A Late Medieval and Tudor Horse Burial Ground

Excavations at Elverton Street, Westminster

Bibliographic Data

ID11615440
AuthorsRobert Cowie, Robert H Cowie (0000-0002-2986-7092, corresponding author), Alan Pipe (0009-0007-8522-4386), John Clark, Jacqueline Pearce
Year1998
Volume155
Issue1
Pages226-251
Publication date1998-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchaeological Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-5983 • E-ISSN: 2373-2288
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00665983.1998.11078850
OpenAlexW2025896680
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited5

Excavations at two adjacent sites in Elverton Street, Westminster, uncovered evidence for an extensive late medieval and Tudor horse burial ground. In all 197 pits were found cut into natural sand. Thirty-one contained the articulated skeletal remains of dismembered horses; the remains of seventy-six individuals were identified from twenty-seven pits (material in four pits was not quantified). Four pits held the fully articulated skeletons of dogs. Another twenty-one pits produced a few disarticulated animal bones. The remaining pits were empty; some may have been unused, but it is thought that most, if not all, once contained animal carcasses, and that the bones had not survived burial in the acidic sand. A few produced small fragments of peg tile and abraded sherds of Roman and medieval pottery, all of which are thought to be residual. The only artefacts that can be directly linked to the burials are two horseshoes of a type commonly in use from the mid-fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Bones from two of the horse burials were respectively assigned by high-precision radiocarbon dating to the first half of the fifteenth century, and the late fifteenth to early seventeenth century. The stratigraphic evidence, however, suggests that the burial ground had fallen into disuse by about the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the site was extensively quarried for sand.The horse bones from the burial ground provided a unique opportunity to study the characteristics of the late medieval and Tudor horse population. Analysis indicates that most, if not all, of the horses were male. They were generally stockily built, with withers heights mainly between 1.30 m and 1.45 m (123⁄4 and 141⁄4 hands). Most were fully adult, and many were elderly and infirm, and almost certainly at or near the end of their useful lives. Their carcasses had been skilfully dismembered, and there was evidence to suggest that at least some had been skinned; there was no direct evidence for meat removal

Ancient history · Archaeology · Excavation · Fifteenth · Geography · Population · Pottery · Radiocarbon dating · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History