Résumé
Metal findings and iconographic evidences related to horses suggest that these animals had a strong symbolic value and became major prestige items in Bronze Age and Iron Age societies from the NE of the Iberian Peninsula. The research developed in the frame of the project ‘Mobility, contacts and exchanges during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula: the Ripoll River (Barcelona) as a laboratory’ (PI: J. López Cachero) included a pilot study on six Iron Age horses from the site of Can Roqueta to explore their geographical origin by the means of strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr). The strontium isotopic study included the analysis of six archaeological horse enamel samples. In addition, the local strontium ratio was assessed by the means of three dentine samples from the archaeological site, and the bioavailable strontium around the site was evaluated on oak leaves from two different locations. In addition, other 10 present-day tree samples from different geological formations around the site were used as a comparison. The results obtained indicate that some of the strontium ratios from archaeological horse enamel are compatible with the local geology and neighbour formations. Nevertheless, a more distant origin cannot be excluded, as lead isotopic studies on bronze objects recovered at the site indicate that copper ores from the area of Les Cévennes (Southern France) were used to make a Mialhacian arrowhead and a double-spring fibula, which supports the existence of long distance trade at the site (Rovira et al., 2008).