Scientific American Supplement No. 819, September 12, 1891Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement No. 819, September 12, 1891
Various
Science -- Periodicals
Shoes of this kind, after the old Roman style, with a very strong rim
bent upward, likely proved very comfortable for the purpose of
protection, in the Sierras of the Pyrenean peninsula, where they seem
to have been in use for a long time; for in the twelfth century we
find in Spain the whole form of the Roman shoe, only fastened by nails
(Figs. 4 and 5). At first the shoe seems to have been cut off at the
heel end, but as apparently after being on for some time, bruises were
noticed, the shoe was made longer at the heel, and this part was
turned up so as to prevent them from becoming loose too soon, as both
the Spanish horseshoes of this period show, and the acquisition was
even later transferred to England (Fig. 7).
[Illustration: FIG. 5.]
The shoe containing a groove (Fig. 6), which we shall see later, made
its appearance in Germany in the fifteenth century. From this time,
according to our present knowledge, ceases the period of the Roman
horseshoe. Its influence, however, lasted a great deal longer, and has
even remained until our present day.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
Its successor became partly the Arabo-Turkomanic and partly the
Southwest European horseshoe.
For the descendants of the Numidian light cavalry, the Roman and old
Spanish horseshoe was evidently too heavy for their sandy, roadless
deserts, so they made it thinner and omitted the bent-up rim, because
it prevented the quick movement of the horse. For the protection of
the nail heads the outer margin of the shoe was staved, so as to form
a small rim on the outer surface of the shoe, thus preventing the nail
heads from being worn and the shoe lost too soon.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.]
A horseshoe of that kind is shown by Fig. 8, which was used in North
Africa in the twelfth century, and became the model for all forms of
horseshoes of the Mahometan tribes. Even now quite similar shoes (Fig.
9) are made south and east from the Caspian Sea, at the Amu-Darja, in
Samarkand, etc., which were probably introduced under Tamerlane, the
conqueror of nearly the whole of Asia Minor in the fourteenth century.
The so-called "Sarmatische" (Sarmatian) horseshoe (Figs. 10 and 11),
of South Russia, shows in its form, at the same time, traces of the
last named shoe, however, greatly influenced by the Mongolian shoe,
the "Goldenen Horde," which at the turn of the sixteenth to the
seventeenth century played havoc at the Volga and the Aral. The
unusual width of the toe, and especially the lightness of the iron,
reminds us of the Turkomanic horseshoe, whereas, on the contrary, the
large bean-shaped holes, as well as the calks, were furnished through
Mongolian influence.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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