Description

Summary: Three horse skulls from the fill of a ditch (context 4101) excavated during excavations at Battlebury Bowl by Wessex Archaeology, in 1999.

Research results

A collection of 3 horse skulls all found in the same context of the fill of a ditch at Battlesbury Bowl, excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 1999. The skulls were found seven cattle skulls, two of which have been radiocarbon dated, giving results of 790-402 cal BC and 770-400 cal BC, suggesting an early Iron Age date.

These horse skulls, along with the cattle skulls, were discussed by Hambleton (2013) in her discussion of ‘special’ deposits of animal remains in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Southern Britain. They critique the tendency for animal skulls in particular to be identified as being ‘special’, but with little discussion of the object’s life history to establish how they had been treated prior to deposition. They examine these skulls in detail to demonstrate that many appear to have been prepared in a fairly uniform way, either in preparation for display or to access the brain case for its contents, and that many also show some signs of being exposed prior to deposition.