EQUESTRIAN ITEMS OF THE 5th-4th-FIRST HALF OF THE 3rd CENTURY BCE FROM THE LAYERS OF THE EARLY IRON AGE OF THE SETTLEMENT NEAR MOUNT KALEZH (KABARDINO-BALKAR REPUBLIC)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the description of 44 bronze items of equestrian decoration: 2 horse plate scrapers, 3 figured scrapers/scrapers, a cheek and two plaques (decorated in animal style), 5 different psalms, 26 bridles and others found on the territory of the Kalezh settlement. Based on typological analysis and comparison of them with similar images from various areas of animal style distribution, two chronological groups of products are distinguished. To the 5th-first half of the 4th century BCE include: Plaque in the form of a predator’s head with an adjacent bird’s head; the head of a short-faced predator; L-shaped psalium with a rounded lobe; L-shaped psalm with a bent rod ending with a hoof; presumably, a fragment of a psalia with a flag-shaped completion of the rod; foreman (No. 1). The second half of the th-the beginning or the first half of the 3rd century BCE date: Forehead (No. 2); three scoops/scrapers; a cheek piece depicting a goat. Bowler-shaped and rounded bridle plaques may be related to both chronological horizons. Separate analogies to the images from the Kalezhsky settlement are recorded in the animal style of the Middle Podonye, Lower Pobuzhye and Southern Urals. However, parallels (in some cases-prototypes) of virtually all Kalezh images without exception are presented in the Kuban version of the animal style.