Dear all
In a recent (very fun) visit to the Royal Armory in Leeds I had a chat
with one of the re-enactors about the size of horses used in their
painfully authentic jousts, and he said they had basically taken armor
in the armory and fit it to different breeds until they got a match (on
large but not huge horses) Cannot now remember the helpful person's name
but I am sure they would be interesting in sharing information on this.
Best
Tom
Thomas H. McGovern, Professor
Coordinator North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO)
Director Hunter Bioarchaeology Laboratory
Anthropology Department, Hunter College CUNY
695 Park Ave, NYC 10021 USA
fax: 212 772 5423
phone: 212 772 5410
email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cluny Johnstone
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 5:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] Medieval warhorses
Hi Jo,
When I did my BSc dissertation looking at horses sizes I included the
medieval period. The sizes ranged from around 11 hands to just over 16
hands
with the mean at 13 hands 2 inches. Whlist this was not a particularly
extensive study, I think it shows there were some larger animals around
in
the medieval period but the majority were smaller.
I suspect that we haven't found many because they were high status
animals
that would probably not have been buried with food refuse. I suspect
also
many would have died 'in service' so wouldn't be found at settlements.
(Anyone fancy excavating one of the medieval battlefields?!). Therefore
a
discrepancy between literary and archaeological evidence is likely
although
I suggest that where the sources talk about large horses, they are only
speaking in terms of size relative to the 'normal' medieval horse/pony
of
around 13-14 hands.
The idea of studying the armour is one that has also occurred to me
although
I haven't got round to it yet! It might well be more informative than
the
limited number of bones available. The Royal Armouries at Leeds would
probably be a good place to start.
Hope that helps a little
Cluny
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jo Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2003 12:05 PM
Subject: [ZOOARCH] Medieval warhorses
> I'm looking at medieval horses for an MA project, and was wondering if
anyone
> knew of any zooarchaeological evidence for large warhorses during this
period.
> The sources all refer to the breeding of very large horses to carry
armoured
> warriors, but in all of the animal bone reports I've looked at, the
horse
> remains seem to have belonged to animals that were no more than New
Forest
Pony
> size. Can anyone help, or is there just a disagreement between the
textual
and
> archaeological sources here?
>
> Many Thanks
> Jo Wilson
>
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