ON SKULLS OF HORSES FROM THE ROMAN FORT AT NEWSTEAD. 583 



One of the small skulls from Newstead differs more decidedly from skulls of the 

 Forest and Steppe varieties than any skulls of modern Celtic ponies 1 have hitherto 

 had the opportunity of examining. From this it may perhaps be inferred that at the 

 beginning of the Christian era typical Celtic ponies were more common than is the 

 case now. 



Horses of the so-called Oriental type. — -I have had occasion again and again to 

 refer to Professor Ridgeway's work on the Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred 

 Horse. The object of this book is to prove (mainly by the use of the deductive 

 method) (1) that in the remote past there was evolved in North Africa a fleet, docile 

 bay horse, characterised by a fine head, narrow hoofs, and the absence of the hind 

 chestnuts, by a star on the forehead and white points, by a high set-on tail and a 

 tendency to stripes — a horse having a general resemblance to the best Arabian and 

 Barbary horses of to-day ; and (2) that by the blending of this North African (Libyan) 

 variety with the dun and white horses of Europe and Asia in varying degrees, all the 

 improved breeds in the world were produced. 



It will be remembered that the excavators found at Newstead a number of long, 

 narrow skulls, which were probably connected with the presence of Gaulish auxiliaries 

 from between the Alps and the Rhone. These skulls, except in size, were found to 

 be almost identical with the small Newstead skulls of the Celtic type, and they very 

 closely agree with the skulls of certain modern high-caste Arabs. From this it may 

 be inferred that the Celtic pony, the Arab-like (Libyan) horses of the second century, 

 and modern Arabs of the highest type, have all sprung from the same stock. 



I have given reasons for the view that in prehistoric times the Celtic variety was 

 widely distributed in Europe; in all probability it occurred in various parts of Asia, and, 

 it may be added, it had ample opportunities during the Ice Age of reaching North 

 Africa. In an attempt to answer the question, Where was the original home of the 

 variety to which the Arab-like Newstead skulls belonged ? one has to consider where in 

 bygone days the conditions lent themselves to the evolution of horses of the Plateau or 

 riding type. That Arabia was not the birthplace of the fine-headed, slender-limbed 

 fleet steeds which reached the south of Europe in considerable numbers before the 

 Christian era, will be admitted if, as seems highly probable, the Arabians at the 

 beginning of the Christian era had not yet acquired horses. 



In Homeric times there were dun -coloured horses in Greece. Achilles had two 

 long-maned swift horses, a dun and a dapple-dun, that flew as swift as the winds. 

 In Thrace there were white horses whiter than snow and "for speed like the winds." 

 The Sigynnae, some . centuries later, had small flat-nosed horses, which when yoked 

 under a chariot were very swift. 



The flat-nosed and long-maned horses could not belong to the long-headed 

 " Roman-nosed " Steppe variety, and the swift horses could hardly belong to the 

 slow-moving Forest type, which implies that, like the small swift horses of the ancient 

 Britons, they belonged to the Celtic variety, or were at least saturated with Celtic 



