A horse, in any era, is not just a horse. It represents facets of life with humans, for good and ill – it is knowledge of animal welfare, diet, selective breeding, landscape and agriculture. It requires the training of both equid and human to accomplish shared tasks: riding and driving are not just cases of jump up and hang on, but rather beautiful arts when practiced with knowledge. The horse is also status, display, technology, transport, trade and communications – all things which concern archaeologists and historians alike. It is why the study of equitation is so rewarding as we do not just find the animals, but the human society they existed in as well. 

Lorinery 

It was with this in mind that the Harnessing the Past project, funded by Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, started studying something which had not been examined before – Scotland’s ancient equitation, from a practical equestrian perspective. The research examined lorinery (the craft of making the various metal parts of a horse’s harness) from the Iron Age through to the early medieval period. Scotland was (and still is) in a unique position for European interactions, as much as intra-British communications, with a North Sea coastline extending from the Orkneys to Dunbar, and in the south-west, there is Argyll’s Gaelic interface.

With proximity to other places and different ways of doing things, people have a habit of taking new ideas and influences and make their own versions of things, weaving old ways with new. It is not entirely surprising then, that the Iron Age chariot burial at Newbridge, found in 2001, has strong parallels with similar vehicles in northern France and Belgium – and yet, is still very much its own unique design.  

Lorinery workshops from the Iron Age onwards would have catered to a desire for imported ‘fanciness’ as well as reflecting local status and identity, which makes the presence of the extravagant styles of Iron Age tack in both northern Britain and Scotland all the more interesting – what connections did people have with each other between the two areas?  

Rena’s dog Finbar (Credit: Rena Maguire)

Experimental Archaeology 

Bits such as those found at Rise and Stanwick, in northern Britain, are undoubtedly beautiful to look at, but some specimens simply could never have been used in the conditions we see them today. Some, like the bit from Burnswark in Dumfriesshire are just too small – smaller than the inside of a terrier’s mouth (I made little rope plaits the length and shape of the mouthpieces and tested them on my dog – sorry Finbar, it was for science!).

With these the ornate inflexible cheekpieces would remain inside the mouth of a horse, which simply could not make them usable. There is damage present on many of these, like the Middlebie connecting perforations which are broken and open, almost as if they had been put together from other bits, to make a non-functional whole – but for what reason?  

Looking to History 

We cannot yet answer that. But we can now answer how the functional specimens like the larger Middlebie bit worked because of one of the oddest objects in Scotland’s equine archaeological record – a complete and intact triple linked snaffle (a type of bit), from Lochlea in Ayrshire. The Lochlea bit was recorded by archaeologist Dr. Robert Munro FSAScot (one time Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland) during his excavations of Lochlea crannog (in 1879) and had never been studied exclusively.

There is nothing on this piece to suggest a British Iron Age origin. It is sleek, sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing in a minimalist way. It has a mouthpiece of simple folded iron, with skilfully made copper-alloy figure-eight shaped side links which connect to iron cheek rings. There is nothing quite like it anywhere else in Britain or Ireland. Holding it as one would to fit it to a bridle, it was immediately clear how this kind of mouthpiece would work. It (and the Iron Age triple link bits mentioned) is very much like a modern Waterford bit, a chain-like bit which curves around the inside of the mouth of a horse and is often used for quite strong animals.

On the days I’m not submerged in archaeology, I’ve been using a Waterford bit on Jack, a big powerful cob ‘blessed’ with remarkable bloody-mindedness. That at least gives us a tiny insight into those ancient headstrong Scottish ponies!

Rena’s horse Jack and (inset) a modern Waterford bit. Cheek rings are always flexible, just like the Lochlea bit, but not like the earlier Iron Age examples (Credit: Rena Maguire)

Changing Tack 

Initially I had suspected the copper-alloy side links to be a re-imagining of Saxon lorinery. My initial reasoning was that this perhaps had been a way to cut back on using too much metal when wanting to make something resembling the instantly identifiable ‘axe-head’ cheek pieces, like those found at Sutton Hoo.  

It niggled me, though, that it didn’t feel right, and if we are being honest as archaeologists, we sometimes have to admit that we were thinking in the wrong direction! When working on a totally different project, I found a scholarly catalogue of Merovingian tack from the Continent. Many of the side links illustrated in the catalogue showed a distinctive figure-eight shape, just like the Lochlea Crannog bit. This was a unique signature of their style of equitation. 

The Merovingians were the ruling class of the Franks, a Germanic people originally, who cannily stepped in to fill the trade gap between Britain and western Europe left by Rome’s withdrawal and collapse. The full extent of Frankish trade networks is still under examination, but there is an increasing body of evidence that their material culture did indeed reach Scotland, with Frankish beads found at Dunnad in Argyll, sherds of Frankish pottery and even a fake Saxon thrymsa coin at Buiston Loch crannog. There has even been genuine Frankish tremisses coins found along the border, at Coldstream, and Thirston on the British side. It is uncertain how much was due to direct networks or ‘middlemen’ from southern Britain. 

Putting It All Together 

The Lochlea bit, then, appears to be a hybrid creation from the early medieval period, fusing a ‘traditional’ Iron Age northern British ‘proto-Waterford’ style mouthpiece with the chic little copper-alloy connecting loops. It may have borrowed from Merovingian styles, but it is much more refined than its European inspirations. The ubiquitous Ewan Campbell, whose work I am grateful for, believes that respect for artisans remained strong in Scotland long after the glory days of Insular La Tene metalworking had passed (Campbell 2019). Innovation was prized, and local traditions were transformed into new art styles, just like the beautiful little Lochlea bit. 

The great thing about archaeology, and working with such objects, is you can imagine those feisty early medieval borderland ponies, and in the light of Scottish historian Miriam Bibby’s (2024) wonderful text on the extinct Galloway pony, I can’t help but imagine them trotting and snorting across the early medieval landscape and into posterity via the objects they were fitted with. 

You can see the bit for yourself with a visit to the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock, which is a wee jewel of a regional museum, and you can read the complete horsie detective story of uncovering the bit on the Society’s website and you’ll find a list of my work in Irish and Scottish Iron Age studies here.

If you are thinking of submitting something to Proceedings of Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, do it! They’re incredibly helpful and thorough, with an angelic final proofreader, and they somehow managed to find unbiased but knowledgeable reviewers for my odd corner of archaeology. When such a thing happens, the reviewer’s knowledge, added to yours, is not unlike the creation of that Lochlea bit, with different ideas and influences being shared. It’s that mixture which makes us all just a bit better!  

References 

• Bibby, M. 2024. Invisible Ancestor: the Galloway nag and its legacy. Budapest: Trivent Publishing 
• Campbell, E 2019 ‘Peripheral vision: Scotland in Early Medieval Europe’ in Blackwell, A E. (ed.) Scotland in Early Medieval Europe, 17–33, Leiden: Sidestone Press  
• Munro, R 1879 ‘Notice of the Excavation of a Crannog at Lochlee, Tarbolton, Ayrshire. With Reports on the Fauna of the Crannog. On the Flora of the Crannog, and on the Analysis of Crystals’ Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 13: 175–252. https://doi.org/10.9750/PSAS.013.175.252 

By Dr Rena Maguire FSAScot, Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Archaeology University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin

Disclaimer: The information contained in this blog represents the views and opinions of the individual authors and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.