Archaeological research at the subsoil burial ground “Aleika 3” was carried out during the field seasons 2005–2008. The excavations east of the Romanovo settlement of Zelenogradsky District were carried out by the Sambia Expedition led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The archaeologists studied 554 burial sites. They dated them back from Roman to late pagan times.
The 2007 field season was rich in finds made of organic materials: wood and leather. A wooden saddle with shaped bows decorated with carvings and polychrome painting was found in a burial at a site with cremated remains dated back to the late 11th — early 12th centuries.
The rider’s burial inventory in the upper tier was represented by a spearhead, a part of a whetstone made of gray shale, and fragments of two early pottery vessels. This complex was a traditional Prussian two-tier burial with a cremated rider in the upper part and burial of a horse in the lower part of the pit.
The best-preserved fragment of the wooden saddle is the rear saddlebow presented in the exhibition. It was decorated with painted images in three main colors: yellow, black and red. The inner side of the saddle’s rear bow depicted two horses opposite each other. The space above is bordered by large triangular prongs and may have symbolized the vault of heaven. An anthropomorphic figure was identified between the images of the horses.
The outer side of the saddle’s rear bow was covered with the painted images of three large solar symbols. The contours of all the images were originally made with a cutting tool, and only after that the painting was applied to the saddle. Most of the images were enhanced with a red line.
