Archaeologists have upended long-standing assumptions about prehistoric Sicily. A study led by Davide Tanasi, a professor at the University of South Florida, reveals that horses were present on the island much earlier than previously believed—and that horse meat was part of the local diet during the Bronze Age.
Published in PLOS One, the research provides the earliest documented evidence of horse consumption in Sicily. It challenges the long-held belief that horses did not arrive there until the first millennium B.C.
Horses reshaped early civilizations
“The horse was one of the most transformative animals in ancient civilizations, shaping mobility, warfare, hunting, agriculture, economy, and religion,” Tanasi said.
“To prove that the indigenous of Sicily had access to horses 1,000 years before what was traditionally believed has enormous repercussions and substantially alters existing models of horse domestication, utilization, and dietary practices.”
Tanasi, founder and director of the Institute for Digital Exploration (IDEx) at USF, co-authored the study with Robert Tykot of the Department of Anthropology and Enrico Greco of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment.
Their work not only documents the presence of horses but also sheds light on cultural exchange, ritual practices, and economic strategies in the central Mediterranean during the third millennium B.C.
Pottery reveals ritual feasts
Excavations at the base of Sicily’s Polizzello mountain uncovered hundreds of pottery fragments. Most were cooking and table vessels, including pitchers, cups, and footed bowls. At the center of the assemblage was a large pedestal basin that Tanasi believes stood at the heart of communal ceremonies.
“It must have contained horse meat-based foodstuff, possibly in the form of a stew,” he explained. “Participants in the ritual took portions into smaller bowls, from which they consumed them.”
Ethnographic parallels suggest that such gatherings may have included prayers, chants, and dances. A terracotta phallus found at the site suggests fertility rituals were performed alongside communal meals.
From early digs to modern labs
Tanasi first excavated the Polizzello site in 2005, but technology at the time was not advanced enough to analyze organic residue left in the pottery. He stored the fragments and turned to other projects, including the discovery of prehistoric wine in the caves of Monte Kronio and evidence of hallucinogens in a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mug.
In 2024, he returned to the material. At the IDEx lab in Tampa, his team used proteomic analysis to study the vessels.
Scientific proof of horse consumption
“The proteomic analysis of the organic residues revealed a clear biomolecular signature of horse products in a substantial subset of the vessels,” Tanasi said.
The most striking result was the detection of equine serum albumin, a major blood protein specific to horses. “Thousands and thousands of pages that have been written now have to be revised and rewritten because we found the missing piece,” Tanasi explained.
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