EAA2021: Abstract

There is a Polish proverb saying that: “everybody can see how a horse looks like”. Written by Benedykt Chmielowski the author in the 17th century encyclopaedia, it indicates commonness of the animal in the Polish Kingdom. At the same time, it confirms a long tradition of the horse-human relationship among the West Slavic tribes occupying the lands of Vistula and Odra basins form the 6th-7th centuries. According to the historical records there is no doubt that horse was significant in the warfare and religion. It was so precious that only the highest elites were its owners. On the other hand, this special character of horse-Slavs relationship is reported by very limited historical records. On the contrary, zooarchaeology permanently collecting horse remains, produces biological and, at the same time, independent data in archaeological and social contexts. Thus, this creates an obvious chance to verify the current historical picture on significance of the animal in the crucial historical stage of Poland during transition from tribal community to Christian European state (6th-13th century). Osteological, biometric, pathological, isotopic and genetic data are just being analysed for this purpose under the project titled ‘Horse in Poland in the Early Piasts and Internal Fragmentation. An interdisciplinary Study'*. In the paper, the authors will report on chosen issues which are possible to be discussed thanks to the project. Among them are verification and complementation of the historical knowledge, and in particular the significance of horse in beliefs, rituals and social structure, its external features, biological conditions, sex ratio and size in height at the withers.

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

zooarchaeology of horse, Western Slavs, Early Medieval, archaeology, history, Poland

 Abstract (PDF)

Daniel Makowiecki¹

Wojciech Chudziak¹
Maciej Krajcarz²
Maciej Janeczek³
Martyna Wiejacka¹
Danijela Popovic⁴