PICTISH CAVALRY: THE “MOUNTING” EVIDENCE:

By Fisher Fine Arts Library Image Database - Camp and audience scenes in late iron age rock drawings from Khawtsgait, MongoliaPD-Art: Non-creative photograph of a two-dimensional work of art in the Public Domain (1st century BCE -1st century BCE), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95087609

    Copious evidence points to prominent horse cultures in Amazon, Scythian, and Pictish societies. The Amazons, depicted primarily through the eyes of the ancient Greeks, are painted as hard-riding warriors, fighting from horseback, and dying beneath the hooves of their steeds. Scythian gravemounds yield treasure troves of horse gear, as well as the bones of the horses themselves, and the bodies of their riders: Amazonian warrior women, knees bent in the riding position.

    Pictish standing stones present the clearest picture. Their carven cartoons caricature a clear snapshot of Pictish riders – a few female – prancing in formation across a stone canvas, dogs dancing at their feet. While some may have been hunting parties accompanied by hounds, evidence shows that war dogs were known in Irish society and did accompany soldiers to battle. That said, even without that knowledge, some of the stones – such as Aberlemno II, which shows the Battle of Nechtansmere – depict historically acknowledged battles. The close ties between the Picts and the Irish – who were and are famously warlike – enforces the theory that the Picts, like the Amazons and Scythians, employed horses in combat. The appearance of specific horse breeds on the standing stones, some of which were known to and used by the steppe tribes as well as the Picts, also endorses this theory.    

    Does any of this prove that the Picts descended either racially or culturally from the steppe tribes or tradition? No. But however circumstantial, the evidence is beginning to – you should excuse the expression – mount…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ACHILLES AND PENTHESILIA: NECROPHILIA, OR SACRED MARRIAGE?

Image
  By ArchaiOptix - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88625666 Rage. The great bard, Homer, employed wrath as the driving force behind the events of his  Iliad , including the deaths of his leading man, Achilles – the warrior-hero of the Greeks – and the Amazon Wonder Woman, Penthesilea. For, had the warrior woman not first killed one of her own, she would not have been compelled to find redemption in battle against the Greeks. Perhaps, she would instead have died somewhere on her native steppes, unremembered. Such a death – our loss, as well as that of Penthesilea and her people – would have been sad, indeed. Her name would have then been forever lost to time and anonymity. That ancient name conveyed some connotation of sadness:  penthos  meant “sorrow” in Ancient Greek. The second syllable of the warrior queen’s name is not so easy to decipher. Maybe, it came from the Latin verb for “silence”:  sileo . Or perhaps it was some Scythian derivative of
Read more

POSEIDON AND DEMETER: HAPPY COUPLE, OR VIOLATOR AND VICTIM?

Image
By Alvesgaspar - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43569142 Although the above sculpture depicts the rape of Demeter’s beloved daughter, Persephone, or Proserpina, by Hades, God of the Underworld, in the myths of the ancient world there was another, earlier rape: that of the earth goddess, Demeter, herself. In Demeter’s case, the rapist was the god of earthquakes, water, and horses, as well as the Underworld: Poseidon. I chose to use Bernini’s  The Rape of Proserpine  as the illustration of this post because I felt it vividly depicted the shock and horror of this ancient outrage. The two stories might have been a “twinning”, i.e.: Persephone’s later rape by Hades may just possibly have been a retelling of the original violation of Demeter by Poseidon. Here’s the initial story:   When Demeter was wandering in search of her daughter [Persephone], she was followed, it is said, by Poseidon, who lusted after her. So, she turned, the story runs, into a m
Read more