Main Body
12
Patrick Patterson and Brian Parkinson
INTRODUCTION
DISCOVERY
In 522 BCE, Achaemenid King Cambyses II (r.520-522 BCE) fatally stabbed himself while leaping onto his horse. To us this may seem unlikely, but Cambyses had to place his hands on the high back of the horse and jump hard to mount. His dagger, hanging from a belt or cuirass, likely got tangled in the process between his body or leg and stuck him deeply enough to kill. The reason for this messy and dangerous way of mounting a horse was the lack of stirrups, which would not be invented for another 600 years after Cambyses II’s unfortunate accident.
The stirrup, particularly those made of metal and shaped in a kind of loop that encompassed the entire width of the foot, was a vital invention. Stirrups are a safe way to get into the saddle and provide riders with tremendous stability and power while riding. Having a pair of stirrups connected to the saddle of a horse allows the rider to stand while mounted, which makes everything from swinging a sword to shooting a bow to shouting orders more effective. Stirrups provide the stability to put force behind a lance or a spear, to work with the horse while jumping, and to turn and otherwise maneuver sharply in small spaces.
All these things create clear advantages in war, and that was probably the first use for stirrups. They also make hunting more effective. But stirrups are not just for riding with violent purposes. They provide advantages for any kind of riding, and today, few people ride without them.
The stirrup may have changed the world. Historian Lynn White has shown convincingly that the adoption of the stirrup in Europe between 732 and 755 CE was far more than just a technological change. By making mounted warriors stable and effective, stirrups opened the door to the development of heavy cavalry – armored, mounted fighters wielding braced long lances. These were so effective against foot soldiers that they became a crucial part of Europe’s armies in the Middle Ages. White argues that their importance and high cost created the possibility of the development of Europe’s social classes and feudal landholding system. In this sense, the stirrup helped reorganize social relationships.
Stirrups are thought to have been invented within the horse cultures of Central Asia. Although we commonly associate the successes of Central Asian steppe peoples in warfare (the Xiongnu, the Turks and the Mongols) with a special level of brutality, in fact, they were no more brutal than fighters from societies based on cities and towns supported by agriculture. What set Central Asian societies apart was their knack for innovation. The stirrup is likely one of those innovations.
Although the earliest extant metal stirrups found so far have been dated to the 320s CE and were found in China, artistic representations of stirrups have been found in Central Asia as early as 100 C.E. It is still not clear, though, how well-developed the stirrups may have b