On the problems of very early horse riding (comments to work Markku Niskanen "The prehistoric origins of the domestic horse and horseback riding") (original) (raw)
Related papers
The prehistoric origins of the domestic horse and horseback riding
Bulletins et mémoires de la société d'anthropologie de Paris
Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d' Anthropologie de Paris Cet article fait suite à une communication invitée présentée lors des 1847 es journées de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris dans le cadre de la session "Les relations entre les humains et les animaux" Abstract-The findings of Librado et al. (2021) show that modern domestic horses (DOM2) emerged in the lower Don-Volga region. They imply that horseback riding drove selection that resulted in these horses and fuelled their initial dispersal, and also that DOM2 horses replaced other horses because they were more suitable for riding due to their more docile temperaments and resilient backs. In this article, I argue that captive breeding of horses leading to their domestication began in about 4500-3000 BC in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and made horseback riding necessary because managing horses, and especially moving them over long distances, required mounted herding. Horseback riding had been experimented with since the second half of the 5 th millennium BC, became common around 3100 BC during the early stages of the Yamnaya culture, and necessary by the middle of the 3 rd millennium BC at the very latest. As horseback riding became more common, selection for malleable temperaments and resilient backs intensified, resulting in DOM2 horses by about 2300-2200 BC in the lower Don-Volga region. The body size and weight-carrying ability of ancestral and early DOM2 horses were not limiting factors for horseback riding. The initial dispersal of DOM2 horses was facilitated by horseback riding and began by about 2300 +150 BC. Chariotry began to spread together with DOM2 horses after 2000 BC, but its high archaeological visibility may have inflated its importance, since chariots are of limited practical use for herding and other daily tasks. Keywords-horses, domestication, selection, riding, chariotry lisation du char à deux roues s'est dispersée avec les chevaux DOM2 après 2000 av. J.-C., mais une grande visibilité archéologique peut avoir gonflé l'importance du char, qui a une utilité pratique quelque peu limitée dans l'élevage et d'autres tâches quotidiennes.
A detailed commentary is given on the article "First bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship" by Martin Trautmann et al. It is shown that the authors' conclusions about the early appearance of horse riding in the Yamnaya culture look unrealistic, since they do not take into account a number of factors, including: 1) Thousands of years before horses were domesticated, there was a real possibility of riding oxen and cows; 2) For horsemanship until the end of the 3rd millennium BC there were no conditions, including genetic ones, and there was no documentary evidence of real horsemanship; 3) Bioanthropological analysis of 21 features, carried out by A. Buzhilova on a representative sample from the central, rather than peripheral, region of the Yamnaya culture, led her to the conclusion that there were no traces of horsemanship on the skeletons of individuals until the end of the Bronze Age. The authors ignored this result and carried out their analysis only on 6 characteristics; 4) There is bioanthropological data on the movement of people of the Yamnaya culture not on horseback, but on foot during migrations; 5) The meat and sometimes dairy purpose of horses ("live canned food") has been precisely established; 6) There is another significant need for using horses: not for riding, but for obtaining food from under the snow for all other animals from the herd in harsh winters; 7) The individuals studied in the article, taking into account their height and weight, were physiologically unable to ride early horses; 8) The purely utilitarian purpose of the horse in the Yamnaya culture is confirmed by the absence of its cult images. This is in sharp contrast both to some earlier Neolithic and Eneolithic cultures, and to later ones that existed after the domestication of the horse at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. At the same time, we have shown that the cult of the horse in Indo-European cultures and the appearance of scepters with the image of a horse's head are not directly related to the early horsemanship assumed by the authors, but are most likely associated with religious ideas and have direct analogies (like some other cultural and religious markers Indo-Europeans) even in previous cultures of the northern Mesolithic, in the form of the cult of the Heavenly Elk or the Heavenly Moose, using the corresponding scepters with the image of an elk's head.
Envisioning Early Equestrianism: Clues from Archaeology and Ancient DNA
The origins of riding have been an elusive and contentious subject for archaeologists. Recent research in archaeology and ancient DNA (aDNA) have begun to clarify early riding and the genetic make-up of the first domesticated horses. In this paper, I pull together evidence from horse bones, human remains, the first bits, and aDNA of people and horses to explore what riding may have been like around 2000 BC. The function of early bits, bit-wear, horse size and conformation are examined with reference to archaeological finds and experimental study to produce a picture of what an early riding horse may been like and, along with human remains, how riding may have been practiced. This is augmented by aDNA information regarding coat color and what early people may have been selectively breeding for in horses. The form and function of the earliest bits will be familiar to most equestrians, as will the osteological changes in people and horses that occur from riding. I draw parallels to modern bits and bitting traditions to elucidate how basic practices of horsemanship have great antiquity. I conclude with a discussion about how the language between people and horses through horse training may have been part of the domestication process itself.
Horse size and domestication: Early equid bones from the Czech Republic in the European context
We collected and evaluated, by the 'logarithmic size index' (LSI) method, all available postcranial equid bones found in the Czech Republic from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Material from the Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenien) and Bohemian Late Bronze Age (Knovíz culture) was also included. Two different species of equids were documented: Equus hydruntinus Regalia, 1907 and Equus ferus Boddaert, 1785. The variation in the size of true horses was compared with data published for neighbouring countries. In most periods, the horses are found to be larger in the eastern part of Central Europe than in the western part. The Czech lands appear to span the border of two worlds: the Pannonian plains and the western, geomorphologically diverse regions. The status of horses in the Neolithic Lengyel period from Moravia remains disputable. However, a high size variability in Eneo-lithic Funnel Beaker culture (TRB, 3800-3350 BC) together with a non-homogeneous distribution in Řivnáč culture (3100-2800 BC) and a significant increase in size between Lengyel and Baden-Řivnáč horizons (probably already in TRB) combined with the occasional occurrence of unexpectedly large individuals probably indicate the importation of tamed or even domesticated horses as early as the times of TRB culture, which is earlier than claimed in other recent studies, and possibly reflect multiple origins of the horse population. The large variability and repeated diminution in size of horses in the Early Bronze Age (Únětice culture, 2200-1700 BC) could indicate advanced domestication or multiple origins of the populations (or both). The persistence of wild horses in the Early Bronze Age cannot be proved osteometrically, but the presence of domesticated horses is considered certain.
Domestic horse from early Iron Age of Сrimea
2013
The modern genetic and biomolecular studies advanced significantly the state of knowledge on origin of domestic horse and gave general outlines of the process of horse domestication. Nonetheless, some important details, like, for instance, the place and the exact chronology of domestication, as well as the direct ancestral form of domestic horse, remain uncertain. The detailed study of morphology of various forms of domestic horse from the vast steppe area of Eurasia and adjacent regions with application of the methods of classical paleozoological methods may reveal some details of horse domestication process and indicate the most promising directions for biomolecular studies. The present study of osteological remains of domestic horse from Early Iron Age of Uch-Bash (Ukraine, Crimea, Sevastopol) brings some data on morphological peculiriaties of ancient domestic horse from Crimea. The horse from Uch-Bash is characterized by relatively small cheek teeth that approach the material under study to presently extinct wild European tarpan and Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Equus caballus uralensis from Ural Region. The upper cheek teeth are characterized by the broad variation range of the relative length of protocone (the index of protocone length varies from 34.6% to 62.1%), which has a clear small incision if seen from the grinding surface of the tooth. This variant of tooth morphology was described in Equus valeriani from Upper Paleolithic of Central Asia (Gromova 1949a). Unlike tarpan, which is characterized by short and massive phalanges (Gromova 1949a, Kuz’mina 1997), the horse from Uch-Bash possess long and thin phalanges that approach the horse under study to the ancient presumed domestic horse from Botai and the fossil horse of Ural. The only known first posterior phalanx of the horse from Uch-Bash is very close to the mean value of the sample from Botai and significantly longer than phalanxes of E. caballus gmelini and E. przewalskii. The second phalanxes of the horse from Uch-Bash are particularly long and thin, exceeding the range of absolute variation of both Botai and Ural horses. The above mentioned dental and postcranial characters approach the horse from Uch-Bash to Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene fossil forms E. caballus uralensis from Ural Region and E. valeriani from Central Asia. The demographic structure of the horse remains from Uch-Bash is characterized by dominance of senile individuals that attain ca. 45% of the total number of individuals, confirming the conclusion that the osteological remains under study belong to domestic horse. Therefore, one can assume that the horses were used in Uch-Bash for transport needs and as draft animals.
Horses and horse riders along the ages
2011
In the sequence of the project carried out in the Municipality of Golegã in February of 2009, where an exhibition of paintings was connected with a lecture, the same authors now continue and develop the previous presented event. This time the aim of the exhibition is not limited to the image of the horse and of man in rock art, which was the theme of the project of 2009, but it approaches the very diverse iconographic depictions of the horse and horse riders through time and space. The presented paintings, in a general way, get inspiration in the art from very diverse cultures around the world, adding some colour and texture to the original images which are exactly reproduced. Thus, it’s possible to observe examples of prehistoric art from the French-cantabric region, of classical Greek art, of Scythian art, Viking art, Irish art, medieval French art, Mogol art, Indian art, Japanese art and contemporary Portuguese art. In this catalogue, besides the technical description of the paintings, each work is followed by a commentary of historic and cultural character, whose aim is to spread the close relation between man and horse along the ages, high lightening some aspects like domestication, mythology, the figure of the knight/warrior, the horse as a means of transport, of war machine and an element of social status, among other cases. The words marked with an asterisk (*) have a definition in a glossary available in the last page. Like in 2009, the present exhibition is preceded by a lecture where some aspects showed in the paintings are developed and discussed, being the theme this year “Horses and horse riders since prehistory till the Middle Ages.”
The origins and spread of domestic horse
NATURE, 2021
Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 bc, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture.