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The Roman Cavalry Saddle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Peter Connolly  and
Carol Van Driel-Murray
Peter Connolly
Affiliation:
22 Spring Street, Spalding, Lincs
Carol Van Driel-Murray
Affiliation:
A.E. van Giffen Instituut voor Prae-en Protohistorie, University of Amsterdam
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Extract

No Roman saddle survives complete. For its reconstruction we are therefore reduced to depictions or models of saddled horses and to making sense out of what archaeological evidence remains. Since Groenman-van Waateringe's study of 1967, it is clear that the archaeological evidence for saddles consists of the leather outer casing and metal horn stiffeners: neither of them, however, have ever been found in association.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 22 , November 1991 , pp. 33 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © Peter Connolly and Carol Van Driel-Murray 1991. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 W. Groenman-van Waateringe. Romeins lederwerk uit Valkenburg Z.H. (1967). 106ff.

2 Connolly, P., Britannia xvii (1986), 353CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Connolly, P.. Journ. Roman Military Equipment Studies i. (1990). 61 ffGoogle Scholar.

4 In C. van Driel-Murray (ed.), Roman Military Equipment: the Sources of Evidence BAR Int. Ser. 476 (1989); C. van Driel-Murray, ‘The Vindolanda chamfrons and miscellaneous items of leather horse gear’, ibid., 281-318: S. Winterbottom, ‘Saddle covers, chamfrons and possible horse armour from Carlisle’, ibid. 319-36.

5 P. Connolly, ‘The Roman Saddle’, in M. Dawson, Roman Military Equipment: The Accoutrements of War BAR Int. Ser. 336 (1987), 7-27; idem. Military Illustrated no. 13 (1988), 26.

6 Though the published illustration of the Valkenburg saddle conveyed the idea of a shabrack (i.e. a structureless saddle-blanket), Groenman-van Waateringe from the outset thought in terms of some kind of structure supporting the leather and the metal horns (op. cit. (note 1), 119–20 … four projections on the saddle bow. which imply a wooden frame … ). Hence the shabrack option need not be considered further.

7 Landesmuseum Mainz. Inv. Nr. S607. Römische Steindenkmäler: Mainz in Römischer Zeit (1988), no. 87: Gallia xxxv (1977), 94 and fig. 3Google Scholar.

8 M. Bishop. ‘Cavalry equipment of the Roman army in the first century AD’ in J.C. Coulston (ed.). Military Equipment and the Identity of Roman Soldiers BAR Int. Ser. 394 (1988). 67–195; G.M.E.C. van Boekel. ‘Roman terracotta figurines as a source for the reconstruction of harnessing’, in C. van Driel-Murray (ed.), Roman Military Equipment: the Sources of Evidence BAR Int. Ser. 476 (1989), 75-122.

9 G. Herrmann. ‘Parthian and Sasanian Saddlery. New Light from the Roman West’, in L. de Meyer. E. Haerinek (eds.), Archaeologia Iranica et Orientalis. Miscellanea in Honorem Louis Vanden Berghe (1989). 757-809.

10 e.g. a horse on the siege of Verona frieze on the Arch of Constantine, Rome.

11 Groenman-van Waateringe. op. cit. (note 1). fig. 41: J.W. Waterer, ‘Leatherwork’, in D. Strong. D. Brown (eds.). Roman Crafts (1976). 192: this interpretation was also the reason why the Valkenburg cover was illustrated as a drape even though the necessity of a structure was recognized.

12 Vechten no. 8. Vindolanda, Carlisle (numbers refer to the listing in the publications of note 4).

13 Junkelmann, M.. Rönusche Kavallerie – Equites Alae. Schriften des Limesmuseums Aalen Nr. 42 (1989)Google Scholar.

14 ibid., fig. 25.

15 ibid., fig. 24.

16 J. Curle. A Roman Frontier Post and its People. The Fort of Newstead in the Parish of Melrose (1911). 178–9.

17 ibid., pl. XXXII.

18 10–15% shrinkage must be allowed for old. dried material, like Valkenburg and Bonn. Professionally conserved leather like that from Carlisle. Castleford and Vindolanda tends to approach the original dimensions far more elosely, at least if conservation is undertaken immediately after excavation.

19 Herrmann. op. cit. (note 9). 771.

20 Bishop, op. cit. (note 8). 127.

21 Herrmann, op. cit. (note 9). pl. xva.

22 See comment note 25. below.

23 A. Hyland, Equus: the Horse in the Roman World (1990). 134.

24 cf. note 13.

25 Connolly, op. cit. (note 5). 12. This part was edited out and replaced with the words ‘and this worked well’.

26 S.I. Rudenko. Frozen Tombs of Siberia. The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (1970).

27 Jannsen, W.. ‘Die Sattelbeschläge aus Grab 446 des fränkischen Gräberfeldes von Wesel-Bislich. Kreis Wesel’, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt xi (1981). 149–69. Abb. 8Google Scholar.

28 Fragments of leather saddle casings from the sites mentioned (numbered if more than one example has been identified) are individually described in C. van Driel-Murray, ‘The Vindolanda chamfrons and miscellaneous items of leather horse gear’, op. cit. (note 4), 281–318. The numbering used in FIG. 4 also refers to this catalogue.

29 Taken from Bishop, op. cit. (note 8), 127, Table 1. where the complete list of references to the metal horns from the sites mentioned can be found.

30 See note 28.