On the Ritual Burial of Horses in Britain

Abstract

Despite the deep undercurrent of scepticism regarding the notion of ‘ritual’ among those members of the archaeological profession firm in the belief that the subject might best be pursued through the development of methodology appropriate to the ‘hard’ sciences, it is becoming increasingly clear that the repetitive nature and regularity of certain animal deposits in a variety of prehistoric contexts cannot merely be dismissed as the disposal of undesirable rubbish. Indeed, so compelling is the evidence that site supervisors and specialist interpreters of excavated material ignoring the possibility of at least some of these deposits having ritual associations, do so at their peril.

The unequivocal importance of animal ceremonies in the Neolithic, and, in all probability, earlier periods, is underlined by the numerous ‘ritual’ deposits of cattle bones in the ditches of both barrows and causewayed camps in southern England. The recent excavation of a Beaker period round barrow at Irthlingborough in Northamptonshire further highlights the symbolic importance of animals at this relatively early time. Here, the human burial was associated with the deposition of at least 185 cattle skulls together with a smaller number of mandibles, scapulae, and pelves of the same species, the bovine bones representing 98 per cent of the total faunal assemblage.