HORSE – HUMANE RELATIONSHIP AMONG SLAVS OF THE EARLY MEDIEVAL POLAND READ FROM ZOOARCHAEOLOGY
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-11-02

The horse’s activity, like of other domestic mammals under human control, can be assessed by a set of biological features readable on sub-fossil bone deposits and skeletons. So far, the value of the horse for the Slavs living in the basin of the Vistula and the Oder was assessed through the commonly known natural predispositions of the species for mobility in space. This was considered a decisive factor of its usefulness to social elites in their military events and creation of social rituals and religion ceremonies. However this was mainly interpreted on the basis of limited historical information. Bones of horses collected systematically over decades in settlements, castles, cemeteries and ceremonial places, which were used by Slavs, seem to be a good basis for undertaking studies on the relationship between these animals and their users. This time it will be a study based on biological features (sex ratio, age distribution, pathological alternations, size of bone and tooth) found in horse collections retrieved from about 130 sites. Osteological, osteometric, pathological, isotopic and genetic analysis will be used for this purpose. They will be carried out under the project titled Horse in Poland in the Early Piasts and Internal Fragmentation. The paper will present methodology and empirical data testing the basic thesis of the project. In it, the horse’s functional traits, including the capacity for mobility, are treated as the basis for assessing the mammal’s functional traits by Slavs in various cultural events, including trade, wars, transport, sacred ceremonies and hunting of wild or feral horses.

The project (2017/25/B/HS3/01248) is financed by the National Science Centre, Poland.


Author(s): Makowiecki, Daniel (Laboratory for Natural Environment Reconstruction, Inst of Archaeology) - Chudziak, Wojciech (Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun) - Krajcarz, Maciej (Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) - Krajcarz, Magdalena (Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun; Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) - Wiejacka, Martyna - Wiejacki, Jan (Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun) - Janeczek, Maciej (Department of Animal Physiology and Biostructure, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences) - Skrzatek, Mateusz (Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun)