Horse burial

Last updated
Mass horse burial for Duke Jing of Qi (reigned 547-490 BCE) of Spring and Autumn period China Sacrificial horsepit linzi 2010 06 06.jpg
Mass horse burial for Duke Jing of Qi (reigned 547–490 BCE) of Spring and Autumn period China
Excavating a Roman horse burial in London in 2006 Roman horse.png
Excavating a Roman horse burial in London in 2006

Horse burial is the practice of burying a horse as part of the ritual of human burial, and is found among many Indo-European speaking peoples and others, including Chinese and Turkic peoples. The act indicates the high value placed on horses in the particular cultures and provides evidence of the migration of peoples with a horse culture. Human burials that contain other livestock are rare; in Britain, for example, 31 horse burials have been discovered but only one cow burial, unique in Europe. [1] This process of horse burial is part of a wider tradition of horse sacrifice. An associated ritual is that of chariot burial, in which an entire chariot, with or without a horse, is buried with a dead person.

Contents

Background and detail

The horse carries great symbolic meaning in human cultures (see horse worship). In Celtic and Germanic cultures, for instance, the horse "could be associated with the journeying sun", and horses were deified and used in divination, but Celtic horse sacrifice is rare whereas horses were regularly sacrificed and buried alongside dead humans in Germany and Scandinavia. [2] The Indo-European ubiquity and importance of horse sacrifice (which in many cases involves a symbolic coupling between king and mare)[ citation needed ] attests to this importance. [3]

Considerable differences exist between different horse burials even within a single area and culture, so much so that it is perhaps impossible to generalize. [2] Sometimes horses were cremated, sometimes buried; sometimes they were placed in the same grave as humans, [4] sometimes in a different pit; [5] some cultures appear to favor horse burial for male warriors, others did not seem to differentiate in sex. [6]

Geographical and historical distribution

The practice of horse burial is bound to the historical territory covered by the domesticated horse, which initially was the Eurasian Steppe, ca. 4000–3500 BCE. Early cultures with a mythology that would support horse burial are those in or bordering those areas—Turkic cultures, [3] [7] Chinese cultures, [8] and Indo-European cultures. [3]

Sketch plan of the kurgan burial at Kostromskaya in southern Russia Horse burials and artifacts of Kostromskaya Kurgan.JPG
Sketch plan of the kurgan burial at Kostromskaya in southern Russia

It is claimed that a form of horse burial is attested from the Paleolithic, when the skin of a horse was hung over a pole; some of the animal's bones were left inside the skin to preserve its shape. [9] This supposed "head and hooves" culture, however, is only one explanation for archeological finds from the third millennium BCE. [3] The earliest proven horse burial in the Old World dates back to the fifth or fourth millennium BC and is found in S'ezzhee, in a cemetery on the Samara River from the Samara culture. [10] Thousands of years later, Herodotus described the practice among the Scythians. Typically, such burials involved the sacrifice and burial of one or more horses to accompany the remains of high-ranked members or warriors. [9] In China, horse burials (including chariots) are found beginning in the Shang dynasty (1600–1100 BCE). [8] Remains of the ritual are found in Kazakh culture, where a dead person's horse is slaughtered a year after its owner's death, in a ceremony accompanied by horse races. [9] Horse burial and related rituals survived among other peoples as well into recent times, for instance among the Nez Perce people (where skinned and stuffed horses were used as grave monuments) and the Blackfoot Confederacy. [9]

Sites featuring horse burials are found throughout the regions of the world occupied by Indo-Aryan, Turkic, and Chinese peoples. [10] They include Tall al-Ajjul (Gaza strip, dating back to 1450 BCE), [11] Central Iran, where horse burials are attested in the second millennium BC, [10] Marlik (in Iran, from the late second millennium BCE), [12] and Gordium (in Phrygia, with horse burials attested possibly after 700 BCE). [13] A horse burial from Bactria provides evidence of the migration in the second millennium BCE of horse cultures from Central Asia into Turkmenistan. [10] A horse burial in Tell el-Dab'a, Egypt, evidences the introduction of the horse to Egypt by the Hyksos, in the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt (1650–1550 BCE). [14]

A nomad's kurgan burial of around 700 BCE at Kostromskaya in southern Russia included, as well as the principal male body with his accoutrements, thirteen humans with no adornment above him, and around the edges of the burial twenty-two horses buried in pairs. [15] Horse burials are part of the Pazyryk burials, where lavishly decked-out horses were killed and sometimes buried in chambers separate from those containing human remains. [16] They were characteristic in pre-Christian Hungary (one horse burial was excavated in Mikulčice, [17] another in Sterlitamak [18] ) of the ninth and tenth centuries, especially for rich members of society, where people were buried next to the skin and the skull of a saddled horse; the rest of the horse meat was possibly eaten during a burial ceremony. [17] Roman culture left horse burials throughout their empire, including first-century burials in modern-day Waremme, Belgium and Beuningen, Netherlands. [19]

Germanic cultures

The Wulfsen horse burial shown in situ Pferdebestattung Wulfsen.jpg
The Wulfsen horse burial shown in situ
Remains of the horse burial in Mound 17, Sutton Hoo Sutton.Hoo.BucklePieces.JorViking.jpg
Remains of the horse burial in Mound 17, Sutton Hoo

Germanic peoples attached great significance to the horse; a horse may have been an acquaintance of the god Wodan, and they may have been (according to Tacitus) confidants of the gods. Scandinavian literature from the 8th to 11th centuries emphasizes the importance of horses in Viking society. Horses were closely associated with gods, especially Odin and Freyr. Horses played a central role in funerary practices as well as in other rituals. [20] Horses were prominent symbols of fertility, and there were many horse fertility cults. The rituals associated with these include horse fights, burials, consumption of horse meat, and horse sacrifice. [21]

Hengist and Horsa, the mythical ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, were associated with horses, and references to horses are found throughout Anglo-Saxon literature. [22] Actual horse burials in England are relatively rare and "may point to influence from the continent". [23] A well-known Anglo-Saxon horse burial (from the sixth/seventh century) is Mound 17 at Sutton Hoo, a few yards from the more famous ship burial in Mound 1. [4] A sixth-century grave near Lakenheath, Suffolk, yielded the body of a man next to that of a "complete horse in harness, with a bucket of food by its head." [23] Another prominent example is the Wulfsen horse burial dated to 700–800 CE, near Hamburg, Germany.

Horse burials are relatively widespread in Iceland; as of 1999, 115 graves were found that contained the remains of horses. There were so many graves in which the remains of a human female was associated with those of a horse, that it was speculated that a horse burial in association with a male warrior did not occur in Iceland. [6]

Examination of the archaeological record in Norway has revealed some patterns that are comparable to horse burials in other areas. Of the six-hundred graves excavated forty of them are horse burials. Horse burials are found in both Norway and Iceland to occur more frequently with males, but are not exclusive to males.[ dubious – discuss ] There are some female burials with horses, but a significantly lower number of them are found. Most graves are covered by circular or oval mounds. The grave goods found in Viking burials associated with horses in Norway and Iceland are also pretty similar. For male burials there are usually found weapons and tools, and women are usually found with tools, beads, brooches. Both genders are often found buried with riding equipment like horse bits and headstalls. [24]

Viking burial rituals were complex and dramatic. One witness Ibn Fadlan Risala describes the ship burial ritual in detail. The burial consisted of days of mourning, sewing special burial clothes, dog sacrifice, running horses then cutting them into pieces and putting them in the ship with the deceased, and burning the whole thing. This shows that horse slaughter was dramatic and memorable; it was noted in this story. Also taking into consideration the economic value of horses, it was probably not a decision taken lightly. Given the public display of the sacrifice, it could not have solely been for personal religious reasons and could have had important social implications as well. [25]

Celtic cultures

Archaeologists found that horses were killed and their whole bodies carefully buried at some Gaulish and British sanctuaries. At Gournay-sur-Aronde, the animals were left to decompose before their bones were buried around the bounds of the sanctuary along with numerous broken weapons. [26] This was repeated at regular intervals of about ten years. [27] Some southern British tribes carefully buried horses and dogs in grain storage pits. It is believed these were thanksgiving sacrifices to underworld gods once the stores reached the end of their use. [28]

Chinese culture

Horse burials are well known from Ancient China as well, beginning with the Shang dynasty. [8] Particularly notable is the tomb of Duke Jing of Qi (reigned 547–490 BCE), which contained a separate pit with the remains of possibly over 600 horses. [5] [29] Later burials, especially from the Tang dynasty, featured the well-known pottery horses.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human sacrifice</span> Ritualistic killing, usually as an offering

Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in the next life. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting. Human sacrifice is also known as ritual murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurgan</span> Tumulus in Eastern Europe

A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Norse religion</span> Historical religious tradition

Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic peoples. It was replaced by Christianity and forgotten during the Christianisation of Scandinavia. Scholars reconstruct aspects of North Germanic Religion by historical linguistics, archaeology, toponymy, and records left by North Germanic peoples, such as runic inscriptions in the Younger Futhark, a distinctly North Germanic extension of the runic alphabet. Numerous Old Norse works dated to the 13th-century record Norse mythology, a component of North Germanic religion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germanic paganism</span> Traditional religion of Germanic peoples

Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the British Isles, modern Germany, and at times other parts of Europe, the beliefs and practices of Germanic paganism varied. Scholars typically assume some degree of continuity between Roman-era beliefs and those found in Norse paganism, as well as between Germanic religion and reconstructed Indo-European religion and post-conversion folklore, though the precise degree and details of this continuity are subjects of debate. Germanic religion was influenced by neighboring cultures, including that of the Celts, the Romans, and, later, by the Christian religion. Very few sources exist that were written by pagan adherents themselves; instead, most were written by outsiders and can thus present problems for reconstructing authentic Germanic beliefs and practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funnelbeaker culture</span> North-central European culture around 4300–2800 BCE

The Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture, in short TRB or TBK, was an archaeological culture in north-central Europe. It developed as a technological merger of local neolithic and mesolithic techno-complexes between the lower Elbe and middle Vistula rivers. These predecessors were the (Danubian) Lengyel-influenced Stroke-ornamented ware culture (STK) groups/Late Lengyel and Baden-Boleráz in the southeast, Rössen groups in the southwest and the Ertebølle-Ellerbek groups in the north. The TRB introduced farming and husbandry as major food sources to the pottery-using hunter-gatherers north of this line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic Bronze Age</span> Archaeological period in Northern Europe

The Nordic Bronze Age is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yamnaya culture</span> Archaeological culture from the Pontic steppe

The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture, also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, was a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers, dating to 3300–2600 BCE. It was discovered by Vasily Gorodtsov following his archaeological excavations near the Donets River in 1901–1903. Its name derives from its characteristic burial tradition: Я́мная is a Russian adjective that means 'related to pits ', as these people used to bury their dead in tumuli (kurgans) containing simple pit chambers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andronovo culture</span> Group of Bronze Age cultures 2000–900 BC

The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Late Bronze Age cultures that flourished c. 2000–1150 BC, spanning from the southern Urals to the upper Yenisei River in central Siberia. Some researchers have preferred to term it an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon. The slightly older Sintashta culture, formerly included within the Andronovo culture, is now considered separately to Early Andronovo cultures. Andronovo culture's first stage could have begun at the end of the 3rd millennium BC, with cattle grazing, as natural fodder was by no means difficult to find in the pastures close to dwellings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norse funeral</span> Burial customs of ancient North Germanic Norsemen

Norse funerals, or the burial customs of Viking Age North Germanic Norsemen, are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas and Old Norse poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catacomb culture</span> Bronze age steppe culture, 2500–1950 BC

The Catacomb culture was a Bronze Age culture which flourished on the Pontic steppe in 2,500–1,950 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samara culture</span> Prehistoric culture in modern Russia

The Samara culture was an Eneolithic culture that flourished around the turn of the 5th millennium BCE, at the Samara Bend of the Volga River. The Samara culture is regarded as related to contemporaneous or subsequent prehistoric cultures of the Pontic–Caspian steppe, such as the Khvalynsk, Repin and Yamna cultures.

The Afanasievo culture, or Afanasevo culture, is an early archaeological culture of south Siberia, occupying the Minusinsk Basin and the Altai Mountains during the eneolithic era, c. 3300 to 2500 BCE. It is named after a nearby mountain, Gora Afanasieva in what is now Bogradsky District, Khakassia, Russia, first excavated by archaeologist Sergei Teploukhov in 1920-1929. Afanasievo burials have been found as far as Shatar Chuluu in central Mongolia, confirming a further expansion about 1,500 km beyond the Altai mountains. The Afanasievo culture is now considered as an integral part of the Prehistory of Western and Central Mongolia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandhara grave culture</span> Aspect of Pakistani history

The Gandhara grave culture of present-day Pakistan is known by its "protohistoric graves", which were spread mainly in the middle Swat River valley and named the Swat Protohistoric Graveyards Complex, dated in that region to c. 1200–800 BCE. The Italian Archaeological Mission to Pakistan (MAIP) holds that there are no burials with these features after 800 BCE. More recent studies by Pakistani scholars, such as Muhammad Zahir, consider that these protohistoric graves extended over a much wider geography and continued in existence from the 8th century BCE until the historic period. The core region was in the middle of the Swat River course and expanded to the valleys of Dir, Kunar, Chitral, and Peshawar. Protohistoric graves were present in north, central, and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as well as in north-western tribal areas, including Gilgit-Baltistan province, Taxila, and Salt Range in Punjab, Pakistan, along with their presence in Indian Kashmir, Ladakh, and Uttarakhand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horse sacrifice</span> Type of animal sacrifice

Horse sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of a horse, usually as part of a religious or cultural ritual. Horse sacrifices were common throughout Eurasia with the domestication of the horse and continuing up until the spread of Abrahamic religions, or in some places like Mongolia, of Buddhism. The practice is rarely observed in some cultures even today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vedic period</span> Ancient South Asian historical period

The Vedic period, or the Vedic age, is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas, was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the end of the urban Indus Valley Civilisation and a second urbanisation, which began in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain c. 600 BCE. The Vedas are liturgical texts which formed the basis of the influential Brahmanical ideology, which developed in the Kuru Kingdom, a tribal union of several Indo-Aryan tribes. The Vedas contain details of life during this period that have been interpreted to be historical and constitute the primary sources for understanding the period. These documents, alongside the corresponding archaeological record, allow for the evolution of the Indo-Aryan and Vedic culture to be traced and inferred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sintashta culture</span> Bronze Age archaeological culture of the Southern Urals

The Sintashta culture is a Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture of the Southern Urals, dated to the period c. 2200–1900 BCE. It is the first phase of the Sintashta–Petrovka complex, c. 2200–1750 BCE. The culture is named after the Sintashta archaeological site, in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, and spreads through Orenburg Oblast, Bashkortostan, and Northern Kazakhstan. The Sintashta culture is thought to represent an eastward migration of peoples from the Corded Ware culture. It is widely regarded as the origin of the Indo-Iranian languages, whose speakers originally referred to themselves as the Arya. The earliest known chariots have been found in Sintashta burials, and the culture is considered a strong candidate for the origin of the technology, which spread throughout the Old World and played an important role in ancient warfare. Sintashta settlements are also remarkable for the intensity of copper mining and bronze metallurgy carried out there, which is unusual for a steppe culture. Among the main features of the Sintashta culture are high levels of militarism and extensive fortified settlements, of which 23 are known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Saxon burial mounds</span> Burial mounds produced during the 6th and 7th centuries CE

An Anglo-Saxon burial mound is an accumulation of earth and stones erected over a grave or crypt during the late sixth and seventh centuries AD in Anglo-Saxon England. These burial mounds are also known as barrows or tumuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinauli</span> Archaeological site in Uttar Pradesh, India

Sinauli is an archaeological site in western Uttar Pradesh, India, at the Ganga-Yamuna Doab. The site gained attention for its Bronze Age solid-disk wheel carts, found in 2018, which were interpreted by some as horse-pulled "chariots".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric religion</span> Religion before written records

Prehistoric religion is the religious practice of prehistoric cultures. Prehistory, the period before written records, makes up the bulk of human experience; over 99% of human experience occurred during the Paleolithic period alone. Prehistoric cultures spanned the globe and existed for over two and a half million years; their religious practices were many and varied, and the study of them is difficult due to the lack of written records describing the details of their faiths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horses in Germanic paganism</span>

There was a significant importance for horses in Germanic paganism, with them being venerated in a continuous tradition among the Germanic peoples from the Nordic Bronze Age until their Christianisation. They featured in a number of diverse and interrelated religious practices, being one of the most common animals sacrificed in blóts and found in graves, notably in examples such as at Sutton Hoo and the Oseberg ship. During the establishment of the church in Northern Europe, horsemeat shifted from being holy to taboo, with the eating of it being made a punishable offence and a recurring identifier of "savages" in saga literature.

References

  1. ↑ "'Bizarre cow woman' found in Cambridgeshire Anglo-Saxon dig". BBC Online . 25 June 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  2. 1 2 Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (1988). Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions . Manchester UP. p. 53ff. ISBN   9780719025792 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Mallory, J. P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997). "Horse". Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 273–79. ISBN   9781884964985 . Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  4. 1 2 Carver, M. O. H. (1998). Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings? . U of Pennsylvania P. p.  167. ISBN   9780812234558 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  5. 1 2 张闻宇 (9 September 1999). 殉马坑期待保护 [Protection needed for sacrificial horse pit] (in Chinese). China Environment News. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
  6. 1 2 Loumand, Ulla (2006). "The Horse and its Role in Icelandic Burial Practices, Mythology, and Society". In Anders Andrén (ed.). Old Norse Religion in Long-term Perspectives: Origins, Changes, and Interactions: An International Conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3–7, 2004. Kristina Jennbert, Catharina Raudvere. Nordic Academic Press. pp. 130–34. ISBN   9789189116818 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  7. ↑ Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. Central European UP. p. 138. ISBN   9789639116481 . Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  8. 1 2 3 Johns, Catherine (2006). Horses: History, Myth, Art. Harvard UP. p. 23. ISBN   9780674023239 . Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Chamberlin, J. Edward (2007). Horse How the Horse Has Changed Civilizations. Olma Media Group. p. 48ff. ISBN   9781904955368 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Kuz'mina, Elena E.; Kuzʹmina, Elena Efimovna; Mallory, J. P. (2007). The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. Brill. pp. 229, 330, 373. ISBN   9789004160545 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  11. ↑ Gonen, Rivka (1992). Burial Patterns and Cultural Diversity in Late Bronze Age Canaan. Eisenbrauns. p. 131. ISBN   9780931464683 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  12. ↑ Negahban, Ezat O. (1996). Marlik: The Complete Excavation Report. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. p. 24. ISBN   9780924171321 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  13. ↑ Young, Rodney Stuart (1982). Three Great Early Tumuli. UPenn Museum of Archaeology. pp. 76 et passim. ISBN   9780934718394 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  14. ↑ Bunson, Margaret (2002). Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Infobase. p. 171. ISBN   9781438109978 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  15. ↑ Hugh Honour and John Fleming, A World History of Art, p. 123 1st edn. 1982 (many later editions), Macmillan, London, page refs to 1984 Macmillan 1st edn. paperback. ISBN   0333371852
  16. ↑ Rudenko, Sergeĭ Ivanovich (1970). Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen . U of California P. pp.  12 et passim. ISBN   9780520013957 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  17. 1 2 Berend, Nóra (2007). Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' C. 900–1200. Cambridge UP. pp. 216, 321. ISBN   9780521876162 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  18. ↑ Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. Central European UP. pp. 122, 138. ISBN   9789639116481 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  19. ↑ Nicolay, Johan (2007). Armed Batavians: Use and Significance of Weaponry and Horse Gear from Non-military Contexts in the Rhine Delta (50 Bc to Ad 450). Amsterdam UP. pp. 231, 233. ISBN   9789053562536 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  20. ↑ Jennbert, Kristina (2006). The Horse and its role in Icelandic burial practices, mythology, and society. pp. 130–133.
  21. ↑ Sikora, Maeve. "Diversity in Viking Age Horse Burial: A Comparative Study of Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland". The Journal of Irish Archaeology. 13 (2004): 87–109.
  22. ↑ Owen-Crocker, Gale R. (2000). The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem. Manchester UP. p. 71. ISBN   9780719054976 . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  23. 1 2 Jupp, Peter C.; Gittings, Clare (1999). Death in England: An Illustrated History. Manchester UP. pp. 67, 72. ISBN   9780719058110 . Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  24. ↑ Sikora, Maeve (2004). "Diversity in Viking Age Horse Burial: A Comparative Study of Norway, Iceland, Scotland and Ireland". The Journal of Irish Archaeology. 13: 87–109.
  25. ↑ Simpson, Jacqueline (1967). "Some Scandinavian Sacrifices". Folklore. 78 (3): 190–220. doi:10.1080/0015587x.1967.9717093.
  26. ↑ Green, Miranda (2002). Animals in Celtic Life and Myth. Routledge. pp. 109–110.
  27. ↑ Green, p.121
  28. ↑ Green, p.100
  29. ↑ "Ancient site reveals stories of sacrificed horses". Xinhua Net. 24 August 2005. Archived from the original on 7 November 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2012.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.