Anders Alexandra – Lőrinczy Gábor szerk.: A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Archaeologica 12. (Szeged, 2011)
László BARTOSIEWICZ: Ex Oriente equus... A Brief History of Horses between the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Ages
Ex Oriente eqiuis. and physical makeup, stereotypes of "equestrian nomads" in written sources have thus been recycled and homogenized throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, largely because their fearsome cavalry tactics were similar. Differences in horse representation, however, may have complex reasons. As Germanic and Asiatic Barbarians overwhelmed the Roman Empire during the 5 t h c. AD, mounted warriors spearheaded military incursions in keeping with the tactical necessities of conquering hostile areas. Therefore, most information on horses originates from the burials of warriors consequently nothing is known of other domestic animals or even ordinary work horses. The archaeological record is as selectively biased toward the military aspect of these cultures as are many of the written sources. However, massive population movements during the Migration Period could not have taken place without horses. THE DEVELOPMENT OF "BREEDS " In general, one may hypothesize that as the northward diffusion of metallurgy reached the southern distribution zone of wild horses, horseback riding gained in importance as a military innovation. Along with increasing social complexity horse also seems to have become an important indicator of status (CHERLENOK 2006, 175). The essence of horsemanship is mobility. Although preferences for certain forms and colors must have existed, it is difficult to talk about breeds in this situation. Traded, stolen as war booty or given as royal gifts, horses of all domesticates must have stood the best chance for intensive, long distance mixing. This may account for the remarkably uniform, ca. 135 cm withers height values, probably also dictated by practical necessity. This stature is small by modern standards, and it falls within the size range of the wild ancestor, the Asiatic Przewalski horse, given as 124-145 cm by BÖKÖNYI (2008,46). Trying to appraise the temperament of horses is a rather abstract task on the basis of bones alone. Although BÖKÖNYI (1974, 294) mentions the large remains of a "cold blooded" horse at the site of Tiszalök-Rázom in Eastern Hungary (10 t h-13 t h c. Árpád Period), it seems that even armoured knights rode relatively small horses (Fig. 1, 5) and the typical Clydesdale-like, large cold-blooded horses are a product of modern, 17 t h— 18 t h c. breeding for draught work and subsequently meat exploitation. Horse bone finds are difficult to compare between cultures due to different ritual treatments of these animals. E. g. differences between the skull formation of Avar and Hungarian horses are partly caused by a greater contribution of young colts and mares to the latter archaeological sample (BARTOSIEWICZ 2006), a fact that may bias phenotypic differences hypothetically attributable to breeding. According to recent DNA studies by PRISKIN ET AL. (2010), however, mitochondrial haplotypes pointed to the different origins of these two groups of horses. The Avar sequences analysed were genetically heterogeneous, but showed close relations to modern eastern horses from the Tuva and Vyatskaya regions of Russia. Likewise heterogeneous early Hungarian horses were more closely related to the modern Akhal Teke breed of Turkmenistan and Fjord ponies, possibly indicative of the genetic influx of animals acquired through long distance raids (PRISKIN ET AL. 2010,217). COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF HORSE KEEPING All domestic animals play three closely intertwined roles in culture: they are resources, companions and symbols. The latter two functions are of special significance in the case of horse. Compared to sheep and goat, horses reproduce slowly and represent a lot of meat. They are also more valuable as mounts than a source of food. During their long history as domesticates, horses not only accelerated the movement of people, goods and information, but by expressing status they have provided a formidable medium for self-representation. Horses have therefore been slaughtered by most steppe peoples only on festive occasions or for ritual purposes (TOMKA 1997, 89). Already at Dereivka, part of a head and foot deposit was found dated to about 4200-3700 BC. In a grave in the Elista steppes, south of the lower Volga River, excavators found the skulls of 40 horses deposited in a Catacomb-culture grave dated to about 131
