According to an April 2025 press release from Germany’s Stuttgart Regional Council, an excavation by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments has uncovered more than 100 horse skeletons from Roman times in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt.

The animals belonged to a cavalry unit that was stationed at Hallschlag in the 2nd century AD. The finds provide unique insights into the Roman army’s use of horses. 

Important military base

Bad Cannstatt was in the first half of the 2nd century AD one of the most important Roman military bases in today’s southwest Germany. The cavalry unit stationed there probably had a population of over 700 animals. If an animal died, it was buried at a sufficient distance from the fort and settlement in a specially selected area.

A new construction project by Stuttgarter Wohnungs-und Städtebaugesellschaft mbH (SWSG) in the area between Düsseldorfer Straße and Bottroper Straße made archaeological investigations necessary starting in July 2024; this brought to light around 100 horse skeletons. The excavations were carried out by the archaeological company ArchaeoBW under the professional supervision of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments (LAD) in the Stuttgart Regional Council and have now been completed.

During the construction of apartment blocks in the 1920s, horse skeletons were discovered for the first time near Nastplatz. At that time, the area was interpreted as a Roman horse cemetery, or “Schindanger.” The archaeological construction work now carried out on Düsseldorfer Straße and the rescue excavation that followed in autumn were able to confirm this interpretation:

“The first horse bones that have now been discovered were randomly dated to the 2nd century using the radiocarbon method,” reports Sarah Roth, the archaeologist responsible at the LAD. “Based on the archaeological-historical knowledge of Roman Bad Cannstatt, the horses can be assigned to the riding unit—a so-called ‘Ala’—which was stationed on the Hallschlag from about 100 to 150 AD. The troop with just under 500 riders must have had a total horse population of at least 700 animals [since] losses had to be constantly replaced.”

Cemetery size unknown

Dead horses were buried about 400 meters from the cavalry fort and at a distance of 200 meters from the civilian settlement. The carcasses were usually dragged individually into shallow pits, where they were buried lying on their sides with their legs stretched or bent.

The site was probably marked above ground, because despite a partly dense occupancy, there were only a few overlaps between the pits, according to Roth.

“The horses do not all seem to have died at the same time in a major event such as a battle or plague,” she continues. “Rather, the animals that either died or no longer fulfilled their task as military horses during the presence of the Ala in Bad Cannstatt due to illness, injury or other reasons lie here. If the horse was still able to walk on its own, it will have been taken to the horse cemetery and killed on the spot so as not to have to transport the heavy carcass.”

The exact size of the horse cemetery remains unknown. “It was originally certainly more extensive than the approximately 70 by 80 metre area in the northeast of the new building area, where the skeletons were found,” says Roth. 

A ‘particularly close bond’

Most of the animals were probably disposed of rather than buried, with a few exceptions: One of the horses had two jugs and a small oil lamp, typical grave goods for humans, placed in the crook of a forelimb as a farewell. “Here we see a particularly close bond between the owner and his horse,” Roth says. “Even after about 1,800 years, the grief over the death of this one animal is still visible.”

Less appreciation than this horse had apparently been shown was given to an adult man buried nearby. His skeleton, in a prone position and without any grave goods, was found between the horse graves, far away from the regular burial ground of the Roman settlement. Here, an “outsider” of ancient society must have been irreverently buried.

After the completion of the excavations, the large number of horse skeletons from Bad Cannstattnow offers the rare opportunity to gain a closer insight into the Roman army’s use of horses. Archaeozoological investigations will provide information on the sex, age at death and size of the horses, as well as their use as mounts, possible diseases and the cause of death.

Scientific investigations could also clarify further questions: How were the animals kept and fed? Where did the first generation of horses come from, and were they bred in Bad Cannstatt or the surrounding area in later times? Not an unimportant question in a state capital whose name in German (“Stutengarten”) translates to “mare’s garden.”

Images courtesy Stuttgart Regional Council