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The five wagons are the most interesting find from the excavation.
They were placed along with their draft animals in shallow pits cut
into the natural rock. Each wagon is individual in both decoration
and mechanical details. The axles, the iron tyres, the naves, as well
as the functional and decorative parts of all the wagons survive. In two
cases traces of wood impressions were also preserved. The wagons may be
divided into two groups. In the first group, which is situated in the west
part of the tumulus very close to the cremation burial B, are two wagons,
(B and C). There was a grave containing two additional horses (horse burial A)
beside it. The three wagons of the second group (wagons A, D, E) were found
around the south-eastern perimeter of the tumulus. The wagons in this group
had been dismantled, the wheels and axles removed and the horses unyoked.
Impressions of wood were not present at all, but the metal finds and the horse
skeletons were preserved in excellent condition. A burial with three additional
horses (horse burial B) was found between the wagon burials A and D. Cremation
burial D was located very close to this group of wagons.
The wagons found at Mikri Doxipara-Zoni were the vehicles in which the dead
were conveyed to the burial area. Even though the role of wagons in burial
ritual is as well known from written sources as from iconography, the excavation
at Mikri Doxipara-Zoni offers, for the first time in the Greek world, a complete
collection of four-wheeled wagons. The practice of burying the deceased with
their wagons and horses occurs in many areas of the ancient world, as much in
Europe as in Asia. The equipment, the wagons and the horses, all functioned in
these cases as symbols of wealth and status for their owners. In Greece to date,
only parts of wagons have been found in tombs. The horse, a strong and proud
animal, has from the time of its domestication been a stalwart companion for man
in battle, transportation, agricultural work, hunting and in horse racing. The
natural charm of the horse and the practical assistance which it brought to man,
secured it a firm position in the mythology, the religion and the art of the
Greco-Roman world. The Romans, especially, bred horses in large numbers since they
faced increased military and transport needs and because they particularly loved
horse races. Horse burials have been found in many areas of the Greco-Roman world.
The massive horses, whiter than snow, of the mythical King of Thrace, Rhesos, are
known from Homer (Iliad X 437), and are mentioned by later writers. Homer called the
Thracians ‘horse herding’ (Iliad XII 4; XIV 227), while Sophocles (frag 523) and
Euripides (Hecabe 428) characterised them as horse loving . According to Hesiod
(Works and Days 507) Thrace was horse breeding . Today wild horses still live in
Thrace. The mares of the King of the Bistonians, Diomedes, who pulled
apart the companion of Heracles, Abderos, were born in Thrace (Pindar,
Odes 2:1). The horse was portrayed on the coins of the Greek cites of the
Thracian coast as well as on the coins of the Thracian dynasts. Horses
accompanied the hero-horseman, one of the most loved gods of the Roman
period in the region of Thrace. It is well known that Thrace supplied the
Roman army as much with riders as with horses.
The arrangement of the horse burials beside their owners has been found
twice before in the excavations of burial mounds of the Imperial period
in the region of northern Evros.
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