Abstract: During the last decade an unprecedented amount of excavations of Roman period rural settlements took place in the presumed civitas of the Cananefates, which covers a great part of the...Show moreAbstract: During the last decade an unprecedented amount of excavations of Roman period rural settlements took place in the presumed civitas of the Cananefates, which covers a great part of the modern day Dutch province of Zuid-Holland. A number of these excavations yielded substantial more metal finds than is common for the region, including an unsuspected amount of Roman military equipment and horse gear, a find category that until recently was almost nonexistent in the region. In the neighboring Dutch Eastern River Area, the heartland of the Batavians, Roman military equipment and horse gear from civilian context has always been a prominent find category and has been the subject of extensive research (Nicolay 2007). In order to test some of the ideas from that research, a survey was conducted of all military equipment from the Cananefatian from non military context and held against the existing theories. The comparison yielded some interesting similarities and differences between both regions and provided enough questions to challenge some of the existing theories. Throughout the Roman period differences in horse gear remain very high. However, against expectations for the later periods the Cananefatian region features relatively more military equipment than the Batavian region. This sheds additional light on the questions about the role of the veteran, the pacification of the Rhine frontier and the theory about rearming of the population during the unrest of the 3rd century.Show less
In 1933 the so-called chieftain’s burial of Oss was found. It dates from the Early Iron Age, or Hallstatt C-period, in the second half of the 7th century BC. This rich grave, of which the cremation...Show moreIn 1933 the so-called chieftain’s burial of Oss was found. It dates from the Early Iron Age, or Hallstatt C-period, in the second half of the 7th century BC. This rich grave, of which the cremation rests and grave goods were deposited in a bronze situla, included different imported artefacts from Central Europe. In the 1960’s it became clear that a number of these objects were parts of horse gear. In the past decades, all the objects from the chieftain’s grave of Oss have been published. Nevertheless, these publications generally only included a description of the finds. Function, context, and an analysis of the objects are now presented within this thesis for the first time. All objects from Oss that can be assigned as horse gear are described together with typological parallels and their distribution throughout Europe. Oss contains components of two bridles and a yoke. It is now clear that most parallels of the objects are found in Bohemia, Bavaria and the area north of the Alps. A total of 13 object-categories of horse gear, dating from the Hallstatt C-period, have been used for a statistical analysis. It compares the inventory of the horse gear from Oss with that of 59 others. It is now evident that the inventory of Oss includes relatively many object-categories. About 80% of the other inventories contained less. It can therefore be concluded that the inventory of Oss is one of the richest in its kind. The most common objects are the bits and cheek-pieces. The experience of three equestrian professionals was used for a contemporary approach on the horse gear from Oss. New technical aspects came to light: the grooves on the bars of the bits are functional. They are not cruel, as sometimes is stated. Some horses play more with such a bit in their mouth and therefore accept them more easily. Furthermore, because of the grooves more saliva is produced. Finally, old reconstructions of Hallstatt C-bridles do not attribute any technical function to the curved ends of the cheek-pieces. Within this thesis a new reconstruction of the bridle has been made which includes a functional element of the cheek-pieces: they could have been used for the attachment of reins. This was also underlined by the comments of the equestrian professionals.Show less
