“Unearthed: 1,900-Year-Old Roman Horse Cemetery Reveals Ancient Military Secrets”
The Ancient Roman Horse Cemetery Unearthed In Stuttgart, Germany
According to a press release from the Stuttgart State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD), excavations at the site began in July 2024 ahead of construction on a new housing project. The excavations confirmed what people had suspected for a century: the site had been used as an animal disposal yard long ago.
State Office for Monument Preservation in the Stuttgart Regional Council/ArchaeoBWHorse remains were found at the area in 1920, and excavations a century later confirmed that the site had been used for animal disposal by the ancient Romans.
Specifically, this site had been used to dispose of Roman cavalry horses. The disposal yard is located close to a cavalry fort where a unit known as “Ala” was stationed between 100 and 150 C.E., roughly 300 years before the fall of Rome.
“The troop, with almost 500 riders, is likely to have had a total horse population of at least 700 animals, and losses had to be constantly replaced,” LAD lead archaeologist Sarah Roth explained in the press release. “The horses do not all appear to have died at the same time in a major event such as a battle or epidemic. Rather, the animals buried here either died of illness, injury… or were no longer able to fulfill their role as military horses.”
Most of the burials were unceremonious. Horses that died naturally were summarily disposed of. Horses that could still walk were lead to the cemetery, where they were killed on site and hastily buried.
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