https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/chronicles/2025/unearthing-prehistoric-diets-usf-professor-rewrites-history-with-new-evidence-of-horses-in-early-bronze-age-sicily.aspx
Hopefully of interest
To be honest it would be more surprising if they didn't have them. People swim the straits, so getting a few ponies across on boats or rafts or even swimming behind the boats should be possible
https://www.timesofsicily.com/swimming-across-the-strait-of-messina/
Interesting indeed. The source paper makes clear that the evidence is from the Early Bronze Age, which is even more interesting. I do wonder whether he is too quick to dismiss the equid stew as being donkey rather than horse; his argument that donkeys were valued as pack animals and therefore unlikely to be eaten misses the point that if this is a ritual meal, as he hypothesises, then the whole point of sacrifice is something of value.
If they are horses, whether Sicilian or Italian, then are they domesticated? EBA seems very early on the normal domesticated equine models outside of the steppes.
A topic for discussion here hopefully