Open AccessInterdisciplinary Approaches to the Medieval Warhorse
Author(s) -
Carly Ameen,
Gary Paul Baker,
Helene Benkert,
Camille Vo Van Qui,
Robert Webley,
Robert Liddiard,
Alan K. Outram,
Oliver Creighton
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
cheiron
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2786-3182
DOI - 10.22618/tp.cheiron.20211.1.233005
Subject(s) - battlefield , archaeology , history , symbol (formal) , period (music) , variety (cybernetics) , middle ages , archaeological evidence , ancient history , art , aesthetics , linguistics , philosophy , artificial intelligence , computer science
The warhorse is arguably the most characteristic animal of the English Middle Ages. But while the development and military uses of warhorses have been intensively studied by historians, the archaeological evidence is too often dispersed, overlooked or undervalued. Instead, we argue that to fully understand the cultural significance and functional role of the medieval warhorse, a systematic study of the full range of archaeological evidence for warhorses (and horses more generally) from medieval England is necessary. This requires engagement with material evidence at a wide variety of scales — from individual artefacts through to excavated assemblages and landscape-wide distributions — dating between the late Saxon and Tudor period (c. AD 800–1600). We present here a case study of our interdisciplinary engaged research design focusing upon an important English royal stud site at Odiham in Hampshire. This brings together several fields of study, including (zoo)archaeology, history, landscape survey, and material culture studies to produce new understandings about a beast that was an unmistakable symbol of social status and a decisive weapon on the battlefield.