Today, December 11th, 2009, the Pan-Hellenic equestrian games in Athens were canceled due to ‘bad weather’…This article taken from the book OLYMPICA HIPPICA [Euandros editions, 2004] is intended to demonstrate how our modern ‘archons’ and ‘presidents’ of Greek equitation have taken a giant step backwards…
Enjoy. And have a nice holiday.
T. G. Antikas, DVM, PhD
Archaeological excavations at Sindos near Thessaloniki, Greece, revealed the presence of horses buried with heroes in a human cemetery. Stable isotope analysis of their skeletal remains revealed that approximately 20-22% of their food was of fish origin. This may sound unbelievable, however Herodotus describing the camping of Xerxes’ troops in the area clearly mentioned the fact that the locals fed fish to their horses…Thus the recent discovery confirmed that the old historian was simply reporting the truth as he had actually spent some time in northern Greece.
Recent discoveries from archaeological excavations at Sindos near Thessaloniki revealed common burials of horses with heroes, an old burial habit first reported by Homer [Iliad 23.171]. Among five horses there was a mare with a broken metacarpal bone [canon bone] that was treated successfully! It seems ancient Greeks didn’t shoot horses with fractures in the 5th-6th c. BCE. Click here for the full paper in PDF format
