Coat colour and sex identification in horses from Iron Age Sweden.

This research paper investigates the coat colour preferences of horses linked to cultural traditions during the Iron Age in Sweden. The researchers used genome typing to examine variations in the horses’ coats from three different archaeological sites and found that common colours were bay, black, chestnut, and tobiano spotting, with no clear geographical variations in coat colour.

Research Background

• Animal domestication is a crucial aspect of human prehistory and has seen various changes in the phenotype of all farmed animals over time.
• Among these changes, coat colour is one of the most significant, subjected to strong human selection over history.

Methodology

• The research team analysed the coat colour Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in horses from Iron Age Sweden from three archaeological sites- Skedemosse, Öland, Ultuna, and Valsgärde.
• They used genotyping to identify the sex and coat colour of these ancient horses.
• This approach allowed the researchers to ascertain the minimum number of individual horses on each site, providing more detailed information than morphological methods alone.

Findings

• The study found that the most common horse coat colours during the Iron Age were bay, black, chestnut and two horses with tobiano spotting.
• The archaeologically significant sites at Skedemosse and Ultuna showed a recognisable homogeneity in horse coat colour phenotypes despite being 500 km apart.

Implications

• This finding suggests that there were no clear geographical variations in horse coat colour during late Iron Age and early Viking Age in Sweden, indicating that specific cultural traditions did not prefer certain coat colours.
• The study also signifies the potential of genotyping alongside sex identification in archaeological studies to provide a better understanding of demographic compositions and variabilities in ancient populations.