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September 17, 2003
Celtic Chariot
One of the highlights of Breyerfest this year was the "All the Queen's Horses" exhibit, including this Celtic chariot.
Although we couldn't take any photographs inside the exhibit (I did buy a lovely book, though, which showed photos of every item on display) we could take photos of this reproduction ancient Celtic chariot, which roamed the grounds throughout the weekend. The museum exhibit traced the role of the horse in the history of the British Isles, and was extremely interesting. The floor of the chariot was not fixed, it was a floating platform. The sraps you see hanging from the side rails of the chariot are holding up the platform.
The horses that drew these chariots were extremely small, around 13 hh or so, and would be considered ponies by our standards.
Posted by Jessica at September 17, 2003 01:43 PM
Comments
Well let's hear it for Boudicca! she was meant to hurtle about in one of those things (Supposedly) Frightened the Romans and set fire to at least two towns before getting flattened by the Roman army outside Londinium!
I have to do a major project on this with my class of 7 year olds, Big bit of Brit history and quite the local Hero/ Antihero depending on how you look at it.
Those chariots don't look like much but they were fast. Horses here were smaller until the middle ages wheb they were bred bigger to carry Knights.
Posted by: Amanda at September 17, 2003 01:54 PM
I'm all for teaching little kids about Boudicca! Boys should learn to respect women, and girls need to know that there are some fantastic heroic females in history! When I was 7 years old, I had never heard of a female warrior, political leader, or even a female artist. Even when I was in college, I had a professor who told me that "there has never been a great woman artist because women are incapable of being great artists." Rubbish! (This professor, who did not have tenure, later had to apologize publicly for his gross and demeaning attitude towards female and minority students.)
Posted by: Jessica at September 17, 2003 02:51 PM
Cor! What a thing to say! We are big on equal ops in my school (some of my boys produce excellent sewing and my girls do good science, they just need to be given the chance to have a go.)
When I take my classes to Colchester Castle Museum, they get to go down beneath the cstle into the foundations of the Temple of Claudius that once stood on the same site, it was destroyed in Boudicca's attack on the town. They also get to handle a piece of burnt terracotta pottery excavated from the town which is contemporary with the attack. They love it, a piece of pottery nearly 2,000 years old!
Posted by: Amanda at September 17, 2003 04:22 PM
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