The Origins of Domestic Horses in North-west Europe: new Direct Dates on the Horses of Newgrange,...

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The Origins of Domestic Horses in Northwest Europe: new Direct Dates on the Horses of Newgrange, Ireland

Robin Bendrey, Nick Thorpe, Alan Outram and Louise H. van WijngaardenBakker

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society / FirstView Article / May 2013, pp 1 13DOI: 10.1017/ppr.2013.3, Published online: 03 May 2013

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0079497X13000030

How to cite this article:Robin Bendrey, Nick Thorpe, Alan Outram and Louise H. van WijngaardenBakker The Origins of Domestic Horses in Northwest Europe: new Direct Dates on the Horses of Newgrange, Ireland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Available on CJO 2013 doi:10.1017/ppr.2013.3

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Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 79, 2013, pp. 1–13 & The Prehistoric Societydoi:10.1017/ppr.2013.3

The Origins of Domestic Horses in North-west Europe: newDirect Dates on the Horses of Newgrange, Ireland

By ROBIN BENDREY1, NICK THORPE2, ALAN OUTRAM3 and LOUISE H. VAN WIJNGAARDEN-BAKKER4

This paper presents direct radiocarbon measurements on horse skeletal remains from the Beaker periodsettlement at the site of Newgrange in Ireland, finds which have previously been argued as the earliest domestichorses in Ireland. The new determinations date the horse remains to the Irish Iron Age and shed important newlight on the introduction of domestic horses to Ireland and to north-west Europe more generally. Although thenew dates undermine the idea for the introduction of horses as part of a ‘Beaker package’, the early use of horseis not well defined archaeologically or chronologically and the earliest use of domestic horses in Ireland andBritain is still uncertain. This paper also identifies evidence for heavy bitting damage on the Iron AgeNewgrange horse teeth and presents some possible parallels between the evidence from Newgrange and that atTara, which has been previously linked with kingship rituals.

Keywords: domestic horse, Ireland, Newgrange, Beaker period, Iron Age, radiocarbon dating

The domestication of the horse brought into humanuse an animal that had the potential to revolutionisethe way in which people could travel, control, andtrade resources, and fight each other (Levine 1996;Anthony 2007; Outram et al. 2009; Bendrey 2010).Identifying when and how horses were first used inparticular regions is thus of considerable significancefor our understanding of social and economic changesin later prehistory.

This paper presents results from ongoing researchaimed at investigating the origins and development ofhorse husbandry and use in the prehistoric past, inparticular exploring the evidence for the use of horsesin transportation (eg, Bendrey 2007b; 2007c; Outramet al. 2009). The sizeable animal bone assemblagefrom the Beaker period settlement at the site ofNewgrange had been published as producing the

earliest evidence for domestic horses in Ireland(O’Kelly et al. 1983; van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1986).Our research identified evidence for the use of metalbits on two horse teeth from the Newgrange assem-blage. We directly dated the two teeth and found thatthey were later than their expected date according tothe published stratigraphic narrative. This paperpresents a discussion of these new direct dates on theNewgrange horses in the context of evidence for earlydomestic horses from Ireland and Britain, and a briefassessment of the implications of the new evidence forIron Age activity at the site.

EUROPEAN DOMESTIC HORSE ORIGINS, BELL BEAKERSAND NEWGRANGE

There is still considerable uncertainty over the earlyhistory of the domestic horse in Europe. Whilst thereis clear and direct evidence for the use of domestichorses in the Bronze Age cultures of the 2ndmillennium BC, evidence before this tends to bedisparate, inconsistent, and equivocal (Bendrey2012). Following the end of the Pleistocene, althoughEuropean wild horse populations decline significantlyin numbers with the changing environmental condi-tions of the earlier Holocene, they do appear tocontinue in small localised populations in some areas

1Department of Archaeology, University of Reading,

Whiteknights Box 226, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK2Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester,

Winchester SO22 4NR, UK3Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter,

EX4 4QE, UK4Amsterdam Archaeological Center, University of

Amsterdam, Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT, Amsterdam,The NetherlandsEmail: [email protected]

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of Europe (Sommer et al. 2011; Bendrey 2012). Inparticular, survival of wild horses in Iberia and south-east and eastern Europe, and their contribution tolocal domestic stock, is indicated by the high geneticdiversity of modern ‘traditional’ breeds from theseregions, while low diversity in the central Europeanbreeds suggest that the domestic horses in theseregions largely derive from animals imported fromelsewhere (Warmuth et al. 2011). Archaeozoologicalinterpretations tend to agree with this interpretationfrom the modern genetic data, in that local domes-tication is not normally invoked for central ornorthern Europe; horse husbandry is argued to havedispersed either from the steppe-zone of easternEurope (eg, Benecke 2006; Bokonyi 1978) or fromIberia as part of a Bell Beaker culture expansion (eg,Uerpmann 1990; 1995). The earliest strong evidencefor horse domestication – based on zooarchaeologicaland lipid residue analyses – comes from the mid-4thmillennium BC Eurasian steppe (Outram et al. 2009).Analyses of ancient DNA targeting nuclear genesresponsible for coat colour variation has furtherindicated the domestication of horses in the Eurasiansteppe region some time prior to 3000 BC (Ludwiget al. 2009). Whether the incorporation of Europeanwild horses into domestic lineages (Cieslak et al. 2010;Warmuth et al. 2011) includes further independentdomestication events outside the steppe (Uerpmann1990), or just the incorporation of local horses intoherds spread from elsewhere, is currently difficult todetermine. The events and processes involved in theorigins and diffusion of domestic horses in Europe arenot clear from the published data, and it is probablythe case that reductionist interpretations belie a farmore complex situation (Bendrey 2012).

One of the main contenders for the early diffusionof domestic horses through Europe is the Bell Beaker‘culture’ – in reality a set of practices and traditionsthat spread widely across Europe, in various forms,during the second quarter of the 3rd millennium BC

(van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974; 1975; 1986; Clutton-Brock & Burleigh 1991a; Sherratt 1997; Uerpmann1990; 1995; Albarella 1999; Blaise 2010, 267–70).This ‘culture’ has produced a range of indirectevidence for horse husbandry and its spread (eg,Bokonyi 1978; Uerpmann 1990; van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1975). The rapid spread of the Bell Beaker‘culture’ across much of Europe presents it as apossible contender as early users of domestic horsesand evidence for increasing stratification of society

and mobility at this time could be associated with theearly use of horses (Heyd 2007). Further, currentevidence identifies the earliest Bell Beakers as origi-nating on the Iberian Peninsula (ibid.), which links inwell with the evidence for the presence of horsepopulations here in the earlier Holocene (Liesau2005), possible domestication/introgression of localwild stock (Warmuth et al. 2011; Lira et al. 2010),and metrical evidence for changes in horse body sizewhich have been argued by Uerpmann (1990) asevidence for local domestication (although see discussionin Bendrey 2012).

The site of Newgrange in Ireland has beenimportant in the argument that the introduction ofthe horse, to north-west Europe at least, was as partof a ‘Beaker package’. There is no evidence for localdomestication of horses in Ireland, or indeed inBritain, and it is generally accepted that domestichorses were brought to these islands from mainlandEurope during the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age(van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974; 1986; Clutton-Brock& Burleigh 1991a; McCormick 2007a; 2007b;Bendrey 2010). In Ireland, there is very limitedevidence for wild horses in the fossil record, with asingle direct radiocarbon date pre-dating the lastglacial maximum on a horse scapula from Shandon,County Waterford (see Table 2 below). After this date,horses are thought to have become locally extinct inIreland due to glacial cover, not returning followingthe retreat of the ice sheets (McCormick 2007a;2007b). The next time horses appear in the archae-ological record in Ireland is ostensibly at the Beakerperiod settlement at Newgrange, County Meath(O’Kelly et al. 1983; Smyth 2009, 34–7; Stout 2002,33–8). A few published identifications of horse inmegalithic tombs in Ireland are likely to be secondaryintrusions or misidentifications (McCormick 2007a;2007b; McCormick & Murray 2007, 24). AtNewgrange, 151 horse bones and teeth were foundin an assemblage of over 12,000 identified bones incontexts dating to the third quarter of the 3rdmillennium BC by radiocarbon dates on associatedcharcoal (van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974; 1986; seealso Carlin & Bruck 2012).

NEW DIRECT RADIOCARBON DATES FROM NEWGRANGE

Two horse teeth from Newgrange were dated byaccelerator mass spectrometry at the Oxford Radio-carbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) and calibrated using

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THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY

OxCal 4.1.7 (Bronk Ramsey 2009) (Table 1). Thespecimen from context 22(11)/2 was dated to cal AD

67–220 (95.4% probability), and the specimen fromcontext 69–5 to 40 cal BC–cal AD 80 (91.5%) or cal AD

104–121 (3.9%) (Table 1). Both teeth therefore dateto the Irish Iron Age, and not the Beaker period.

It should be noted that collagen yield was lowfor the two teeth (7.4 mg and 4.3 mg), which is lowerthan the normal acceptable yield at the ORAU, due tothe small sample size (the teeth were sampled byconservators at the National Museum of Ireland andthe samples sent to ORAU for dating). However, allother analytical data normally routinely checked byORAU were within acceptable threshold limits(ORAU, pers. comm.). The carbon/nitrogen (C/N)ratios calculated for both specimens were 3.4 (Table 1),which falls within the range considered to beindicative of good collagen preservation (Ambrose1990). Further, the carbon isotope values derivedfrom the two teeth fit in with the general diachronicpattern identified by Stevens and Hedges (2004,979–80) for horse bone and tooth collagen valuesover the last c. 40,000 years in north-west Europe,which showed a fall in mean d13C values from220.4% in the Late Pleistocene to 222.1% in theLate Holocene. Nitrogen stable isotope values alsocompare well to the general pattern for Holocenehorse values for north-west Europe, where published(post-10,000 BP) d15N values range between c. 4%and c. 7% and have a mean of 6.5% (Stevens &Hedges 2004, 979 & fig. 2).

Although only two teeth have been dated, recent workre-interpreting the archaeology of Newgrange has bothadvanced new interpretations of the site as originallyproposed (O’Kelly et al. 1983) and re-interpreted thestratigraphic sequence at the site (Cooney 2006;Eriksen 2008; Mount 1994). It is acknowledged thatthe exact sequence of occupation at Newgrange isdifficult to determine, but it is clear that the area infront of the tomb entrance remained a focus ofactivity through the Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, andEarly Bronze Age (Smyth 2009, 35). However, it isalso the area around the entrance to the passage tomb

that has produced objects of Roman date. Theseobjects, including 25 coins, date from the 1st to thelate 4th century AD (Carson & O’Kelly 1977;O Floinn 2000, 26). Based on these finds of late IronAge/Roman coins and ornaments found in the vicinityof the Newgrange mound, particularly around theentrance, Newgrange has been argued to be a cult sitefor Roman Iron Age populations (O Floinn 2000).These finds have been variously interpreted as votiveofferings made by Roman visitors or traders, repa-triated Irish exiles or Irish warriors with access tohigh-status goods from the Roman world (ibid., 26).

These new direct dates for the horse finds fromNewgrange, in the first few centuries AD, havesignificant implications for our understanding of theintroduction of domestic horse to Ireland. The directdates on the two horses from Newgrange (Table 1)throw the Beaker period dates for all the Newgrangehorses into doubt. Further support for the later date ofthese finds comes from the strong evidence for one ofthe horses being used with a metal bit (see below).Indirect supporting information for a later date for theNewgrange horses as a whole also comes from thesmall physical size of the animals (van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974; 1986), as they are significantly smallerthan contemporary Beaker period horses from else-where in Europe (Uerpmann 1990; 1995). Indeed,this small size appears closer to the lower end of therange of Iron Age horses for elsewhere in Europethan to that of Bronze Age horses (eg, Arbogast et al.2002, 46).

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE DOMESTIC HORSE TOIRELAND AND BRITAIN

If the Newgrange horse finds are excluded, the earliestgood evidence for horse in Ireland dates to the LateBronze Age, at which point horse bones appearin a number of excavated assemblages (McCormick2007a). There is also a tassel-like ornament ofhorsehair, found in association with a hoard of LateBronze Age metal objects at Cromaghs, Co. Antrim(Coffey 1906; McCormick 2007a).

TABLE 1: RADIOCARBON DATES AND ISOTOPIC RESULTS FOR THE NEWGRANGE HORSE TEETH

Sample code Site Determination BP d13C (%) d15N (%) C/N

OxA-19887 context 69-5 1960 ± 30 222.73 6.92 3.4OxA-19886 context 22(11)/2 1880 ± 28 222.70 6.30 3.4

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R. Bendrey et al. THE ORIGINS OF DOMESTIC HORSES IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE

TABLE 2: COMPARISON OF THE NEW DIRECT RADIOCARBON DATES ON NEWGRANGE HORSE TEETH (IN BOLD) TO SELECTED DIRECT DATES ON

HORSE TEETH AND BONES FROM IRELAND AND BRITAIN, PLUS THE DATE FOR THE ‘SHESHADER THING’

Country Sample code Site BP determination Calibration (95.4%) range Reference

Ireland OxA-4244 Shandon Cave 27,630 ± 400 30,977–29,275 cal BC Hedges et al. 1997; Woodman et al. 1997

OxA-19887 Newgrange – context 69-5 1960 ± 30 40 cal BC–cal AD 121 –

OxA-19886 Newgrange – context 22(11)/2 1880 ± 28 cal AD 67–220 –

OxA-3707 Kesh Corran Cave Complex 1580 ± 55 cal AD 351–602 Hedges et al. 1997; Woodman et al. 1997

OxA-3700 Bat Cave 2nd Stratum 1675 ± 60 cal AD 240–535 Woodman et al. 1997

Britain OxA-111 Kendrick’s Cave 10000 ± 200 10437–8928 cal BC Clutton-Brock & Burleigh 1991a

OxA-1788 Uxbridge 10270 ± 100 10566–9670 cal BC Hedges et al. 1990

OxA-1902 Uxbridge 10010 ± 120 10031–9277 cal BC Hedges et al. 1990

BM-2350 Seamer Carr 9790 ± 180 10007–8723 cal BC Clutton-Brock & Burleigh 1991a

BM-1619 Darent river gravels 9770 ± 80 9443–8843 cal BC Clutton-Brock & Burleigh 1991a

OxA-8168 Cavall’s Cave, Wye Valley 7440 ± 70 6445–6106 cal BC Bronk Ramsey et al. 2002

OxA-6320 Durrington Walls 3045 ± 50 1423–1131 cal BC Kaagan 2000

OxA-1313 Etton 3040 ± 80 1490–1049 cal BC Hedges et al. 1996

OxA-1314 Etton 3050 ± 80 1492–1055 cal BC Hedges et al. 1996

OxA-6654 Fussell’s Lodge 2940 ± 50 1367–1002 cal BC Kaagan 2000

OxA-16284 Whitehawk, East Sussex 2929 ± 30 1270–1010 cal BC Whittle et al. 2011

OxA-3536 ‘The Sheshader Thing’, Lewis* 2860 ± 85 1292–833 cal BC A. Sheridan, pers. comm.

OxA-3428 Runnymede Bridge 2790 ± 70 1129–806 cal BC Hedges et al. 1993

SUERC-40339 Skara Brae 2060 ± 30 170 cal BC–cal AD 4 A. Sheridan, pers. comm.

OxA-1635 Grimes Graves- 1820 ± 70 cal AD 55–384 Higham et al. 2007

SUERC-40094 Northton, Beaker II Midden-

-

540 ± 30 cal AD 1316–1437 A. Sheridan, pers. comm.

SUERC-41065 Northton, Beaker II Midden-

-

815 ± 35 cal AD 1164–1272 A. Sheridan, pers. comm.

Notes: Calibration was carried out using OxCal 4.1.7 (Bronk Ramsey 2009) and atmospheric data are from (Reimer et al. 2009)* 5 The date for the ‘Sheshader Thing’ is on cattle hair rather than horsehair, although absolute contemporaneity of the two is not in doubt (see descriptionin text); -5 this horse skull was originally dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age by a conventional radiocarbon determination (Clutton-Brock &Burleigh 1991b); --5 these two dates were derived from the same tooth: SUERC-40094 on enamel and SUERC-41065 on dentine. The Scottish UniversitiesEnvironmental Research Centre (SUERC), where these radiocarbon determinations were made, are investigating the discrepancy between enamel anddentine results on teeth; it is likely that the dentine date is the more accurate of the two (A. Sheridan, pers. comm.). The Skara Brae date in the table is alsofrom enamel

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Comparison of the Irish data with the chronologicalevidence from Britain provides a fruitful perspective(Table 2). The return of horses to Britain following thelast glacial maximum is well attested – at a time whenBritain is still a contiguous part of the Europeanlandmass – and direct dates indicate the presence ofwild horses into the Mesolithic (Burleigh et al. 1991;Clutton-Brock & Burleigh 1991a; Table 2). Thequestion of whether there was survival of horsepopulations in Britain through the Mesolithic andNeolithic, or whether horses become locally extinct,only to be re-introduced later as a domestic animal byhuman agency, has been much debated (eg, Grigson1966; Kaagan 2000; Bendrey 2010). The latest directdate for horse remains from the earlier Holocene is ona horse incisor from Cavall’s Cave, Wye Valley,Herefordshire (a site located near the southern partof the modern border between England and Wales),dating to the later 7th millennium BC (Table 2). It isaround the same time as this – c. 6500 BC – thatBritain was separated from the continent by risingsea-levels (Preece 1995; Bradley 2007, 8–11).

Although horse is known from a number ofNeolithic sites from Britain (eg, Grigson 1966), directdating of these finds has tended to return later dates(Kaagan 2000). A number of recently directly datedfinds further add to this picture. A horse metapodialfrom the Early Neolithic site of Whitehawk cause-wayed enclosure in East Sussex, southern England(Russell & Rudling 1996), has been directly dated tothe later 2nd millennium BC (Table 2; Whittle et al.2011, 219). A stratigraphically Beaker period horsetooth from the site of Northton on the Isle of Harris,Scotland (Finlay 2006), has been directly dated to themedieval period (Table 2; Alison Sheridan, pers.comm.). A horse tooth bead from the Neolithic siteof Skara Brae, Scotland (Clarke 1976), has been datedto the Iron Age (Table 2; Alison Sheridan, pers.comm.). Finally, a find that has been considered as anearly domestic horse is the skull from Grimes Graves,eastern England, which was originally dated to theLate Neolithic–Early Bronze Age by a conventionalradiocarbon determination (Clutton-Brock & Burleigh1991b). However, a recent AMS determination on thisfind (Higham et al. 2007) places it in the Roman period(Table 2). Following the re-dating of the Grimes Gravesskull, there is now a gap in the record of direct datesbetween the later 7th millennium and the later 2ndmillennium BC (Table 2). For Scotland, a date for horsehas also been obtained from a sample of cattle hair

comprising part of an organic object found on the Isle ofLewis, Scotland. This object, known as ‘the SheshaderThing’, is formed of matted cattle hair with twistedwoollen cords and plaited horsehair cords attached to it,and has been directly dated to the Late Bronze Age(Alison Sheridan, pers. comm.; Table 2). This thenmarks out the Middle to later Bronze Age as producingthe earliest directly dated evidence for the re-introduc-tion of the horse to Britain. However, there are horseremains that appear, on stratigraphic grounds, to beearlier than this (eg, Olsen 1994). Radiocarbon datingof early horse finds has tended to focus on material fromNeolithic contexts (eg, Clutton-Brock & Burleigh1991a; Armour-Chelu 1998; Kaagan 2000; Bendrey2008) (and, as discussed above, to date no find has beenconfirmed as being of Neolithic date); as such, a tighterchronology confirming the presence of horse earlier inthe British Bronze Age has not been established.

Synthetic surveys of archaeological bone assem-blages can go some way to exploring this issue. Itwould seem that in its early period of use, finds ofhorse are few and far between. The very rarity of thehorse creates problems for quantifying changes in thelevel of its use. Conventional techniques of calculatingthe percentage of horse present in an assemblagelimits analysis to a few large assemblages – such asEarly Bronze Age West Row Fen (Olsen 1994) andMiddle Bronze Age Grimes Graves (Legge 1992) – ashorse is absent from most others. However, employ-ing a method for quantifying how ‘rare’ or ‘common’an animal is in groups of contemporary assemblages,Bendrey (2007a) was able to explore changes in horserepresentation through time. The method uses therelationship that exists between the number of species(or taxa) in an excavated assemblage and theassemblage size – the larger the assemblage, the moretaxa are present (Grayson 1984) – and is based on theprinciple that a ‘rare’ animal is likely to appear inlarge assemblages and not in small ones, whereas amore ‘common’ animal will appear in relativelysmaller assemblages (Lyman 1995). The method wasapplied to data from collated zooarchaeologicalassemblages from six counties of southern England.Results showed the horse progressively becomingmore common from the Early Bronze Age, whenhorse keeping appears to be ‘rare’, through anincrease in the Middle Bronze Age, to the Late BronzeAge when the horse is in all but the smallestassemblages (a level of presence that continuesthrough the Iron Age) (Bendrey 2007a). This indicates

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that horse is an established part of the fauna by theLate Bronze Age, and can be suggested as havingwidespread use, including in warfare (Bendrey 2010;Thorpe 2006).

In McCormick’s (2007a) review of the evidence forthe horse in early Ireland, he presents data on thefrequency of horse bones in archaeozoological assem-blages from the Bronze Age to the medieval period. Inthe collated data for the Bronze Age (which consti-tutes assemblages of over 300 bone fragments), theonly assemblage ostensibly from the Early BronzeAge (or Chalcolithic) is that from Newgrange; theother four assemblages listed all date to the LateBronze Age (McCormick 2007a, table 3). We couldthus have the situation, as argued for Britain, thathorse has entered widespread use in Late Bronze AgeIreland, but that its apparent absence in the earlierBronze Age or Chalcolithic of Ireland (if the New-grange evidence is excluded) could be linked to thelow number of large archaeozoological assemblages.We would thus have the classic archaeologicalevidence impasse: are we seeing absence of evidenceor evidence of absence?

IRON AGE HORSE USE AT NEWGRANGE

As outlined above, in the context of wider ongoingresearch into the origins and development of horsehusbandry and use, we examined the horse remainsexcavated from the site of Newgrange for evidence oftransport use: specifically traces left by the use of abit. The principle behind bitting studies is to look for‘damage’ to the skeletal tissues of the mouth thatshows that a horse was used (ridden or driven) with abit (Bendrey 2007b; 2011; Brown & Anthony 1998).

Five lower second premolars (P2) were presentamongst the 151 fragments of horse recorded fromthe site. Of the five teeth examined, two exhibitevidence for wear indicative of bitting (Table 3;Fig. 1). The specimens are from different animals asboth are right second premolars. In both specimens,wear on the anterior margin of each tooth has goneinto the dentine (ie, through the outer casing of hardenamel). This is good evidence for bit contact, as thiskind of wear was only seen in bitted animals in thecollections of modern known life history equidsstudied by Bendrey (2007b).

The specimen from context 60-5 exhibits anisolated area of dentine exposure (of a height of5.0 mm) on the anterior surface of the tooth (Fig. 1b).Viewed laterally, this area of wear can be seen to havea shallow, concave profile (Fig. 1a). This is similar to aform of wear recorded on modern domestic horseteeth in the course of examining comparative referencecollections in museums around Europe (eg, Fig. 2).

Dentine is exposed along the entire anterior side ofthe tooth from context 22(11)/2, with the enamelvisible in cross-section either side of the band ofdentine (Fig. 1d). When viewed laterally, it is clearthat a significant portion of the front part of the toothhas been lost (Fig. 1c). The anterior border has asmooth, curved profile, curving deeper into the toothat the base of the crown. In addition, this is the onlyP2 from Newgrange to present a bevel on the anteriorpart of the occlusal surface (Fig. 1d). Such bevelshave been argued as being caused by the tooth beingworn down when a horse chews the bit (Brown &Anthony 1998; Anthony 2007, 206–21). Although thereliability of this method has been questioned, asacknowledged by Anthony and Brown (2011), due to

TABLE 3: BITTING DAMAGE EVIDENCE ON THE HORSE LOWER SECOND PREMOLARS (P2) FROM NEWGRANGE

Measurements (mm) Bitting damage

Excavation reference Context Toothcrown

heightn1occlusallengthn2

occlusalbreadthn2

anteriorwear

bevel(mm)n3

Newgrange 1969–72 60–5 right P2 29.5 ,30n4 12.9 yes 2.2Newgrange 1969–72 60–1 left P2 30.7 ,29n4 ,13n4 – 1.6Newgrange West OGL N9 25-41–1 left P2 21.4 29.1 13.5 – 0.6Newgrange 1962–65 19(8)/1 right P2 16.0 31.3 13.5 – 1.1Newgrange 1962–65 22(11)/2 right P2 – – 13.2 yes yesn5

Notes: Table follows Bendrey (2007b); Brown & Anthony (1998)n1 5 crown height measurements were taken following Levine (1982); n2 5 occlusal length & breadth were taken followingPayne (1991; see his measurements OL & B3 respectively); n3 5 bevel measurements were taken following Brown &Anthony (1998); n4 5 not possible to take exact measurements due to damage; n5 5 it was not possible to measure the bevelaccurately using the methodology of Brown & Anthony (1998); see the lateral view of this tooth in Fig 3

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Fig. 1.The two Newgrange specimens which show evidence indicative of bitting damage: a right P2 from context 60–5 (a 1 b);

a right P2 from context 22(11)/2 (c 1 d). The arrows indicate wear into the anterior side of the tooth.

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the fact that a bevel on a P2 can result from abnormalocclusion with the upper second premolar (P2) (seeLevine et al. 2002), this specimen also exhibits theabsence of the ‘Greaves’ Effect’. The ‘Greaves’ Effect’is the phenomenon whereby under normal occlusalwear the softer dentine is worn down faster than theharder enamel, leaving raised enamel ridges on theocclusal surface; however, contact with a metal bitcauses both the enamel and dentine to wear down to asimilar level (Olsen 2006, 254–5). The latter state wasnoted on the chewing surface of the bevel of the P2

from context 22(11)/2.The identification of bitting damage on horses of

the first few centuries AD is not surprising; what isnotable is the extent of wear on the specimen from

context 22(11)/2. In this case, it is also likely to havebeen associated with significant damage to the gumand the mandibular bone at this site. This wouldpresumably have been caused by a combination offrequently and heavily applied rein tension, possiblyassociated with an abrasive mouthpiece. Certainly,such use of the bit seems excessive by modernstandards, and indeed also ancient practices whenthe wear pattern is compared to the much more subtletraces identified on Iron Age horses from Britain (seeBendrey 2007b, fig. 8; Bendrey 2007c, fig. 1). Thisindicates a manner and degree of use causing frequentand heavy contact between bit and tooth, and beginsto give us an insight into how these animals were usedand (ill-)treated.

Fig. 2.Modern 14 year old domestic horse left P2 showing pronounced concave ‘scoop’ worn into the anterior surface.

The dentine exposed on the front of the tooth is ,15 mm in height. (Specimen from the collections of theMusee Fragonard of the Ecole nationale veterinaire, Maison-Alfort, France).

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As discussed above, there is other evidence for IronAge activity at Newgrange. Based on the discovery ofLate Iron Age/Roman coins and ornaments found inthe vicinity of the Newgrange mound, particularlyaround the entrance, Newgrange has been argued as acult site for Roman Iron Age populations (O Floinn2000). The Newgrange horses may perhaps be placedalongside the evidence from the royal centre of Tara,where horse bones have been proposed as possiblybeing the residue of kingship rituals (McCormick2002; 2007a). Although the Tara horse bones are notdirectly dated, they appear to be of similar date to theNewgrange horses; these derive from the Raith na Rıgenclosure, but are possibly related to the occupationphase of the adjacent site of the Rath of the Synods(McCormick 2002; Roche 2002; Grogan 2008).Further, the community occupying the Rath of theSynods appears to have had strong contacts withRoman Britain (Grogan 2008, 90–1). Dowling (2006)has linked the deposition of both animal and humanremains in the Raith na Rıg enclosure ditch to theconcept of the ditch being a crucial liminal space. OnBritish Iron Age and Roman sites, evidence for thedeliberate deposition of horse is recognised as bothcomplete burials and disarticulated remains, and isidentified in a range of contexts (eg, King 2005;Bendrey et al. 2010; Morris 2011).

Tara has produced the highest incidence of horsebones from a site of the Irish Iron Age and alsoevidence for bit wear on a horse lower secondpremolar, indicating that it had been used for ridingor traction (McCormick 2002; 2007a). The enclosureditch at Tara which produced this material waslocated near to a Neolithic passage tomb, and mayhave been a site of Royal inauguration (ibid.). Indeed,McCormick has invoked a possible connectionbetween the horse bones and kingship rituals basedon the fact that the Tara horses had been eaten andthe 12th century AD description by Geraldus Cam-brensis of the slaughter and consumption of a horse aspart of an Irish kingship ritual (for further discussionof these rituals, see also Creighton 1995; Doherty2005). The heavy bitting damage on the specimenfrom context 22(11)/2 at Newgrange (Fig. 1) mayalso provide clues as to the nature of the Iron Ageactivity, in the light of horse races famous frommedieval Irish literature (Charles-Edwards 2000,137). It is notable that the Newgrange horses werealso probably eaten (van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974;1986), however fuller conclusions as to the nature of

use and deposition of the Newgrange horses mustawait further, more detailed analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

The direct dating of horse finds from putative Earlyand Middle Holocene contexts is essential foraccurately establishing the biogeographical range ofthe wild horse, and the chronology of the domestica-tion and diffusion of domestic horses (Bendrey 2012).The direct dates for the Newgrange horses presentedhere shed important new light on the introductionof domestic horses to Ireland and to north-westEurope more generally. The new dates undermine theargument for the introduction of horses to Ireland aspart of a ‘Beaker package’, with the earliest strongevidence for horses now dated to the Late Bronze Age.However, the early use of horse is not well definedarchaeologically or chronologically, in part due to thegeneral rarity of the domestic horse in the earliestperiod of its use, and it seems likely that the horse waspresent in Ireland before the Late Bronze Age, as it isin Britain. Further work is needed before we will beable to understand more fully the early diffusion anduse of domestic horses in Ireland and Britain, as isalso the case for the archaeological record elsewherein Europe.

This research has highlighted the need for furtherwork to re-examine in detail the contextual details ofthe horse finds from Newgrange. As briefly discussedabove, there has been some criticism of the publishedsite sequence, and a full assessment of the context anddating of all the horse remains at Newgrange isrequired. Although the full nature of the Iron Ageactivity at Newgrange is uncertain, the evidence forbitting damage (Fig. 1) presents a new context withwhich to view horse use at the site, which can beadded to the tantalising evidence for the possible roleof horses at Tara (McCormick 2002; 2007a; Doherty2005), to help inform future avenues of research.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the Universityof Winchester for funding this research, Professor RichardBradley and Dr Rebecca Oakes for help and advice,Dr Chiara Cavallo and the Universiteit van Amsterdamfor hospitality and facilitating the research in Amsterdam,Dr Andy Halpin and the National Museum of Irelandfor permission to date the teeth, Dr Alison Sheridan forproviding information on the new horse dates from SkaraBrae and Northton (dates funded by Historic Scotland)and for valuable comments on a previous version of thispaper, and the Musee Fragonard of the Ecole nationale

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veterinaire at Maison-Alfort, France, for permission topublish the photograph of a specimen from their collectionsof modern domestic horses.

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RESUME

Origines du cheval domestique dans le nord-ouest de l’Europe:nouvelles datations directes des chevaux deNewgrange, Irlande, de Robin Bendrey, Nick Thorpe, Alan Outram et Louise H van Wijngaarden-Bakker

Cet article discute les mesures au C14 directes effectuees sur les restes d’un squelette de cheval d’uneoccupation de la periode Beaker sur le site de Newgrange, en Irlande; trouvailles qui sont, a-t-on argumentedans le passe, les plus anciens chevaux domestiques d’Irlande. Les nouvelles determinations datent les restes dece cheval de l’age du fer irlandais et jettent une importante nouvelle lumiere sur l’introduction des chevauxdomestiques en Irlande et, plus generalement, dans l’Europe du Nord-ouest. Bien que les nouvelles datationssapent l’idee que l’introduction des chevaux faisait partie d’un ‘lot Beaker’, le debut de leur utilisation n’est pasbien defini archeologiquement, ni chronologiquement, et la plus ancienne utilisation des chevaux domestiquesen Irlande et en Grande-Bretagne reste aleatoire. Nous presentons des temoignages de gros degats de mors surles dents du cheval de l’age du fer de Newgrange et discutons de possibles paralleles entre les temoignages deNewgrange et ceux de Tara, associes dans le passe a des rituels royaux.

ZUSSAMENFASSUNG

Die Herkunft domestizierter Pferde in Nordwesteuropa: Neue direkte Daten zu den Pferden von Newgrange,Irland, von Robin Bendrey, Nick Thorpe, Alan Outram und Louise H. van Wijngaarden-Bakker

Dieser Beitrag diskutiert direkte Radiokarbonmessungen, die an Skelettfunden von becherzeitlichen Pferden ausNewgrange in Irland vorgenommen wurden; diese Funde wurden bisher als die altesten domestizierten Pferde inIrland angesehen. Die neuen Daten datieren die Pferdefunde in die irische Eisenzeit und werfen neues und

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aufschlussreiches Licht auf die Einfuhrung domestizierter Pferde nach Irland und generell nach Nordwesteuropa.Zwar stellen die neuen Daten die Vorstellung der Einfuhrung von Pferden als Teil des ,,Glockenbecherphanomens‘‘in Frage, jedoch ist die fruhe Nutzung von domestizierten Pferden weder archaologisch noch chronologischbesonders gut geklart, und ihre fruheste Nutzung in Irland und Großbritannien muss noch immer als unsichergelten. Hinweise auf starke Abnutzung der Zahne der eisenzeitlichen Pferde aus Newgrange wird in diesem Beitragebenso diskutiert wie mogliche Parallelen zwischen den Beobachtungen in Newgrange und solchen in Tara, diebisher mit Konigsritualen in Verbindung gebracht wurden.

RESUMEN

Los orıgenes de los caballos domesticos en el noroeste de Europa: nuevas dataciones directas sobre los caballosde Newgrange, Irlanda, por Robin Bendrey, Nick Thorpe, Alan Outram y Louise H van Wijngaarden-Bakker

Este artıculo discute las mediciones directas de radiocarbono realizadas sobre restos esqueleticos de caballos,procedentes del asentamiento de epoca campaniforme del yacimiento de Newgrange en Irlanda; hallazgos quepreviamente se han considerado los caballos domesticos mas antiguos de Irlanda. Las nuevas dataciones adscribenlos restos de caballo a la Edad del Hierro y arrojan nuevos datos sobre la introduccion de los caballos domesticos enIrlanda y, en general, en el noroeste de Europa. Aunque las nuevas dataciones debilitan la idea de la introduccion delos caballos como parte del ‘‘paquete campaniforme’’, su uso en momentos mas antiguos no esta bien definidoarqueologica o cronologicamente y la primera utilizacion de los caballos domesticos en Irlanda e Inglaterra es aunincierta. Se presentan evidencias de dano oseo causado por mordeduras en los dientes de caballo de la Edad delHierro de Newgrange y se discuten algunos posibles paralelismos entre las evidencias de Newgrange y las de Tara,que se han relacionado con ‘‘rituales de la realeza’’.

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