Socio-semiotics and the symbiosis of humans, horses, and objects in later Iron Age Britain

ABSTRACT

Using an approach derived from material culture studies and semiotics, this speculative paper addresses possible relationships between humans and horses in the British Iron Age. Through a study of dominance of horse imagery found on Iron Age British coinage, specifically the Western coins traditionally attributed to the ‘Dobunni’, the author explores what these coins may be able to inform us regarding the possible relationships between humans and horses and their personhood therein. Drawing on wider evidence including faunal remains and other horse-related metalwork, it is argued that these coins could be interpreted as a manifestation of the complex perspectives surrounding a symbiotic relationship between humans and horses.

Acknowledgements

Thanks must go to the Portable Antiquities Scheme for providing full access to the data and for use of specific coin and artefact images under the CC BY attribution licence. Thanks also to Adam Gwilt (National Museum Wales), for all his help and advice on horse-related metalwork and for his comments on early drafts of this paper; to Ruth Nugent, Nick Overton and Barry Taylor for their enthusiastic discussions regarding Iron Age animals and cosmologies. Thanks finally to the anonymous reviewers for their encouraging and constructive comments. Any mistakes remain the author’s own.