Dear Ian,
Dale Serjeantson found horse bones in mid Neolithic levels from Runnymede.
However, the bones as far as I know have not been radiocarbondated yet,
therefore Dale has sensibly been cautious about them. She is a zooarcher so
might provide more info if this is available. Neolithic horse bones from
Durrington Walls are later. I would not rule out the possibility of Mesolithic
survivals. For decades we did not know that there were horses in the Neolithic
of Europe but they have now gradually been turning up in lots of places. Should
we find one day Neolithic horses in the early Neo of Britain, we would have
continuity from the Mesolithic. It is a possibility that we should not rule
out. Species that have become rare in the wild may turn up even more rarely in
archaeological sites, as prehistoric communities might have considered them not
worth the effort - a point that was raised by Katie Boyle in a recent article.
Cheers,
Umberto
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Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
"No co-operation in military matters should be an
essential moral principle for all true scientists"
Albert Einstein
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