rider’s sandals. There was also a pair of copper alloy spurs, semi-circular
in shape, with a short, beak-like point. The range of items is reminiscent
of the harness paraphernalia described by Xenophon.^114
The associated material has proved to be more informative about the
style and symbolism of the burial of royal horses than the heavily burned
bones themselves have proven to be for our knowledge of cavalry or
parade horses. In addition, however, Antikas refers to analyses of other
horses’skeletons, recovered from a variety of contexts at Akanthos,
Polymelos, Pydna, Therme, and Lagyna, all of which provide very useful
information about their socio-economic functions.^115 Of the 9,052
human graves recorded in the cemetery at Akanthos, only twelve con-
tained horses, although these would be considered highly unusual in
other parts of classical and Hellenistic Greece, where horse burials are
rare.^116 Bearing in mind the rather undemonstrative character of the
human burials at Akanthos, the presence of the horse skeletons suggests
close association with the social élites of the north Aegean, something
that would not be apparent from personal grave goods, the form of
human burials, or other features of the city’s social life. The Therme
horse was placed at right angles to the burial of a Macedonian‘hoplite’,
who was interred with two swords. The horse’s head was laid on a stone
on the western periphery of the man’s cist tomb. Notwithstanding the
dead man’s other accoutrements, this was probably a cavalry horse,
fifteen years old, with a standing height of 135–140 cm, which would
indicate a relatively large specimen for this period. The skeleton of a
horse recently excavated in a tomb of broadly the same period near
Sedlare, in the Momchilgrad district of eastern Rhodope, was 146 cm
in height, one of the tallest recorded skeletons from the region.^117 The
Polymelos horse was found at a settlement site on the borders of Emathia
(^114) Antikas 2006, 206–7 andfigs 10–11; he refers to similar spurs found at Dodona and
at Pella; Anderson 1961, 64–139 for Greek equipment in general.
(^115) Akanthos (1994–97); Therme (1994); Polymelos (1996–99), Pydna (1996–2001):
Antikas 2006, 205,figs 4–5 (Tomb 180, 2 horses);fig. 6: Therme horse;fig 7: Polymelos
horse;fig. 8: Lagyna horses.
(^116) Xen.Hell.6.1.3 (Thessalian Polydamas of Pharsalos), 7.1.11, 3.2.5 (Thracian horse
racing); Archibald 2000, 212 n.1 with further refs. Note the exceptional mid sixth-century
bctomb at H. Giorgios, Larissa, which contained eight wheel hubs and the metallic parts
belonging to a vehicle or cart. The actual (?mule) carts had evidently been burned on a pyre
prior to burial of the wheels (Tziafalias 1978, 156–81). Cf. also two 4-wheeled carts with
their yoked horses found at Doxipara, near Alexandroupolis, Thrace (Triandaphyllos and
Terzopoulou 2006).
(^117) L. Ninov,AOR2009 [2010] 271–3, reporting on faunal evidence from recent
developer-funded projects, includes a brief description of the Sedlare horse, investigated
by G. Nehrizov.
186 Thelongue duréein the north Aegean