106 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



tribal badges, or even totems. The wolf-brand used to mark 



the horses of the Veneti was probably the badge or perhaps 



totem of the clan which owned them. 



-u Though the Thracians were using oxen for draught (Fig. 46) 



in the sixth century B.C., and though 

 by that time the riding of horses 

 must have been very familiar to 

 them from their Greek neighbours 

 on the south and the Scythians on 

 the east, yet it seems certain that 

 two-horse chariots continued to be 

 used by certain peoples in Thrace 



down to late times. On the hills 

 FIG. 46. Thracian coin showing 



X . C art which surround the valley of the 



Kritchma, the last affluent of the 



Maritza (ancient Hebrus) before the latter reaches Philippopolis, 

 there are many large tumuli, which have been partially explored 

 during the last fifty years 1 . In a pit close to the most remark- 

 able of these, called Doukhova Moghila (" The Barrow of the 

 Spirit"), in 1851 the brothers Shkorpil found the remains of a 

 chariot and a pair of horses. Ten years later a peasant found 

 the remains of another chariot and pair of horses close to the 

 same spot. MM. Gueroff and Berti commenced working at this 

 spot, and at a point nearer to the tumulus they found a body in 

 an upright position, the skull broken, and with an arrow-head 

 still sticking in one of the ribs. Horses and chariots had been 

 placed in trenches running east and west and had then been 

 covered with earth. They found various objects in iron, bronze 

 ornaments for the bridles, iron bits with bronze attachment, and 

 bronze statuettes for ornamenting the body of the car, consisting 

 of horses, bears sitting-up, a Poseidon, and two plaques bearing 

 in low-relief horses' heads incrusted with silver. In 1877-8 

 the Russians quartered at Philippopolis excavated at the same 

 spot and were said to have found a chariot as well as a silver 

 disc, a silver cup, and a three-legged table. In 1888 sixteen 

 pits were opened and according to MM. Shkorpil each grave 



1 Georges Seure, "Voyage en Thrace," Bull, de Correspondence Hellenique, 

 Vol. xxv. (1901), pp. 156 sqq., Figs. 1123. 



