Medieval horses buried in London had far-flung origins

[Pelican Press 0]

Medieval horses ******* in London had far-flung origins

International trade may have helped medieval elites acquire the best horses for jousting tournaments

PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy

Horses owned by the elite in medieval England were probably imported from continental Europe, possibly travelling hundreds of kilometres, according to tooth analysis of horses unearthed at a ********* in London.

In the 1990s, commercial excavators stumbled across an unusually large horse burial site in central London. Subsequent digs at the site, now known as the Elverton Street *********, have uncovered 70 whole or partial horse ********. Some of the graves have been dated to between 1425 and 1517, but the ********* may have been used over a wider *******.

“It’s medieval Britain’s only real, good example of a horse *********,” says

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at the University of Exeter in the ***. “We usually find [horse ********] scattered across archaeological sites in very small numbers.”

To learn more about the origin and lives of these medieval horses, Creighton and his colleagues collected and analysed the molars from 15 horses ******* at the site.

Plants from different parts of the world contain varying levels of carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopes – atoms with different numbers of neutrons. When an animal eats these plants, these isotopes accumulate in their bones and teeth over time. So, by analysing the chemical signatures of the horses’ teeth, the team could pinpoint where they probably came from.

This revealed that at least seven came from abroad, possibly from Scandinavia or the western Alps, says

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, also at the University of Exeter.

“These were also some of the largest medieval horses yet discovered in the ***,” says Pryor, which suggests that English elites may have sought out the best horses from Europe.

The arrangement of their teeth seemed to suggest the use of a special mouthpiece typically reserved for horses groomed for battle or jousting tournaments.

“There’s a good chance the horses could have come from the jousting arena at Westminster Palace, which was just a kilometre away,” says Creighton.

“The nature of horse teeth – with very high crowns that develop over quite a long time – gives them huge potential for studies using isotopes to track movements over the course of an individual horse’s life,” says

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

at the University of York, ***. “But this is the first paper I’ve seen that really seems to make full use of that potential.”

Topics:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

archaeology,history
#Medieval #horses #******* #London #farflung #origins

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up