Bridle sets with plaques in the form of fish from Sara burial mound № 4 in the eastern Orenburg region

Abstract

The article focuses on bridle sets decorated with the flat metal plaques in the form of fish found in the Sara inlet burial mound № 4. The author describes all the grave goods including bridle sets and a quiver with arrows and a sword. The author considers all known analogies of such burial mounds in Ak-Bulak, Akoba II and Perevolochan. In all these cases bridle sets are lying in the graves together with quivers. All fish-like plaques are cut out of mirrors. The plaques are smooth except the one from the Sara burial which has a fine engraving showing anatomic features of a fish-a mouth, an eye, a gillslit, middle line and fins. Analogies of these decoration are found on the gold lining of the wooden vessels from the Philipovka mound. Burials with bridle sets having fish-like plaques form a transitional group from the Sauromatian to the Early Prohorov era and date from the 5th to the 4th centuries BC.