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Arms and Armour from the Exhibit "Horse and Rider" at the GIM (State Historical Museum) - part I Reconstruction by M. Gorelik Provided by Alexander Lemeshko Edited, translated by Norman J. Finkelshteyn At the recently opened temporary exhibit "Horse and Rider," at the GIM (Gosudarstveniy Istoricheskiy Musei - State Historical Museum, Moscow), there are some wonderful objects, earlier published very badly and infrequently. Among them, fragments of an VIII-IX century armour. These are shown in the display "Southern Steppes of Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages" (Stepi uga vostochnoi Evropi v epohu Srednevekovya) section 5. According to Sergei Kainov, some of these were published by the dig's author Sahanev (IAK no.11) as well as the armour historian Arendt. Alas, the photos are small and do not convey the full details of the armour. The burial was found in the Borisovsky gravesite, not far from Gelendjik. All objects had been buried in a large cauldron. They consist of the following: Helmet fragments Two Leg Defenses A Maile Hauberk Sabre Spear Point Sahanev and Arendt also mention an Arm Defense (Norman: I believe that one of the objects Mr. Lemeshko considers a Shoulder Defense is that Arm Defense) Click small photos for large versions. Exhibit as a Whole view 1 Arm (or second Shoulder) Defense view 2 The shoulder Defense is of thin plate (less than 1 mm). The top and side are edged with a riveted aplique border. front view side view Shoulder Defense Norman: Alas for dark museum photos. I vaguely remember (from another bad photo) that the limb defenses were riveted together as a combination of frame and filler plates (much like, for lack of better analogy, a "Spangenhelm"). I hope that Alex will have the opportunity to make sketches to clarify the very intersting and distinctive structure of these Leg Defenses. Leg Defense Fragment 1 Leg Defense Fragment 2

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