Maeotian Wheelshaped Cheek-pieces

The wheel-shaped cheek-pieces appeared and developed as a type among the Maeotians of the Kuban region. Cheek-pieces can be classified as either mobile or immobile based on how they are attached to the bits. Mobile ones were put on the bits through a hole in the centre of the cross-member. The end of the bridle was bent into a loop. The immobile ones were rigidly fixed on the ends of the bits, and the belt loop was welded separately. Methods of connecting wheel spikes with the wheel rim are distinguished: joint, girth, welding of the rim from above or below on the ends of the cross, and attaching with clinchers. If the spikes were attached to the rim, no rowel points were present. Mobile wheel-shaped cheek-pieces of the 1st century BC predated the immobile ones, and in the 1st century AD, both existed in parallel. The latest complex of the middle of the 3rd century AD with immobile wheel-shaped cheek-pieces coincides with the final stage of the last phase of the existence of the Maeotian culture

Bent molecular geometry · Loop (graph theory · Phase (matter · Welding