Mary Aiken Littauer (February 11, 1912 – December 7, 2005) was a leading authority on ancient domesticated

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

s and related materials (Brownrigg 2006). Using her knowledge of contemporary horsemanship, she wrote works on ridden horses and

chariots A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000 ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. She was born Mary Aiken Graver in Pittsburgh and raised in New York. She was married to Captain Vladimir S. Littauer, an equestrian whose training and teaching methods are still in use today. Her family chose the International Museum of the Horse at the

Kentucky Horse Park Kentucky Horse Park is a working horse farm, international equestrian competition venue, and an educational theme park opened in 1978 in Lexington, Kentucky. It is located off Kentucky State Highway 1973 (Iron Works Pike) and Interstate 75, at Exi ...

as the recipient of her vast library and her own works on ancient horses. The museum - a Smithsonian affiliate - has hired an archivist to create an inventory of the hundreds of books.

References

Brownrigg, Gail, 2006, "Obituary - Mary Aiken Littauer," ''International Council for Archaeozoology Newsletter '', 7(1):15. Equestrian News release, 2007, "World's Most Extensive Private Equine Library Donated to the Kentucky Horse Park," ' American Horse Publications ' http://www.equestrianmag.com/news/equine-library-kentucky-horse-park-4-07.html

Selected bibliography

* 1979 ''Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East'', with Joost Crouwel. * 1985 ''Chariots and Related Equipment from the Tomb of Tutankhamen'', with Joost Crouwel.

External links

International Herald Tribune obituary

1912 births 2005 deaths Writers from Pittsburgh Equestrian history Historians from Pennsylvania {{US-historian-stub