EAA2021: Abstract

The importance of horses in life of Eurasian pastoral nomads cannot be overstated. Horses were raised, praised, ridden, eaten, traded, raided, gifted, exchanged, exerted, exhausted, and exalted—representing the soul of its owner or its transporter to the afterlife. In the Middle Ages, horses were buried with male and female deceased; they were sacrificed at ritual sites, and depicted on personal and ritual objects. In my contribution to this session, I will address the role of the horse in life and death of medieval Caspian, mainly Turkic and Mongol, nomads by looking at the archaeological evidence from individual burials, ritual deposits, and a variety of nomadic items of personal and ritual use which depicted horses or were used as parts of a horse tack. I will also explore some medieval nomadic beliefs, mythology, and symbology in relation to horses based on (meager) textual sources that we possess from that time period, but also based on textualized oral histories that have come down to us from the resilient medieval steppe tradition. I will also consider elements of continuity and change in the nomadic religious and ritual practices in relation to the role of the horse when the Caspian nomads began embracing Islamic faith and changing their conceptions of personhood after life.

Eurasian Nomads, Burial Archaeology, Caspian Steppe, Turkic and Mongol nomads

 Abstract (PDF)

Irina Shingiray¹