For the iconography of women riders seating side saddled on a horse found in Colchian collective gravesfound in Colchian collective graves

Abstract

In the study of the Colchian culture’s relations with the outside world during the 8th–7th centuries BC, particular importance is attached to the bronze figurines of female riders discovered in collective Colchian burials. Special interest in this group of objects was sparked by the discovery on the island of Samos, at the Heraion, of a figurine depicting a woman seated on horseback holding a child in her hand, which iconographically directly replicates the female rider figure found at Mukhurcha.

This group of artifacts has attracted considerable attention among researchers of both Colchian and Greek archaeological material.