Archaeological analysis in Hungary reveals that horsemeat consumption persisted long after the country adopted Christianity. This challenges the widely held belief that the decline in eating horsemeat was primarily driven by religious constraints. The study, led by Professor László Bartosiewicz from Stockholm University and Dr. Erika Gál from the HUN-REN Research Center for the Humanities, examined horse remains from 198 medieval settlements, providing new insights into dietary practices in medieval Hungary.
Historically, the consumption of horsemeat, or hippophagy, was common in pre-Christian Europe. As Christianity spread, it was thought that horsemeat consumption waned due to religious taboos. While the Church never formally banned eating horsemeat, many medieval texts depicted it as impure, associating it with “barbaric” customs of non-Christian cultures. The authors of the study note, “Based on documentary sources, abandoning horsemeat consumption is widely associated with the emergence of Christianity in medieval Europe.”
Nonetheless, the absence of an explicit prohibition, akin to the bans on pork in Judaism and Islam, suggests regional variations in attitudes toward horsemeat. The researchers highlight that no large-scale archaeological survey had previously addressed the consumption of horsemeat in medieval Europe, allowing the prevailing narrative to go largely unchallenged.
To explore this topic, Bartosiewicz and Gál analyzed the percentage of horse remains found in refuse contexts across the settlements. Their findings, published in the journal Antiquity, indicate that horse remains constituted a significant proportion of food waste, continuing more than 200 years after Hungary’s conversion to Christianity in AD 1000. At certain rural sites, horse bones accounted for up to one third of identifiable livestock remains.
The study reveals that horsemeat consumption began to decline following the Mongol invasion of 1241-42. The authors explain that horses became scarcer and were increasingly viewed as valuable assets. “Horses were valuable war booty and surviving horse stock was probably in high demand for purposes other than food,” they state. The invasion resulted in a demographic shift, with approximately 40% to 50% of Hungary’s population perishing. To repopulate the country, the Hungarian king invited settlers from western regions who were more urbanized and did not include horsemeat in their dietary customs.
The findings from this research suggest that the decline in horsemeat consumption was influenced more by changes in availability and population dynamics than by religious beliefs. Bartosiewicz and Gál’s work illustrates the importance of archaeology in reevaluating historical narratives, which often reflect the biases of later interpretations. They conclude, “Tropes equating hippophagy with ‘barbarity’ have abounded since antiquity. This othering is most poignant in sources that post-date the events they are describing, sometimes by centuries, and possibly portray negative generalizations rather than past ‘reality.'”
The study not only sheds light on medieval dietary practices but also emphasizes the complex interactions between cultures and their environments. The contribution of horse remains to food refuse needs to be understood within the broader context of historical trends and the evolving relationships among different peoples in medieval Hungary.
