Prof Ursula Brosseder

Ursula Brosseder is one of the few European archaeologists with more than two decades of experience in Monglia

After gaining her PhD in Berlin - on the Early Iron Age in Europe - she turned to Eurasia to focus on the stunning but harsh environments of the steppes. There she’s conducted many excavations at remote sites, always under the time pressure of a brief summer season, and spending a total of about one and a half years in a ger, a traditional Mongolian tent.

Ursula has built up an expertise in the Xiongnu Empire and the Bronze and Early Iron Age of Mongolia making her a perfect fit for Horsepower. A major theme of her work is to highlight the pivotal role of mobile societies, often overlooked in conventional histories. Now a researcher at LEIZA (the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie) in Mainz, she teaches at Bonn University. Awarded a series of fellowships in Russia, China and the United States, Ursula recently received the Friendship Medal of Mongolia for her work illuminating the country’s ancient history.

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​Ursula says her passion for the Horsepower project is to understand how introducing horses - and using them in different ways - changed societies and helped them to play a role that became globally significant.