REVIEW BY OLIVER CREIGHTON
This new, ambitious, elegantly produced volume showcases how archaeology is transforming our understanding of horses in the human past. Its purpose is twofold: to provide an introduction for those, particularly students, who have a general interest in equine archaeology; and to demonstrate the merits of integrated study within a field that draws not only on multiple strands of archaeological evidence, but also contributions from other disciplines, including history, art history, and classics.
As the editors’ introduction proclaims, the horse story is a human story, but so too is the narrative of human development one that features horses in a profound way. The manifold uses and roles that humans have found for horses makes them a species apart: they were variously venerated, valued, and exploited not only for food, husbandry, riding, and transport, but also for war, sport, and entertainment. The central achievement of the volume, which features 20 chapters involving 17 contributors (many of them early career scholars), is to map out the contours and intricacies of this varied human–horse/horse–human relationship on a global scale, from prehistory to the present. From little-known sites and equestrian artefacts through to consideration of world-famous material such as the famous Terracotta Army, the coverage is eclectic – it is not often that deconstruction of chivalric literature from the Middle Ages stands next to a consideration of palaeoproteomics – but it is to the editors’ immense credit that they have welded together a wide range of contributions to make a volume that is more than the sum of its component parts. That many contributors are themselves equestrians adds richness and lived experience to the narrative.
The ‘Methods’ section outlines the complementary contributions to horse archaeology of zooarchaeology in its varied forms, visual culture, and texts. In the second part (‘Horses Through Time’), contributors explore case studies including horses’ domestication in prehistory, ancient Egypt, Japan, the Avar Empire, India, and the Viking world. The third part (‘Working and Living with Horses’) adopts a thematic approach to different types of horse use, from their place in the modern-day heritage industry through to equestrian sports, veterinary medicine, horse consumption, horses in combat, and their uses by women.
