For want of a nail: Horse and donkey shoes in the Kingdom of Jerusalem1

Joppe Gosker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

When Cedric Norman Johns found the first Crusader-period horseshoe in ‘Atlit in the 1930s he set the foundation for research on horseshoes in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He labeled it “European” to distinguish it from the “traditional native horseshoe”. Many scholars have used this distinction, but to confuse matters, Frankish horseshoes have also been classified into two chronological types. Johns estimated the horse to be small, like the “mounts of the Palestinian Police” (c. 1.5 m). Almost 90 years after Johns’s excavations, time is ripe to revisit these subjects. Horseshoe typology can only be used to confirm the general date of horseshoes from the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The ‘traditional native’ shoes were used to shod donkeys, and the assemblage of the Crusader period includes many donkey shoes. The height of the Frankish horses was less debated, but horse skeletons, found at Frankish sites, have shed some light on this subject. The horseshoes from the Kingdom of Jerusalem are large compared to European finds. Studies on the relation between hoof width and withers height in modern horses allow us to estimate the height of the Frankish horses. This kind of research is not available for donkeys; therefore I have collected data from 60 donkeys in order to make an estimate. Shoeing horses started in Europe during the early Middle Ages, but until the Crusader period no horses or donkeys were shod in the East. There were very few donkeys in Northern Europe in this period, but it seems that somewhere during the thirteenth century a 1.2 m high donkey, shod with iron shoes, climbed up to the Montfort Castle. In the fourteenth century Mamluk veterinarians wrote in detail on shoeing horses and donkeys.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationExploring Outremer Volume II
Subtitle of host publicationStudies in Crusader Archaeology in Honour of Adrian J. Boas
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages216-234
Number of pages19
ISBN (Electronic)9781000869156
ISBN (Print)9780367705596
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Rabei G. Khamisy, Rafael Y. Lewis, Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel; individual chapters, the contributors.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities

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