Statuette of an Alchon (Hephthalite) horseman

[Duncan Head]

A new article at http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp290_horse_rider_statuette.pdf shows an "Iranian Hun" horseman, probably 5th century AD, a very interesting piece I hadn't see before.

For comparisons see:
http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=3436.0
http://warfare.ga/Ancient/Gandhara-Cosmetic_lids.htm?i=1
http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/?language=en

[stevenneate]

Could he be clad in mail?

[evilgong]

Anybody want to guess what the loop on the rider's back was for?

[Andreas Johansson]

Interesting, thanks

I'm not sure how Jäger concludes the donor can't be the rider?

(And I note that Jäger treats the Alchons as a subset of the Hephthalites, where e.g. Rezakhani treats them as two separate groups. We're probably in for continued terminological confusion.)

[Duncan Head]

Steven - yes, I thought it looked very much like a mail shirt. Hard to be sure, though, the patterning is neither very clear nor entirely consistent.

David - I'm guessing it's a candlestick-holder or something like that - to do with the function of the statuette but not connected to its real-life model.

Andreas - I still don't really have a coherent model of the relations between the various "Iranian Hun" groups. If anything the modern trend seems to be towards treating the Alchon as separate to the Hephthalites, but since we know so little about the origin of either group, it is very hard to be certain. 

[Dangun]

What do you make of the lack of stirrups?

The article makes quite a big deal about it, but I wonder given the level of abstraction whether we can be certain that they just weren't omitted?
I am not sure where we would expect to see a stirrup strap on a sculpture like this.
Its true that the artist has gone to the trouble of including other details of the harness, but the artist did get the proportions of the horse horribly wrong.

Or indeed are we sure that the loops under the arches of the rider's feet is not a stirrup?

[Duncan Head]

Or indeed are we sure that the loops under the arches of the rider's feet is not a stirrup?

It's possible, I suppose, that they are poorly-depicted stirrups, especially if we consider the possibility that leather loop stirrups preceded metal ones. But they don't really look like it, and the position of the legs and feet does not really suggest stirrups.

I suspect it may just be that, as the author implies, the figure is just a bit too early for stirrups.

For what it's worth as a comparison, the Swat Bowl also shows "Iranian Hun" horsemen without stirrups.

[Dangun]

I suspect it may just be that, as the author implies, the figure is just a bit too early for stirrups.

Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of stirrup introduction?
I am quite interested in this topic.

[Tim]

Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of stirrup introduction?
I am quite interested in this topic.

Rather worryingly I realise that I too would be very interested in such a book as well... (which thought had never occurred to me before reading this post)

[Duncan Head]

Can anyone recommend a good book on the history of stirrup introduction?

I don't think there is such a book.

Lynn White's "Mediaeval Military Technology and Social Change" is the most influential, but that was written back in the 1960s and there has been a lot of archaeology since then. There have been articles and books arguing for and against White's viewpoint, but I am not aware of any definitive study. Someone should write one.

There is https://www.academia.edu/15491198/Development_of_Saddle_and_Stirrup for a recent summary, but it's very short.

Lots of work still to be done, I think. For instance I was just reading Farrokh on the Sassanians recently, and he illustrates the stirrups in the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum as evidence that the Sassanians had adopted the stirrup in their last century; but there's a review of Nicolle's Sassanian book by St John Simpson of the BM (https://www.academia.edu/3573076/Review_David_Nicolle_Sassanian_armies_the_Iranian_empire_early_3rd_to_mid_7th_centuries_AD_Stockport_1996) suggesting they "lack reliable provenance or dating evidence". And I'm not aware that anyone has tried to tie these into the Arabic (Tabari?) account of iron stirrups being adopted to replace wooden ones "in the time of the Azraqites" - who were active in central Iran a few decades after the Sasanians fell.

[Andreas Johansson]

Someone should write one.

I'm looking forward to adding a third book by Duncan Head to my library.

[Dangun]

I don't think there is such a book....

There is https://www.academia.edu/15491198/Development_of_Saddle_and_Stirrup for a recent summary, but it's very short.

One thing I thought was interesting from the link Duncan kindly provided, was that it connected the appearance of stirrups with the genetics or emergence of larger and faster horse breeds. The idea being that smaller horses move so much slower that the benefit of stabilising stirrups is less significant.

Maybe there is already a book on that topic?

[Patrick Waterson]

One thing I thought was interesting from the link Duncan kindly provided, was that it connected the appearance of stirrups with the genetics or emergence of larger and faster horse breeds. The idea being that smaller horses move so much slower that the benefit of stabilising stirrups is less significant.

Interesting - are larger horse breeds necessarily faster?  Furthermore, my impression was that cavalry speeds depend more on tactics and formations than on the maximum possible speed of the mount itself.  Any thoughts on that?

[Jim Webster]

One thing I thought was interesting from the link Duncan kindly provided, was that it connected the appearance of stirrups with the genetics or emergence of larger and faster horse breeds. The idea being that smaller horses move so much slower that the benefit of stabilising stirrups is less significant.

Interesting - are larger horse breeds necessarily faster?  Furthermore, my impression was that cavalry speeds depend more on tactics and formations than on the maximum possible speed of the mount itself.  Any thoughts on that?

the problem here is that the large breeds are bred to pull vehicles etc rather than for speed so there probably isn't a direct correlation

[Duncan Head]

Depends what we mean by "large". Hayashi in the linked article says (pp.72-73):

M A Littauer said it was unnecessary to use stirrups on riding because the horses in Scythia on the northern coast of the Black Sea were average 135cm tall like ponies (Littauer 1981:104). This is applicable to the horses in the Xiongnu and the Huns.

Hayashi is suggesting, or repeating a suggestion, that you don't need stirrups to ride the small pony-like horses of the early nomads. This might imply that you might want stirrups to ride larger horses - but (a) I can't see that he explicitly says so, and (b) "larger" in this case need not mean very large in any absolute sense.

Are larger breeds faster? Well, racehorses have longer legs than Shetland ponies.