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Elite chariots and early horse transport at the Bronze Age burial site of Shijia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2023

Chengrui Zhang Open the ORCID record for Chengrui Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
Yongan Wang ,
Junmin Zhang ,
William Timothy Treal Taylor Open the ORCID record for William Timothy Treal Taylor [Opens in a new window] ,
Feng Sun ,
Zexian Huang ,
Ruijing Qiu ,
Furen Hou ,
Rowan K. Flad Open the ORCID record for Rowan K. Flad [Opens in a new window]  and
Yue Li Open the ORCID record for Yue Li [Opens in a new window]
Chengrui Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Yongan Wang
Affiliation:
Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Lanzhou, P.R. China
Junmin Zhang
Affiliation:
Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Lanzhou, P.R. China
William Timothy Treal Taylor
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, USA
Feng Sun
Affiliation:
Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Lanzhou, P.R. China
Zexian Huang
Affiliation:
School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, P.R. China
Ruijing Qiu
Affiliation:
Gansu Provincial Museum, Lanzhou, P.R. China
Furen Hou
Affiliation:
Ningxia Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Yinchuan, P.R. China
Rowan K. Flad
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
Yue Li*
Affiliation:
School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi'an, P.R. China China-Central Asia Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Human and Environment Research, Xi'an, P.R. China Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Research and Conservation, Xi'an, P.R. China
*
*Author for correspondence ✉ liyue@nwu.edu.cn
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Abstract

Horses and chariots played a crucial social, cultural and military role in the emergence and development of early states in China. Little research, however, has explored the life histories of individual chariot horses or assessed their role as working animals. Here, the authors present a detailed zooarchaeological and palaeopathological study of eight adult male horses, used for pulling chariots, recovered from a single chariot-horse pit at the burial site of Shijia in north-western China. The characterisation of key osteological differences between chariot horses and ridden horses is offered as a contribution to the toolkit available for the archaeological investigation of human-horse interactions around the globe.

Keywords

ChinaBronze AgeShijiahorse ridingchariotryzooarchaeologypalaeopathology
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 97 , Issue 393 , June 2023 , pp. 636 - 653
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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Footnotes

†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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