Anders Alexandra – Lőrinczy Gábor szerk.: A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Archaeologica 12. (Szeged, 2011)

László BARTOSIEWICZ: Ex Oriente equus... A Brief History of Horses between the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Ages

László BARTOSIEWICZ reflex bows in an almost full circle. The custom of some of their tribes of burying warriors with their horses, has preserved hundreds of complete horse skeletons in the territories of present-day Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. Most of these mounts were stallions or geldings, on average 135 cm tall at the withers, apparently selected by the practical needs of light cavalry. Their physique, however, also recalls the "oriental" type. In addition to the aforementioned Scythian horses of the Carpathian Basin of similar size, the average withers height of 14 Sarmatian horses has recently been also estimated at 134 cm (GÁL 2010, 217, Tab. 5). The AD 796 written reference to the defeated Avar Khan riding a mule on the way to the victorious King Pippin of the Frankish Empire probably shows Mediterranean style luxury, rather than nomadic tradition (

BARTOSIEWICZ-GYÖNGYÖSSY 2006. 297). Although archaeological evidence for mules/hinnies has already been reported from Greek colonies in the northern Pontic region (BÖKÖNYI 1974, 306), according to Aristotle (605a, 16) donkeys withstand cold very poorly, therefore they were not kept in Pontos and Skythia and were thus possibly not integrated into the equestrian tradition of "nomadic" peoples occupying the steppe of broadly varying, largely continental climates. Chazars are considered a semi-nomadic people who ruled the steppe and the North Caucasus between the 7

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h-10

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h c. AD. Their advanced cavalry tactics relied on the use of stirrups. They founded their independent Khanate along the Caspian Sea In the 7

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h c. AD. Between 965-969, their power was superseded by the Kiev Rus, and the Chazars largely disappeared as a distinct people. A 137.7 cm average withers height was estimated from 42 long bones from the closely related SaltovoMayaki culture (MATOLCSI 1982, 317, Tab. 28). Pechenegs are first mentioned in written documents as late as the 8

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h-9

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h c. They lived between the lower Volga and the Don rivers. In the 9-10

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h c. Pechenegs controlled much of the steppe in southwestern Eurasia. However, similarly to many similar peoples, their strategy was limited to random assaults on neighbors and occasional mercenary services for major powers, such as the Byzantines who used them to fend off other, more dangerous tribes such the Magyars. Pechenegs themselves were often victimized by Chazars, who drove them into slavery (PÁLÓCZI-HORVÁTH 1989,

11). Hungarians (Magyars) conquered the Carpathian Basin around AD 895. They waged military campaigns into much of civilized Europe for over 50 years. The skulls and foot bones of horses found in graves are interpreted as bones left in horse hides after flaying. They were not only found in warrior's graves and the sex and age of the horse sometimes matched that of the deceased. Early Magyar meat consumption was characterized by a high proportion of horse flesh. Hippophagy was banned in Europe by Pope Gregory III (AD 731-741), as Germanic tribes were converted to Christianity. Magyars established a Christian kingdom in Hungary (AD 1000), but horse eating remained important for centuries. This trend was strengthened by the last Eastern pastoralists (e. g. Polovitsy and Iasians) who continued infiltrating the Carpathian Basin between the 11

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h and 13

th centuries (TAKÁCS 1990), partly under the pressure of the Mongol Tartar expansion. Cumanians (Polovtsy) inhabited southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. They occupied the Eastern European steppe in the 11

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h c. AD, assaulting Byzantium and the Rus, also attacking the Hungarian Kingdom in 1089. The skeleton found alongside a 13

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h c. Cumanian leader at Csengele in SE Hungary originated from a stallion 143 cm at the withers, described as an "Arabian" horse by VÖRÖS (2001, 343) based on its similarity to the skeleton of a modern Arabian mare. By that time „nomads" underwent a long process of settling down in Central Hungary. Their steppe traditions, including the consumption of horse meat and apotropaic displays of horse heads survived for centuries to come (NYERGES-BARTOSIEWICZ 2006. 337). The chronology of equestrian migrant groups in the Carpathian Basin is summarized in Figure 1, 4. One of the most typical elements in all these cultures is that they operated in politically marginal areas between east and west. Horses played a vital role in this turbulent and often violent scenario. Beginning with Herodotus, "nomads" were always documented by chroniclers from other, sedentary cultures (European, Arabic, Persian), reflecting their own mentality. In Europe, Greek/Hellenistic and Roman territories flanked the steppe from the south. Subsequently, Byzanthium and western Christianity clashed with "nomadic" cultures. Hun rule was described by Iordanes in Gethica (AD 6

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h c.) who included Latin translations of eyewitness reports by Rhetor Priscus. Late AD 4

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h c. records by a Roman officer, Ammianus Marcellinus, created another collection of topoi. Regardless of differences in ethnohistory, language 130