Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD) have discovered a large cemetery for Roman cavalry horses during housing development works in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Germany, including the remains of an entire horse in a burial site, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
"The horsemen were responsible for controlling their section of the border," said Sarah Roth, the archaeologist in charge at the State Office for Monument Preservation in the Stuttgart Regional Council, according to Smithsonian Magazine. She noted that the cavalry unit likely consisted of nearly 500 riders and at least 700 horses, with losses needing constant replacement.
The excavation in Bad Cannstatt revealed the skeletal remains of more than 100 horses from a Roman cavalry unit known as an Ala, active in what is now southwest Germany during the second century CE. Radiocarbon dating confirmed the skeletons were from this period, and experts say the remains are just under 2,000 years old.
"Based on the archaeological and historical knowledge of the Roman castra at Bad Cannstatt, the horses can be assigned to the cavalry unit that was stationed from approximately CE 100 to 150," Roth explained. "Finding such a large horse cemetery from Roman times is very rare," she told Live Science. She added, "We hadn't expected to find so many horses still preserved in the ground. This was truly a surprise!"
The Roman cavalry unit at Bad Cannstatt patrolled the border of the Roman Empire from about CE 100 to 150 and was stationed at one of the region's most important Roman military sites established in CE 90 to secure a strategic river crossing and safeguard regional trade routes. The horses were buried roughly a quarter of a mile away from the cavalry fort and one-eighth of a mile away from civilian residences.
LAD also stated, "The site was likely marked above ground. Despite a sometimes dense arrangement, there were few overlaps of the pits." Archaeologists suspect Roman soldiers marked the location of each grave, as they were packed closely together yet had very little overlap. According to the LAD, "The carcasses were usually dragged individually into shallow pits, where they were buried lying on their side with legs extended or bent."
"Rather, the animals buried here either died of illness, injury, or other reasons during the Ala's presence in Bad Cannstatt," Roth said. "The horses do not all appear to have died at the same time in a major event such as a battle or epidemic," she added. Alternatively, it's possible some horses "were no longer able to fulfill their role as military horses," Roth noted.
One horse burial stood out to the archaeologists. The equine was buried with two jugs and a small oil lamp nestled in the crook of one of its front legs, suggesting a close bond with its owner. "Here we see a particularly close bond of the owner to his horse. Even after about 1,800 years, the grief over the death of this one animal is still evident," Roth explained. Grave goods such as the jugs and lamp are typically found in Roman-era burials for humans, making their presence "unusual" among horse bones, as noted by Roth. Of the approximately 100 horses examined, only one had received grave goods, indicating that this burial was an exception rather than the rule.
The site also yielded the body of an adult man buried among the horses. The Roman-era man was buried on his stomach and without grave goods, indicating he likely was an outsider who wasn't held in high esteem. "Its position suggests that the man was 'disposed of' here rather than given a regular burial," Roth said, as a regular cemetery for people was only about 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) away.
Archaeologists believe the horse cemetery is larger than the area they've already excavated, extending beyond the boundaries of the construction site. The exact extent of the cemetery in Stuttgart is not known, and the horses were buried at a distance of 200 meters from the nearest settlement.
In the future, the researchers hope to study the remains to determine the horses' sex, age, size, cause of death, and overall health. Future studies may also reveal the horses' ancestral roots, where they were bred, and if they were well kept and fed. "As horses were the fastest means of transport on land at the time, they were in particular used in urgent emergencies," Roth said.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
