No saddles and no stirrups for Alexander’s cavalry

Saddles and stirrups did not exist in Alexander’s days. He and his cavalry forces rode their horses bareback, which required considerable communication with the horse and a great sense of balance. It is extremely uncomfortable for both the horse and the rider, and after a while, also becomes tiring for both. Using a cloth or animal skin to sit on, provides some relief – but still. 

Alexander and his highly skilled cavalry could maneuver and fight using the technique called “the knee grip”. It meant they would grip the horse’s sides with their knees and in doing so they applied a balanced amount of pressure to stay on the horse and to guide it. 

I always marveled how the Macedonian cavalry managed to maneuver toward and among the enemy lines, throwing their spears and hacking their kopis down on the attackers without falling off. Some sources establish that they used shorter, more maneuverable horses better suited for battle without stirrups. Yet others have Alexander and his generals ride noble horse breeds.

The first saddles are thought to come from Central Asia. The oldest specimen so far has been discovered in a woman’s grave at Yanghai in the northwest of the Turpan Basin in China. These people may have had close contact with the nomadic Scythians, who introduced them to the saddle. 

The specimen from the grave is made of leather and thanks to radiocarbon it can be dated to between 724 and 396 BC. This most recent date is only forty years before Alexander was born. It makes me wonder what the picture would have been if the West had been in touch with China at that time! 

[Picture from Live Science, credit Patrick Wertmann] 

The woman in the Yanghai grave wore a coat made of hides, woolen pants, and short leather boots. The saddle was made of two cowhide cushions stuffed with deer and camel hair and straw. It was placed on her buttocks as if she was sitting on it. Analyses confirm that such a saddle would have efficiently held the rider in a firm position even without stirrups, which were invented in China as well and reached Europe around the 2nd century BC. The Romans in the 1st century AD commonly used saddles that were highly effective, despite their lack of stirrups. 

Saddles are said to require a girth, i.e., a strap of hide that was tied around the horse’s barrel. This advantage was quickly picked up by the steppe people of Central Asia. The Mongol tribes carried this knowledge to Europe. The Byzantine emperors were the first to mention the saddle stirrups in 580 AD. 

This evolution led to our modern use of saddles with stirrups that provide safe seating for the cavalry on the battlefield and on hunting parties. 

It makes one wonder if and how the saddle and stirrups would have affected Alexander’s battle techniques and tactics …

Another gold bust, this time from Switzerland

Some time ago, I wrote about a gold bust of Septimius Severus discovered in Plotinopolis, some 20 km north of Thracian Greece (see: A solid gold bust of Septimius Severus). 

I thought the find was pretty unique, but the Getty Villa just opened a special exhibition around a nearly life-size gold bust of Marcus Aurelius (cfr. the gold emperor of Aventicum published online in 2023). 

The bust is not made of solid gold like Septimius Severus’ but is hammered from a single sheet of gold. The gold bust was retrieved from an ancient sewage pipe in 1939. It was probably hidden there during a Germanic invasion in the 3^rd century AD. 

Interestingly, the discovery was made at Aventicum, modern Avenches, in Switzerland. The Romans occupied Switzerland as they expanded their empire over the Alps. Julius Cesar defeated the local Helvetii tribe in 58 BC and soon their land became a Roman Province. 

Aventicum, located between Lausanne and Berne, was built on the site of this Celtic settlement and prospered during the first three centuries AD. In its heyday, it counted as many as 20,000 people, who became Roman citizens assimilating Roman culture. 

The treasures of ancient Aventicum are kept in the Avenches Roman Museum occupying a medieval tower from the 12^th century near the amphitheater. 

This amphitheater from the early 2^nd century AD could seat 16,000 spectators. It was partially built of stone, i.e., the walls, stairs, and central entrance, but the seating area was made of wood. When it fell into disuse in the 4^th century, the building served as a stone quarry. 

The Roman vestiges counted more imposing monuments including a theater, a temple where the bust was found, and the Thermal Baths of the Forum. Another striking feature is the Tornallaz, the only tower remaining from the initial 73 of the Roman city walls. This wall was 5.5 kilometers long and counted four gates. 

The gold bust of Marcus Aurelius was found under a temple situated at the center of a large courtyard framed with a Stoa on all sides. According to the available inscriptions, the temple was dedicated to Celtic gods as well as the ruling Roman emperor! 

The museum holds an impressive collection of artifacts such as mosaics and friezes, but also portrait sculptures recovered from the sanctuaries and the public monuments. 

A selection of artifacts, including the gold bust of Marcus Aurelius, is presently exhibited at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California till January 29, 2024. 

[Both pictures are taken from the Getty Villa exhibition link]

The beauty of ancient glassware

I always loved Roman glassware. It is such a fragile material and it is amazing to see such a variety of shapes and models on display in so many museums. 

Glass was first produced around 1600 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. To that effect, sand was mixed with salt, preferably natron as found in dry lake beds in Egypt. This mixture in the right proportions was heated in a kiln until it turned into glass. 

These rough glass chunks were acquired by craftsmen who melted them down and pressed them into molds, letting them cool off and harden to obtain the desired object. 

One of the earliest finds of glass ingots is known from the shipwreck of Uluburun. This ship went down in a storm in 1350 BC, i.e., shortly after 1600 BC when glass was first made. It yielded a precious cargo of all kinds including glass ingots colored with copper and cobalt (see: The flooded remains of Kekova Island and Uluburun). It must have been an extremely valuable part of the ship’s cargo. 

The oldest artifacts apparently were beads made of glass paste, generally by Phoenician artists going back to the 7^th-3^rd century BC found in Egypt. More recent Phoenician examples date from the 4^th-3^rd century BC exhibited at the Bardo Museum in Tunis. Typically, each bead shows a human head with big eyes and well-drawn facial details including a hairdo. 

At the small Airport Museum of Athens, there are glass beads from a necklace of the 5^th century BC decorated with the evil eye, retrieved from the local Twin Sanctuary. 

A Persian glass bowl was unearthed in Cuma, Italy, dating from 400-350 BC displayed at the British Museum in London. This means that the Persians understood the art of glass making, probably from Mesopotamian sources. 

Blown glass was a Roman invention from the 1^st century BC. This technique made it much easier to create objects as it required less time and less material. Where glassware initially was a product reserved for Egypt’s high society, it now became readily available to lower social classes. The items were more affordable and soon accessible to everyone all over the empire. As a result, archaeologists readily unearthed them in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, Italy, Libya, Tunisia, etc. The Römisch-Germanishes Museum in Cologne holds a rich and select assortment of artifacts, but many other museums offer rare examples also. 

The shapes and forms of the objects are endless: vases, jars, flasks, drinking glasses, pitchers, wine jugs, pyxides, perfume bottles, and even cinerary urns. A big cinerary glass urn from the 1^st-2^nd century AD is on display at the Bardo Museum, but the largest glass amphora was found in Olbia, dated to 150-80 BC, and is exhibited at the Altes Museum in Berlin. 

The most striking of all glassware and my personal favorites are the delicate blown glass vessels in the shape of a fish or galley. Also blue enameled vases, translucent and transparent ones, and bottles with fishnet decorations – all from the 1^st century AD discovered in Begram, Afghanistan. Of outstanding quality are the enameled and painted glass beakers made in Alexandria, Egypt, also found in Begram. The scenes are familiar as they represent Fighting Hoplites, an African hunt, and surprisingly, even the Rape of Europe, Ganymede and the Eagle. This impressive collection can be admired at the Musée Guimet in Paris.

Sadly, glassware rarely receives the attention it deserves because our eyes are mostly drawn towards larger works of art such as statues and reliefs of people and gods we are familiar with. However, it certainly is rewarding to pay attention to these fine and fragile objects next time around.