Do the clothes make the horse? Relationality, roles and statuses in Iron Age Inner Asia

Abstract

Despite recent calls to view nonhuman animals as more than objects within archaeological studies, traditional interpretations of horses in Iron Age Inner Asian communities continue to consider them as relevant only through their functional or symbolic significance to humans. This article argues for a ‘relational’ rather than ‘domination’ model of human-horse interactions, and that a necessary step toward this is a clearer understanding of horses, themselves, as social beings. This is brought to light through ethological studies and the understandings of ‘working riders’, including the author. Using a case study of the Iron Age Pazyryk human-horse burials, it is then proposed that through this lens the outfits of the horses in the Pazyryk kurgans might be seen to reflect roles and statuses of the horses, rather than of the humans.