Morphological Characteristics of a Horse Discovered in an Avar-Period Grave from Sâncraiu de Mureș (Alba County, Romania)

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The present study deals with the morphological description of the animal remains in an Avar grave that contained the remnants of a horse burial, along with its owner, in a cemetery situated in Sâncraiu de Mures, Alba County, Romania, located geographically in the Transylvanian Plateau. The investigation of the grave and the data about the remains were published by archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of Cluj Napoca, Romania. For analysis and study, the animal bone remains were sent to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca. After a careful analysis of the morphological characteristics of the bones, the conclusions showed that the bones belonged to one young horse of 2–2.5 years, with an average recalculated shoulder height as being situated in the 1300–1400 mm interval. The study provides a set of morphological data regarding the characteristics of the horses from this scantily represented history in Romania, and the results show that the data obtained are consistent with the similar Avar horse burials in the region. ABSTRACT: Archeozoological studies provide an insight into human–environment relations, bringing important information on the morphology of the animal and the role of the animal and its functions. The purpose of this study was to reveal the morphological characteristics of the horse identified in an 8th century BC Avar cemetery dated, as it resulted from the investigation carried out on the materials presented to the Anatomy Lab of Department of Comparative Anatomy. The cleaning and conditioning of the materials were performed in the lab, followed by anatomical and osteometrical study. The identification of the species, the osteometrical interpretation and the assessment of age at death constituted the basis of the main conclusions. Based on the morphological and metrical data, we concluded that the fragments originated from a single young horse individual (Equus caballus) no older than 2.5 (2–2.5 years age span) included into class 5 of height (Vitt scale) with slender extremities. An overview of the available data (horse morphology) from similar sites in Romania and neighboring territories (Hungary and Croatia) is presented, with the intention of a general framing for the characteristics of the horses used by the Avar populations.