Origin of horse domestication
Modern domestic horses come from the Western Eurasian steppe – report scientists. An international research team, including researchers from the PAS Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals and PAS Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology manage to determine the beginnings of domestication of horses.
Until now, Kazakhstan in Central Asia has been considered a hypothetical home of domesticated horses. This hypothesis was associated with the presence of ancient horse remains and the Botai people inhabiting these areas, whose culture and economy were largely based on horses. Apart from Central Asia other potential origin sites were Iberian Peninsula and Anatolia – however these regions have also recently been challenged. Research in genetics, geography, archaeology and other fields has revealed where horses came from and how significantly their domestication influenced human history.
Where did domesticated horses come from?
Based on an analysis of 273 ancient horses genomes sequenced from remains collected across Europe and Asia, scientists determined that the home of modern domestic horses is the Western Eurasia steppe – especially Don-Volga region. Beginning in 2000 BC, the population of modern domestic horses rapidly spread out across Eurasia along with the equestrian material culture, displacing wild horse populations. It is confirmed by material traces such as Sintashta spoke-wheeled war chariots found in this region. This Middle Bronze Age archaeological culture of the Northern Eurasian steppe developed on the borders of Eastern Europe and Central Asia around 2100-1800 BC. Scientists formulate a scenario according to which domesticated horses spread throughout Eurasia along with chariots and Indo-Iranian languages. Furthermore, they state that horse breeding for equestrian purposes was strongly related to selection of specific horse traits.
The article The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes has recently been published in the Nature journal.
Source of information: Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences
