Hello!

I turn to you in help for materials and publications on viking age/early medieval horsegear.
First of all I am studying archeology as an undergraduate 2nd year.

I am going to write a proseminar research text on viking age/early medieval horsegear in Estonia.
The time limits are years ca 800-1230. Until the beginning of 13th during the Baltic crusade there was pre-medieval age here, since it begins with the first written mentioning of this area here by Henry Of Livonia in his chronicle.

I am going to mostly focus on spurs and stirrups - since the ones made of iron are avaivable here in archeological record.

I need all the books, articles and other research papers etc. you know on Baltic/Scandinavian /Russian/ Westearn European areas on that period that even slightly handle the topic. Typologies, pictures, drawings -
Everything is good - better if they were in english or have english summary.
The best would be if you would have an pfd/file/link ie. online version of it.
The libraries here may not have all books.

Please - post them here or send me a PM.

Thank you!

Regars,
Juhan Kari

I had to think a while before I decided to actually write this reply.
As someone who has a degree in archaeology I simply have to to quiet my conscience and get you back on the right track for your career.
Please take it as a friendly advice, I don't mean to insult you in any way.

From the way you wrote your question it is absolutely clear that you haven't read a single line about your subject.
It also becomes painfully clear that you hope too find other people here to do all your basic research for you.
The aim of a proseminar is to teach you to do exactly that yourself. Also I doubt that your professor will be thrilled if he checks this subject on google after you handed in your text and finds this thread.

I mean seriously, questions like that:

J. Kari wrote:

I need all the books, articles and other research papers etc. you know on Baltic/Scandinavian /Russian/ Westearn European areas on that period that even slightly handle the topic.

If you would at least ask for a specific detail...
Widespread shotgun questions like that will get you nowhere and should be beneath any serious student at every university.

Also, if you are serious about your research and since your subject covers vikings, be prepared to read danish books on the subject.
Even if you don't speak the language, you'll simply have to pick up a dictionary and work your way trough it.

I've done so many times in my career and it will probably never end.

First of all I thank you for your advice.
I must reply to you on some points aswell:

I have read every article and general review of period that is known to me from Estonian authors.

The reason I am writing the work itself is that actually noone hasnt wrote about this topic more deeply and hasn`t analyzed the findings troughoutley in Estonia.

(Estonian archeology just last year celebrated it`s 90th birthday so not everything hasnt been worked trough)

And the reason I posted here for help is to get "westearn" literature for drawing parallels with the local situation and it actually was suggested to me by my professor who is my tutor on this subject to search for it from the internet and ask around.

Also - yes I admit that it was a widespead and maybe discursive question, but the fact or hope to get help from a forum of weapon fanatics is good enough for me as a start and I am being affable and asking here.
As specific things I already asked - typologie on spurs and stirrups. Maybe someone has done a review on ones portaied on Bayeux tapestry or found from Western Europe? I have checked the one from Kirpitšnikov, the book gave out in St.Peresburg 1973.
I just need any kind of material that is relevant to the subject even with one sentence to work it trough and see what have people concluded.

I hope it gives you better understanding and you can help me out.

All the best,

Juhan Kari

Juhan,

Have you tried using Google Scholar? It's a great way to build up a bibliography, especially as far as books in English are concerned.

You enter a title and then you see which works quote that title, and then you can just repeat this operation until you have explored quite much of the literature through cross-citations.

Google Books is also a tremendous tool for finding relevant books.

If you already know all that... Sorry. But such tools are probably more useful, and more versatile, than asking on forums, although you could of course get lucky here.

Best,

Simon

If you put it like that, it becomes a different matter of course.

Vikings and early medieval times are not my strong point, but maybe I can help a tiny bit.

Some of the wood carvings on the carriage of the Oseberg ship show riders, also the tapestry of the same find.
Speaking of tapestries, the one from Bayeux is always one of the first things to look at again, but you surely knew that. :)

I remember some heavily decorated horse-gear from a visit to the Moesgard Museum.
You could try contacting them, and other museums, for pictures and data of early medieval horse-gear. Most museums are glad to help out, but it usually takes some time for them to answer since most museums are understaffed.

Any books I could name are in German, would these be of any use to you?

This may be a bit late period but you won't find much better, from The Museum of London "The Medieval Horse and its Equipment, c.1150-1450 (Medieval Finds from Excavations in London)" ISBN-13: 978-1843830979

can be obtained either from the museum or Amazon
Phil