The oldest saddle in the world? It comes from China, thanks to the latest archaeological discovery in the north-west of the country. The artefact can be dated between 700 and 400 BC. The saddle, found in the Yangahai cemetery, has been preserved for almost 2,700 years, in the heart of a region characterised by a flat arid desert. It belonged to a woman, probably a high-ranking horsewoman, who was found in the tomb wearing a leather coat, wool trousers and leather boots.
The world’s oldest saddle
The leather saddle is made of two cowhide cushions, stuffed with straw and deer and camel hair. Archaeologists found it at the buttocks of the deceased, as if she were sitting on it. The radiocarbon dating is between 724 and 396 BC. This finding, therefore, predates the saddles that belonged to the Scythians, a civilisation of nomadic and warlike horsemen of the Eurasian steppe in trade relations with the ancient Greeks and Romans. The earliest Scythian saddles date back to the 5th to 3rd century BC and have been found in the Altai Mountains region of Russian Siberia and eastern Kazakhstan. “This places the Yanghai saddle at the beginning of the history of saddle production,” Patrick Wertmann, an archaeologist at the University of Zurich, told WordsSideKick.com.
The tombs of Yanghai
The Yanghai tombs are thought to belong to people from the Subeixi culture. The people occupied the Turpan basin around 3,000 years ago and had social relations with the Scythians. They evidently also gave women a place in activities such as warfare, although the Subeixi horsemen were probably shepherds who tended herds of animals. A similar saddle was found in a nearby cemetery. Scholars speculate that, given the particular microclimate of the area, it is possible to find other saddles in a good state of preservation, which is rare when it comes to artefacts made of organic matter such as leather.
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