Bronze Age Sicilians Had Horse Meat for Dinner, New Findings Reveal

Stone enclosure astatine the Polizzello tract successful Sicily. Credit: Davide Tanasi et al. / CC BY 4.0

Archaeologists person upended long-standing assumptions astir prehistoric Sicily. A survey led by Davide Tanasi, a prof astatine the University of South Florida, reveals that horses were contiguous connected the land overmuch earlier than antecedently believed—and that equine nutrient was portion of the section fare during the Bronze Age.

Published successful PLOS One, the probe provides the earliest documented grounds of equine depletion successful Sicily. It challenges the long-held content that horses did not get determination until the archetypal millennium B.C.

Horses reshaped aboriginal civilizations

“The equine was 1 of the astir transformative animals successful past civilizations, shaping mobility, warfare, hunting, agriculture, economy, and religion,” Tanasi said.

“To beryllium that the indigenous of Sicily had entree to horses 1,000 years earlier what was traditionally believed has tremendous repercussions and substantially alters existing models of equine domestication, utilization, and dietary practices.”

Excavation country astatine the basal of Polizzello upland successful Sicily. Credit: Davide Tanasi et al. / CC BY 4.0

Tanasi, laminitis and manager of the Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) astatine USF, co-authored the survey with Robert Tykot of the Department of Anthropology and Enrico Greco of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment.

Their enactment not lone documents the beingness of horses but besides sheds airy connected taste exchange, ritual practices, and economical strategies successful the cardinal Mediterranean during the 3rd millennium B.C.

Pottery reveals ritual feasts

Excavations astatine the basal of Sicily’s Polizzello upland uncovered hundreds of pottery fragments. Most were cooking and array vessels, including pitchers, cups, and footed bowls. At the halfway of the assemblage was a ample pedestal basin that Tanasi believes stood astatine the bosom of communal ceremonies.

“It indispensable person contained equine meat-based foodstuff, perchance successful the signifier of a stew,” helium explained. “Participants successful the ritual took portions into smaller bowls, from which they consumed them.”

Ethnographic parallels suggest that specified gatherings whitethorn person included prayers, chants, and dances. A terracotta phallus recovered astatine the tract suggests fertility rituals were performed alongside communal meals.

From aboriginal digs to modern labs

Tanasi archetypal excavated the Polizzello tract successful 2005, but exertion astatine the clip was not precocious capable to analyse integrated residue near successful the pottery. He stored the fragments and turned to different projects, including the find of prehistoric vino successful the caves of Monte Kronio and grounds of hallucinogens successful a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mug.

Engraving of a equine connected a cave wall. Credit: Davide Tanasi et al. / CC BY 4.0

In 2024, helium returned to the material. At the IDEx laboratory successful Tampa, his squad utilized proteomic investigation to study the vessels.

Scientific impervious of equine consumption

“The proteomic investigation of the integrated residues revealed a wide biomolecular signature of equine products successful a important subset of the vessels,” Tanasi said.

The astir striking effect was the detection of equine serum albumin, a large humor macromolecule circumstantial to horses. “Thousands and thousands of pages that person been written present person to beryllium revised and rewritten due to the fact that we recovered the missing piece,” Tanasi explained.