Archaeologists excavating a small ridge in Villedieu-sur-Indre in central France (part of ancient Gaul) unearthed a dozen pits containing more than 30 horse skeletons that have been radiocarbon dated to the Late Iron Age or early Roman period, between 100 b.c. and a.d. 100. The horses may be linked to one of Rome’s most famous personages. The largest pit held the remains of 10 complete equines that had been carefully laid to rest in two rows, on their right sides, with their heads facing south. The horses, which were symbols of Iron Age aristocracy, were relatively small, measuring just four feet high at the withers. “We realized the importance of the discovery immediately, due to the arrangement of the horses and the great care taken in their interment,” says archaeologist Isabelle Pichon of France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research. “Only two other sites with this type of burial are known in France.”
Like these other sites, Villedieu-sur-Indre is located close to an oppidum, or a fortified settlement inhabited by native Gauls. Between 58 and 50 b.c., Julius Caesar launched a series of wars in Gaul. The horses, as well as Roman slingshot stones found at the nearby oppidum, suggest that during those wars a clash may have occurred in the area pitting Roman troops against the local Bituriges Cubi tribe.
