Prehistoric communities from Iceland to the Eurasian Steppe sacrificed horses as part of their funeral rites. These Baltic tribes, known as the Balts, sacrificed horses longer than anywhere else in Europe, up until the 14th century. Christians despised this practice, however, and it quickly fell out of favour once a community converted to Christianity.
Archaeologists have studied Baltic sacrificial deposits for nearly 200 years. Two characteristics had seemed settled – that stallions were exclusively sacrificed, and that the Balts sourced their horses from the local tarpan horse population, commonly known as “forest” or “wild” horses.
However, our team’s latest research challenges these “facts” about the last horse sacrifices in Europe. It shows that about a third of sacrificial horses were, in fact, mares – and surprisingly, that some horses began their life in Christian Scandinavia and ended up across the Baltic Sea as sacrificial victims.
