Roman Horsemanship and Equestrian Technology: An Experimental Bioarchaeological Framework for Testing Rider Support and Skeletal Adaptation.

This extended abstract presents an experimental bioarchaeological framework for investigating the relationship between equestrian technology, rider biomechanics, and long-term skeletal adaptation, with particular reference to Roman horsemanship. The proposed methodology compares three principal riding conditions: a modern saddle with stirrups, a comparable configuration without stirrups, and a functional reconstruction of the Roman four-horn saddle without stirrups. The aim is to determine whether these configurations generate reproducibly different patterns of lower-limb loading, joint position, muscular demand, and postural stabilisation. Experimentally characterised biomechanical differences would be used to formulate a priori multivariate osteological predictions and tested against independently contextualised archaeological reference populations. Only after validation would the resulting framework be applied to Roman-period habitual riders as a blind test. The approach does not assume the existence of a diagnostic skeletal “stirrup marker” and does not claim that Roman cavalry used stirrups. A Roman skeletal pattern resembling stirrup-supported riding would indicate biomechanical similarity rather than direct evidence for a specific artefact and would require alternative explanations—including saddle design, riding technique, and other forms of foot support—to be evaluated independently. The proposed contribution lies in integrating experimental comparison of stirrup-supported riding, unsupported riding, and reconstructed Roman saddle technology with pre-specified multivariate osteological predictions and an independently validated Roman test. This deposit documents the development of the methodological framework originally introduced in Lama (2026), Testing the Pre-Medieval Stirrup Paradigm: A Bioarchaeological Research Hypothesis Based on Lower-Limb Skeletal Biomechanics, Zenodo, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22777857. It presents a research proposal and methodological framework and reports no empirical results.