As a rule they were broad-browed like Equus sivalensis, but instead of having a marked prominence between the orbits, as in Thoroughbreds of the 'Persimmon' type, they were flat or slightly concave between the orbits, but prominent below the level of the orbits, i.e. they were like many modern Shires and Clydesdales, more or less 'Roman-nosed'; decidedly convex where Arabs and Thoroughbreds are usually concave.
In their molar teeth these coarse-headed, cross-bred animals very closely agree with the wild horse (Equus przewalskii) of Mongolia, but in two cases the wolf teeth (first premolars) are as well developed as in Equus sivalensis. Though in some cases the skulls of the cross-bred horses are as large as the skull of a well-bred 15 hands horse, they probably as a rule belonged to animals barely 14 hands at the withers.
The largest horse skull found during the excavations has a total length of 582 mm. When the skull of a Thoroughbred measures 582 mm. one may safely assume that it belonged to an animal measuring 16 hands at the withers, but as in a 16-hands horse of the Shire breed the skull may measure 680 mm. one may assume that a cross-bred animal with a skull 582 mm. in length measured under 15 hands at the withers.[1]
It may hence be assumed that while some of the horses belonging to the auxiliaries who garrisoned the Newstead Fort measured nearly 15 hands, the majority were below rather than above 14 hands. In all probability the better bred horses, measuring about 14 hands, belonged to the cavalry and the mounted men (about one in four) attached to the infantry regiments, while the coarse-headed animals were as a rule used for transport. As the Gauls, from the second century onwards, had been improving their horses by means of well-bred stallions imported at great cost from the South of Europe, the majority of the horses belonging to the cavalry and mounted infantry probably came originally from Gaul. The more powerful large-headed animals) on the other hand, probably came from Germany—belonged, in fact, to the 'bad and ugly' native German breeds referred to by Caesar.
The last lot of horse bones received from Newstead included the skull of an ass, which measured about 13 hands at the withers. For some reason or other the ass has never been as popular in Britain as on the Continent. This is evidently not because it was late in reaching Britain, but probably because the inhabitants of these islands—for agricultural purposes as well as for sport and war—preferred from the first a tractable high-spirited courageous animal.
BOVIDAE
I. SHEEP AND GOATS
Very few sheep bones were found at Newstead. Whether this was due to sheep being seldom used as food, or to few bones being preserved, it is impossible to say. The
1 Frequently in crosses between Arab and Highland ponies the head is decidedly longer than in either of the parents, probably owing to reversion to a large-headed ancestor,
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