Riding for a fall: Bone fractures among mounted archers from the Hungarian Conquest period (10th century CE)

Horse riding, a determinant activity in the history of human cultural evolution, remains unreliably identifiable from the analysis of human skeletal remains due to various sample and methodological limitations. Through a comparison between well-documented series of presumed riders and non-riders, this study aimed to investigate the link between skeletal fractures and that practice in past populations. We relied on a Hungarian Conquest period population (Sarretudvari-Hizofold, Hungary, 10th century CE) known to be composed of mounted archers. We recorded the presence of acute fractures on the main bones of the upper and lower skeleton to analyze their distribution and perform comparisons between the individuals with or without riding-related deposits in their grave and with an out-sample group of presumed non-riders from the documented Luis Lopes Skeletal Collection (Lisbon). We observed more fractures in the Hungarian series and especially higher rates concerning the upper limb, while the distribution of traumas was more homogenous in the documented collection. There were also significantly more clavicle fractures in the Hungarian group with riding deposit than in the non-riders from Lisbon, whose type can be related to a fall from a height. Our results coincide with sports medicine data on equestrians, whose injuries mostly concern the upper limbs. Such traumas, and especially clavicle fractures, are often caused, indeed, by a fall from a horse. Through the use of pertinent anthropological series, this study provides the most reliable association between the presence of skeletal traumas and the practice of horse riding in a past population.