This message is from: Anneli Sundkvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Marsha Jo Hannah wrote:
>>I've heard the contention that old Nordic grave sites, from 2000 to 4000 years ago, contained skeletons of what looked a lot like Fjords.Would you care to comment on the known archeological (bones, artwork,etc) history of Fjords?>> Ok, basically: 2000 BC - 0 is the Scandinavian Bronze Age (starts at 1700 BC, ends c. 500 BC) and Celtic Iron Age. I am not specialized in these period, but I think that finds of horse bones in graves are very rare from these periods. We know of horse tack from the Bronze Age, but artefacts have been found in deposites/hoards. During the Roman Iron Age (0-400 AD) horses were sacrificed as part of the cult. Skeletons and tack has later been found in what now are bogs, but what then were lakes. Analysis that have been carried out, but since most of the excavation were carried out in the 60's there were no certain way to judge breed/type/parentage of the horses. The size were however measurable, and most prehistoric horses from Scandinavia seem to be 12-14,3 hands. This fits the size of the Fjord well, but also many other breeds, e.g. the Icelandic horse. The 'great' era for horses in graves in prehistoric Sweden were the Vendel Period (c. 500-800 AD) and the Viking Age (c. 800-1060 AD). Horses were put in chieftain's graves during the Vendel period. The boat graves from the Mälar Valley in Sweden are world famous. Here, a man was put in a boat togheter with several horses with tack, kitchen stuff, other animals, precious clothes and weapons. The boat were then buried (not burnt). Only one man/generation was buried this way. By the end of the Vendel Period, the boat burial custom are getting more common and the gifts put in the graves less expensive. Horses stay to be an important part of the grave goods. Horses are seldom found in female grave, but they do exist. The most famous exemple are the famous Oseberg ship burial from Norway. This grave is dated to 830's AD, and many (I don´t remeber if it is 10 or 15) horses were put in the grave, all decapitivated. A saddle, 3 sleighs and a wagon were also found in the grave. The wood was very well preserved, due to the soil conditions. So, what kind of horses were these? Until less 10 years ago, it was not possible to say. But nowadays, it is possible to use DNA-technique on ancient bones too, and soon we will therefore be able to tell what modern horses are the 'children' of the ancient ones in Scandinavia, and how they are related. The work was first focused on building up a database with the DNA-profile of all modern horse breeds, to use as a refrence for ancient studies. There are a Swedish archaeologist that works to DNA-profile horses from some Swedish Iron Age sites, but his work is not ready yet. So far we have to do with the knowledge that our breed is very old, which the 100% dun colur proves. The Fjord is also closely related to the Icelandic horse. So my guess is that these two modern breeds had the same ancestors. During the last 1000 years, man's diffrent need has developed the Scandinavian horses to different breeds. Regards Anneli >Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- >[EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! >30 mi SSE of San Francisco, Calif. >------- > >
