This book is an unusual collection of papers and presents case studies and issues which many students involved in equine science fields may not have considered before. It is published by the British Archaeological Press (BAR), and so perhaps unsurprisingly the text is strongly archaeological. In other words, the techniques, methodologies and analyses will be familiar territory for anyone working with animal bones from archaeological sites. For readers without such technical knowledge or experience in this field however, many of the contributions will initially raise more questions than they answer. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it will force students to read more widely, and engage with terms such as D.Fem which will certainly contribute to their knowledge of horses in the past. As an understanding of the past is integral to an understanding of the present, and, as Olsen argues the important part that horses have played in human history originated in the Pleistocene, when Palaeolithic hunters spread into Europe and Asia and began exploiting them as meat. The horse's value to society has been transformed greatly through time, and continues to be crucial today in many parts of the world (p. 1) then the historiographical and archaeological nature of the chapters should prove valuable to students of human-horse relationships in the contemporary world.

The themes covered by the contributors range from horse domestication, hunting, visual representations of equines,
development of riding and tack, use of horses in ritual and mythology and the roles of horses in a range of more
recent ethnographic settings including as transport in urban areas. From an archaeological perspective, the geographical range covered is to be expected (Europe and Asia), as it was on these continents where early human-horse relationships were formed.

Overall, the varied nature of the subject matter, and the wealth of primary data presented by the contributors makes this a very useful textbook for students who are interested in learning more about human-horse relationships in the past, or who want to broaden their academic horizons into the field of archaeozoology (the study of animal bones).

Dr. Ros Coard and Samantha Hurn
University of Wales, Lampeter