The changing importance of horses within the Celtic society

Abstract

Based on archaeological evidence, horses have been utilized, initially as a food source, by humans since the Upper Paleolithic. It was not until ca. 2500 B.C. when horses in Europe were domesticated for draft animals and other purposes. With the domestication and utilization of the horse led to dramatic changes in how different societies operated. This paper will be looking at the Celtic society to address the changing importance of horses. Three key aspects will be examined: warfare, religion, and the maintenance of social structure. This study will lead to an understanding of how significantly the role of horses changed over time within the Celtic society. This paper discovered that the role of horses went from being mainly used in the capacity to establish status to a more active role throughout the whole framework of Celtic society not just exclusively for status purposes.