Hi Jacqui and everyone,
As part of my PhD I looked at temporal changes in horse representation
through later prehistory in southern England using different measures
of how ?rare? or ?common? horses were in groups of assemblages. This
indicated horses progressively becoming more common from the Early
Bronze Age, when horse keeping appears to be ?rare?, through an
increase in the Middle Bronze Age, to the Late Bronze Age where the
horse seems to be ?common? and be in widespread use. My interpretation
was also that it was probably in the Late Bronze Age that the horse
had a critical impact on society, i.e. bringing greatest change to
society, rather than the period before this when its relative rarity
may have limited the impact of its use. I also briefly looked at some
of the possible correlates for these changes in horse representation,
such as the rise in defended settlements. I am hoping to write-up the
quantification study sometime soon for publication, but if the author
of the query would like to contact me off-list I can send her or him
some of this work.
Some of Richard Osgood?s work on Bronze Age warfare in Britain would
probably also be relevant to them. He discusses various factors such
as the role of the horse in raiding over greater distances.
I also looked at evidence for the use of horses from their skeletal
remains - some results from Iron Age material are published in Bendrey
2007a and 2007b. From the Bronze Age, I have identified bitting damage
on horse P2s from Runnymede using the methodology set out in Bendrey
2007a (which differs to that published by Anthony and Brown). I have
also found some earlier evidence, but the dates of these finds are
currently being verified through C14 dating.
I agree with the previous emails on this subject concerning the use of
the horses for riding. What I would say in relation to the comments in
the query, is that correlating the use of horses with recovered
horsegear is likely to result in a chronology that is out-of-sequence
with the true use of horses for transport, given the range of
perishable organic materials that would not have survived. A similar
situation may also be seen in the Iron Age, where horse riding is less
visible in the archaeological record than horse-use for pulling
carts/chariots ? metal vehicle fittings are more archaeologically
visible than organic saddles or bareback riding.
Cheers,
Robin
Bendrey R 2007a, New methods for the identification of evidence for
bitting on horse remains from archaeological sites. Journal of
Archaeological Science 34: 1036-1050.
Bendrey R 2007b, Work- and age-related changes in an Iron Age horse
skeleton from Danebury hillfort, Hampshire. Archaeofauna 16: 73-84.
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