About One of the Types of Scandinavian Bridle Sets of the 10th Century from the Territory of Ancient Rus′ and Scandinavia
This article presents finds concerned with a distinctive type of bridle sets which was spread over the territories of Scandinavia and Ancient Rus' in the 10th century. These bridle sets included bits and peculiar cheek-pieces cast as a ingle piece from a copper alloy. Each ring in the cheek-pieces was divided by a three-blade relief central element, the terminals of which were shaped as zoomorphic masks. At the two ends of the arc of the rings there were figured protrusions in the form of turned heads of horses or dragons. In addition, on the cheek-pieces, there were four trapeziform clips fixing the straps of the bridle. Both the cheek-pieces themselves and the clips for straps were gilded and ornamented in one of the two Scandinavian styles — Borre or Jellinge. Now, 11 finds of such sets are known in Scandinavia and 23 from the area of Ancient Rus' (Tabl. 1, 2).

Especially noteworthy is the most important group of elements in the composition of the bridle sets — the trapezoid fixations for the leathern straps. In the present article, a classification and special terms (guides of the bridle straps) are proposed for this group. Depending on the features of their construction, the guides can be subdivided into two classes (Tabl. 3). The first class (T1) includes the guides consisting of an iron base in the form of a trapezoid plate with a loop and an ornamented plate from a copper alloy either with holes for rivets or with pins cast as one piece with the plate (Fig. 3, 1, 2). The straps of the bridle were fixed between the iron base and the plate of non-ferrous metal by means of rivets. Most commonly, there were four holes for the rivets located at the corners of the trapeze (Fig. 3, 3, 6– 8, 10–12). However, also specimens with three holes occur (two — at the corners of the base of the trapeze and one in the center, slightly below the zoomorphic mask) (Fig. 3, 4, 5, 9). In the first class, two subspecies can be distinguished according to the shape of the loop. This group now comprises 14 specimens.

The second class (T2) (6 specimens) comprises massive ornamented plates cast from non-ferrous metal together with the loops for their attachment to ring-shaped cheek-pieces (Fig. 4, 1, 2). The iron plate on the back is an auxiliary element: it can serve as an additional fixation or be absent altogether. The straps were fixed between the iron auxiliary plate and the main plate of non-ferrous metal by means of pins or rivets.

This class also can be subdivided into two subclasses. On the plates of the first type (T2S1), the loop was turned backwards immediately at the upper part of the trapezoid plate. We can reliably attribute five finds to that type (Fig. 4, 3–5, 6, 7). The second type (T2S2) is distinguished by a loop which was intended not only for attachment to the cheek-piece but also continued into a fixation for the strap and was provided with a hole for riveting (Fig. 4, 8).

In the classification proposed, the ornamental pattern serves as a separate indication which allows us to distinguish sub-types within the classes and types. Thus according to the composition of the design and its elements, all the finds from Scandinavia and Ancient Rus' can be subdivided into 8 groups.

The problem of dating of the finds in question remains the most complicated issue. In order to obtain more exact dates, one must consider firstly the Scandinavian and Ancient-Russian closed associations from which the known parallels come (Tabl. 4). Their cautious analysis suggests the dates of these objects to be close to the middle or second half of the 10th century. It is of importance that objects of this type were used in Scandinavia and Ancient Rus' simultaneously i.e. we cannot trace any chronological gap between their appearance in these two territories.