Langobardian Decorative Horse Tack

Migration Period. After 500 AD. Hauskirchen, Lower Austria.

The splended horse tack comes from a woman’s grave. It is regarded as a masterpiece of the Langobardian goldsmiths, and is unique in the settled region along the Danube.

QUEEN'S GRAVE?
The fittings in the woman’s grave in Hauskirchen in the northern Weinviertel are so rich that archeologists are tempted to see the 25-20 year-old woman as a member of the Langobardian royal house.
The grave was discovered in 1967. Like the other graves in this Langobardian cemetery, it had been looted long ago, probably in the first decade after the burial. The grave robbers tore the skeleton, whose bones were still held together by sinews, from the wooden burial chamber and leaned it against the wall of the shaft they had sunk. They probably shovelled the skull out of the grave – it is still missing. Fortunately for the archeologists, they missed the rich accessories by ten centimeters, and only destroyed the bones of the draft horse that had been buried with the woman. Besides the metal parts of the horse tack, there was also a large brass basin, decorated pottery vessels, food stores and an iron weaving sword.
The tack for two draft horses is made of fire-gilt bronze and silver, and decorated with red glass insets. Typical Germanic motifs, such as crow’s heads with sharply curved beaks, gnawing predators, and even a human mask, were deeply engraved into the metal. To make the design more visible, a black mass of silver, lead sulphide and copper (niello) was pressed into the engraving. Despite the splendor of the design, these articles are not merely decorative. The tack was actually used, as repairs and wear on many metal parts show.