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

Abstract

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

The Uffington White Horse geoglyph as sun-horse

“…Based upon linguistic/philological evidence, Sykes (2014: 83–84) has recently suggested that the movement from India-Iran to northern and western Europe of this package of mythology and attendant ritual practices went in tandem with the diffusion of domestic horses, as components of a ‘common horse culture’. This would fit well with current dates for the introduction of domesticated horses into northern Europe, which, while still equivocal, probably occurred at some point in the first or second quarter of the second millennium BC (Bendrey et al 2013). While such cosmological schemes are well represented within the corpus of later Nordic prehistoric imagery, the same is not true within the British Isles, perhaps because of the rarity of representational imagery.…”

Getting into the Groove: Exploring the Relationship between Grooved Ware and Developed Passage Tombs in Ireland c. 3000–2700 cal bc

“…9). Mixed within these layers were Middle Neolithic Impressed Ware, Beakers, and other materials dating to as late as the Iron Age (Cleary 1983, 58–117; Carlin 2012; Bendrey et al 2013; Ó Néill 2013), as well as transverse arrowheads and almost 2000 sherds from an estimated 67 Grooved Ware vessels, which were primarily concentrated within five areas in front of the tomb’s entrance (Cleary 1983, 84–100, 115; Roche 1995).…”

Radiocarbon Dates from the Loughcrew Cairn h Bone Slips

“…Slightly more removed from the Loughcrew complex, horse remains found at Newgrange, which were originally thought to be Chalcolithic deposits, have returned dates of AD 67–220 and AD 104–21 (Late Iron Age) (Bendrey et al , 3). Fifteen kilometres to the south‐east, on the Hill of Tara, first to fourth century AD deposits have also been found at the quadrivallate enclosure to the north‐east of the Neolithic passage tomb Duma na nGiall (Newman , 97).…”

“…The incorporation of Ireland into these discussions has been mostly peripheral, and has related primarily to the reuse of Tara, Navan Fort and Newgrange (Bendrey et al ; Bradley ; Hingley ; Mallory ). Though Loughcrew ranks as one of the four largest Irish passage tomb cemeteries on the island, along with the Boyne Valley, Carrowkeel and Carrowmore, comparatively little has been written on its intriguing history, with the exception of Shee‐Twohig's work on its megalithic tomb art and the surrounding prehistoric rock carvings (Cooney , 743; Shee‐Twohig , 208–9; , 23; ).…”