

I.I. Marchenko and N.Y. Limberis.

The article describes forehead pieces used to protect the front part of a horse’s head during battle. Two types of forehead piece are distinguished: (1) pieces with a round convex upper part decorated with concentric circles and a trapezoidal elongated lower part with concave lateral sides; (2) pieces with symmetrical fan-like ends and concave lateral sides. New archaeological material makes it possible to date the use of such head pieces within the range of the second half of the 4th and the early 3rd centuries BC. A description of an assemblage of artifacts from the burial mound at Plastunovskaya is published here for the fi rst time. The assemblage is relevant both to the dating of forehead pieces and in establishing when votive hoards (also known as “strange assemblages”) appeared of which the Plastunovskaya hoard is the earliest. The custom apparently emerged among the Siracae of the Kuban and later, following the Sarmatian raids, spread across the northwestern Pontic area.

Keywords: Meotians, Sarmatians, horse forehead piece, bit, amphora, chronology.