Humans were riding horses 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, new study finds
The bond between horses and humans goes back a long way: the animals have played a central role in the spread of our species around the world and have also had a long and storied use in warfare, even as recently as World War II.
It was previously thought that the first wild horses were tamed and domesticated around 4,000 years ago, between 2200 and 2100 BC, but new research has now pushed our relationship with horses back more than a thousand years.
“Horses were being boarded, worked and traded long before anyone thought it was possible,” researchers at the University of Helsinki write in the journal. Science Developments.
The research team used DNA, archaeological and bone records to examine the timeline of human use of horses over the centuries.
“Domestication and domestication were not isolated events,” they said. Instead, “it was a slow, stop-start process, full of setbacks, that continued over generations and across large regions before full domestication began shortly before 2000 BC”.
The research found that three distinct horse populations once existed from Western Siberia to Central Europe, and found that “domestication efforts occurred independently across regions and populations around 3500 to 3000 BCE, if not centuries earlier.”
This pushes back the date of use of horses by humans by at least 1,300 years.
“Horses were already being used in complex and widespread ways before we identified full domestication,” the professor said. Volker Heydco-lead author of the study. “This gap is reshaping how we understand human history.”
The research suggests that the migration of the Yamnaya people, particularly those living in present-day Russia and Ukraine, to Europe and Asia around 3100 BC triggered the most significant change in European ancestry in the last 5000 years and may have been facilitated by the increased use of horses.
This rapid expansion, stretching nearly 5,000 km across Eurasia, was likely accelerated by early horse-riding activities, which helped spread humans, technologies including the wheel, and possibly early Indo-European languages, the researchers said.
During this expansion, cattle pulled early wagons, and the development of horsemanship allowed riders to cover vast distances in hours; This was something hitherto unthinkable. Both cycling and using wheeled transportation were important innovations that revolutionized human society.
“The horse carried people. And with them, it carried words,” the team said, underlining that the origins of the languages spoken in much of Europe and Asia today can be traced back to those first riders and wagon drivers.
Professor Heyd added: “The role of horses in major historical developments is almost immeasurable, hence the rumor that the world was conquered on horseback.
“Today, horses are a source of attraction, companionship and companionship for many people. Therefore, it is important to learn about the early stages of human-horse relationships and how this unique partnership first emerged.”
