Left: Iron horse-hoof scrapers discovered in a Celtiberian burial at Bronchales, in Teruel province, Spain; 5th century B.C. Right: Iron horse-shoe discovered in the Celtiberian necropolis of Aguilar de Anguita, in Guadalajara province, Spain; 3rd century B.C. 🇪🇸

Celtiberian horse-shoes are among the earliest known in archaeology, rivaled only by Etruscan finds from northern Italy dating to ~400 B.C. Recent finds of hoof-scrapers from Bronchales are the earliest evidence of the practice of shoeing horses in existence. It therefore appears quite likely that the horseshoe is a Celtiberian invention. The six burials unearthed at Bronchales were also revelatory, as they contained much material from Andalusia, which to archaeologist Francisco Burillo suggests that Celtiberian herdsmen used to regularly take their herds of cattle south to trade with the Iberian civilization (think how every summer Scottish Highlanders used to travel with their cattle to Crieff in the Strathearn Lowlands for trade); indeed, the men buried at Bronchales may just be the earliest known “vaqueros” (i.e. ‘cowboys’).

https://t.me/CelticEurope