Horse head armours in İstanbul Military Museum

In this study; it is aimed to investigate the 38 horse head armours which are displayed at Istanbul Military Museum from the form, material, technique, adornment and compozition points of view.In the Catalog section it is mentioned about the filling cards of 38 horse head armours of which two belong to 15. century, one 15-16.century, 12 16.century, 2 late 16.century, 20 between late 16.century and 17.century and one 17.century. And the interpretations are made based on these information.Because the examined samples in the Catalog section are made of mine; the techniques applied on armours are the same as the techniques such as swaging, riveting, solder, relief, scraping, sanding, golden gilding and tombac, seen on mines.Herbal adornments are heavily exist on horse head armours? adornments and it is also seen writings in addition to geometric and symbolic adornments. In herbal adornments; rumi, palmet, stylize and rosette flowers, hatayi, tulip, clove, hyacinth, narcissus, spring branches and cypress motives were used. In geometric adornments; herringbone, zigzag, zencirek, nodal, water way, şemse, China cloud and some symbolic motives were used.A total of seven composition types were determined from two compositions and their sub types based on the adornment programs. These adornments and compositions were compared to the metallic works and the architectural and other art works which are exist in the same and the other museums.These obtained findings are explained briefly in the result.