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A query sent to me - all answers welcome..... I have suggested the query be addressed to Robin Bendry - but if anyone else can contribute that would be great. Question I am interested in this subject in relation to the appearance of large ditched enclosures in the later Bronze Age. No-one appears to have considered whether there might be any link between the appearance of horses, particularly the riding of horses, and the development of new types of palisaded and ditched enclosures. My reading of various site reports suggests that horses are present on a few Middle Bronze Age sites (Deverel-Rimbury 1500-1250 cal BC), but become more common on Late Bronze Age ones (1250-800 cal BC), and are fairly standard by the Early Iron Age, albeit still in small numbers. I wondered whether the Middle Bronze Age examples were still too few to have affected society, but whether by the late Bronze Age they might have become common enough to affect how warfare was conducted? The view on horse riding is linked to horsegear, of which the earliest metal examples I know of in Britain are in the Isleham hoard, later Wilburton complex, ie around 1000 BC, and bone examples are known at Runnymede and Petters a little later. This may be rather late in comparison to the date for the emergence of enclosures such as Rams Hill, although most of the examples are later, Taplow being perhaps 1100, Little Wittenham around 1000, etc. Another objection that has been raised is the small size of the horses of the later Bronze Age, which I have heard described as too small to ride, and certainly too small for warfare. Has anyone pulled together the evidence for horses on Bronze Age sites in Britain, and is there much evidence on the stature of these animals? Do you have a view on the evidence for the use of horses in the Bronze Age, and do you know of any further evidence for whether, and if so, when, they were first ridden? I would be grateful for any comments or new evidence. Thanks Jacqui Mulville (PhD) Zooarch Listowner, Senior Lecturer in Bioarchaeology, School of History and Archaeology Cardiff University Humanities Building Colum Drive Cardiff CF10 3EU http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/hisar/people/archaeology/jm1/ Tel: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4247 Fax: + 44 (0) 29 2087 4929