{"id":78938,"date":"2025-05-06T10:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T10:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78938\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T10:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T10:51:14","slug":"very-rare-horse-cemetery-from-roman-times-unearthed-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78938\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Very rare\u2019 horse cemetery from Roman times unearthed in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archaeologists have unearthed a \u201cvery rare\u201d Roman<\/a>-era horse cemetery<\/a> in Germany containing the skeletons of over a hundred horses<\/a> and that of a strange man buried in a prone position.<\/p>\n

The \u201csensational find\u201d in Stuttgart<\/a> sheds unique insights into the use of horses by the Roman army<\/a>, according to the German State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD).<\/p>\n

These buried horses were part of a second-century AD<\/a> Roman cavalry unit known as Ala, which was larger than normal legions with over 5,400 or 5,100 men active in what is now southwest Germany.<\/p>\n

During its heyday, the region was one of the most important Roman military sites, likely home to a population of over 700 horses, researchers say.<\/p>\n

\"Horse<\/p>\n

Horse skeleton unearthed at Roman-era cemetery in Stuttgart (State Office for Monument Preservation Stuttgart)<\/p>\n

Excavation in this part of Stuttgart’s borough of Bad Cannstatt has been ongoing since July 2024, bringing to light more than 100 horse skeletons.<\/p>\n

Radiocarbon dating of the bones suggests the horses likely lived during the 2nd century.<\/p>\n

“Due to the archaeological and historical knowledge of the Roman Bad Cannstatt, the horses of the equestrian unit \u2013 a so-called ‘Ala’ \u2013 can be assigned, which was stationed on the Hallschlag from about 100 to 150 AD,\u201d archaeologist Sarah Roth from LAD said in a translated statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe troop with almost 500 riders probably had a total horseback of at least 700 animals and losses had to be constantly replaced,\u201d Dr Roth said.<\/p>\n

Whenever a horse part of the cavalry died, it would be buried about 400m away from the equestrian castle and at a distance of 200m from the civil settlement, researchers say.<\/p>\n

The horse carcasses were moved on sledges individually into shallow pits and buried lying on their sides with outstretched or bent legs.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Aerial view of Roman-era horse cemetery unearthed in Stuttgart (State Office for Monument Preservation Stuttgart)<\/p>\n

Despite the cemetery having a partly dense occupation, there seemed to be only a few overlaps of the pit, indicating the pits were likely marked above ground.<\/p>\n

“The horses do not all seem to have died at the same time in a major event such as a battle or epidemic,\u201d Dr Roth said.<\/p>\n

Instead, there\u2019s evidence of the animals either dying during the presence of the cavalry due to isolated cases of illness, injury, or other reasons, researchers say.<\/p>\n

Most animals seem to have been disposed of rather than buried, however, with some exceptions.<\/p>\n

One of the horses was found buried with two jugs and a small oil lamp placed in the corner of its pit.<\/p>\n

“Here we see a particularly close connection of the owner to his horse. Even after about 1800 years, the grief over the death of this one animal is still apparent,\u201d Dr Roth said.<\/p>\n

The exact size of the entire cemetery remains unclear, researchers say.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists also uncovered the skeleton of a Roman-era man in the cemetery, buried on his stomach and without grave goods, suggesting he was likely an outsider who wasn\u2019t held in high esteem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Archaeologists have unearthed a \u201cvery rare\u201d Roman-era horse cemetery in Germany containing the skeletons of over a hundred…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[38557,2000,299,1824,38556,38554,38558,38555],"class_list":{"0":"post-78938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-archaeologists","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-roman-army","13":"tag-roman-cavalry","14":"tag-southwest-germany","15":"tag-stuttgart"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114460510399519601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}