• latw-50-1
    Bridle ornament in the form of a raptor head. (Courtesy of the Vedat Nedim Tör Museum, Istanbul)

    Bridle ornament in the form of a raptor head

    Date
    Late 7th to early 6th c BC., Lydian
    Museum
    Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 5941
    Museum Inventory No.
    5941
    Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
    M68.001
    Material
    Bronze/Copper Alloy, Lead
    Object Type
    Metalwork
    Metalwork Type
    Horsetrapping
    Site
    Sardis
    Sector
    PN
    Trench
    PN
    B-Grid Coordinates
    W260.7 / S344.5 *86.8
    Description
    Bronze, with a filling of lead. The ornament features a raptor “head with solid curved beak and hollow neck forming base. The round eyes are in relief; pupil and beak defined by incision. The neck is pierced laterally by four circular openings; a fifth perforation is at the base” (Waldbaum 1983, 40). Maximum height 0.042 m.
    Comments
    Recovered from an extramural occupation quarter at Sardis (excavation sector PN). The piece is a Riemenkreuzung, which stabilized the crossing of two bridle straps (like two others, No. 51). “The once hollow neck was filled with lead secondarily, perhaps to convert it into a weight” (Waldbaum 1983, 40). Identified as “pseudonomadische” by Ivantchik.
    See Also
    Greenewalt, “Horsemanship”.
    Bibliography
    Waldbaum 1983a, 40, no. 85; Ivantchik 2001, 79-81, fig. 34, no. 4.
    Author
    CHG