People and Ponies: A Biographical and Iconographical Approach to Human and Equine Relations in Iron Age Britain

It follows the lifecycle of the pony and takes a biographical approach through their lives, deaths and burial. From iconographical studies of equine-related imagery, the role of the pony in an Iron Age ontological schema is considered, particularly its role as a psychopomp and its role in escorting the souls or spirits of the dead into the afterlife.

This research explores this important inter-special relationship through material culture, faunal remains and iconography. It also considers aspects of equine ethology and ethnography. Due to the different types of archaeological evidence collected, a flexible methodological approach was required.</p><p dir="ltr">Data was mined from site reports, online collections and through selective fieldwork and recorded in an Excel spreadsheet.