Crews working on a housing project in the Bad Cannstatt district of Stuttgart recently uncovered a second-century horse cemetery.
Archaeologists discovered over 100 skeletons of horses used by the Roman calvary.
The site was a known military stronghold for the Roman army.
A well-defined horse cemetery uncovered in Stuttgart’s Bad Cannstatt neighborhood was the final resting place for over 100 horses that were part of the Roman Empire’s cavalry in the second century A.D.
Construction crews discovered the cemetery during preparations for a housing project. Over time, excavations by the archaeological company ArchaeoBW—under the supervision of the State Office for Monument Preservation of the Stuttgart Regional Council—continued to unearth evidence from what is now believed to be the largest Roman-era horse cemetery in southern Germany, according to a translated statement from the council.
Considered one of the most important Roman military locations in modern-day southwestern Germany, experts believe the Roman calvary occupying the region had about 500 soldiers on site, and sustained a potential population of over 700 horses.
The first discovery of a horse skeleton in the area actually occurred in 1920 (also during a housing project), but the recent development uncovered the entire cemetery. Sara Roth, an archaeologist with the preservation office, said that radiocarbon dating helped pinpoint the age of the cemetery. “Due to the archaeological and historical knowledge of the Roman Bad Cannstatt,” she said in a statement, “the horses of the equestrian unit—a so-called ala—can be assigned, which was stationed on the Hallschlag from about 100 to 150 A.D.”
Roth said that the deceased horses were buried about 1,300 feet from the equestrian barns (about 650 feet from the soldier’s quarters), and would have been constantly replaced. Evidence shows that the carcasses were slid into shallow pits and buried lying on their side with outstretched or bent legs. And even with the dense burials, there were few overlaps of graves, exposing that the site was likely clearly defined with above-ground markers. Even if a horse could walk on its own, if it was deemed beyond military usefulness, it would have been taken to the cemetery and killed there.
“The horses do not seem to have all died at the same time in a major event such as a battle or epidemic,” Roth said. “Rather, here are the animals that either died during the presence of the ala in Bad Cannstatt due to illness, injury, or other reasons, or who no longer did their task as a military horse.”
One grave was of particular interest to archaeologists, as they discovered two jugs and a small oil lamp placed in the crook of the legs of one of the horses—grave goods typically reserved for humans. “Here we see a particularly close connection of the owner to his horse,” Roth said. “Even after about 1,800 years, the grief over the death of this one animal is still apparent.”
The crew also discovered the face-down skeleton of a human male—far from the regular burial location for the Roman settlement, he was likely a social outcast.
Experts plan to study the sex, age at death, and size of the horses while looking for possible diseases and causes of death. The team hopes to uncover more details about the Roman calvary.
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