A woman buried more than 2,400 years ago in what’s now northwestern China has galloped into a scientific afterlife atop the earliest directly dated horseback riding saddle.
Soft saddles found in tombs of mobile herders and warriors from the Scythian Pazyryk culture of northern Asia date to 430 B.C. to 420 B.C. Those dates are inferred from analyses of tree rings in wood that was used to construct those chambers.
Despite its simple design, “the Yanghai saddle was manufactured by a specialist familiar not only with needle- and leatherwork but with horse riding and the anatomy of horse and rider,” Wertmann says. The finished product, which showed signs of extensive use, had been placed with the deceased woman’s body in a position for her to take another ride.
It shares basic features with present-day soft saddles, including two wing-shaped hides sewn together to form a seat, divided by a long, narrow strip of hide that was placed over a horse’s spine. Rounded pieces of hide attached to the front and back of the wing-shaped pieces would have helped riders to maintain an upright position and raise themselves up, say when shooting an arrow.
2023-07-27 07:00:00
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