Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare1. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling2–4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc3. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia5 and Anatolia6, 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 association7 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 bc8,9 driving the spread of Indo-European languages10. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture11,12.

Главный редактор член-корреспондент АН РТ, доктор исторических наук А.Г. Ситдиков Заместители главного редактора: член-корреспондент АН РТ, доктор исторических наук Ф.Ш. Хузин доктор исторических наук Ю.А. Зеленеев Ответственный секретарь-кандидат ветеринарных наук Г.Ш. Асылгараева Редакционный совет: Р.С. Хакимов-вице-президент АН РТ (Казань, Россия) (председатель) Х.А. Амирханов-член-корреспондент РАН, доктор исторических наук, профессор (Москва, Россия) И. Бальдауф-доктор наук, профессор (Берлин, Германия) С.Г. Бочаров-кандидат исторических наук (Казань, Россия) П. Георгиев-доктор наук, доцент (Шумен, Болгария) Е.П. Казаков-доктор исторических наук (Казань, Россия) Н.Н. Крадин-член-корреспондент РАН, доктор исторических наук, профессор (Владивосток, Россия) А. Тюрк-PhD (Будапешт, Венгрия) И. Фодор-доктор исторических наук, профессор (Будапешт, Венгрия) В.Л. Янин-академик РАН, доктор исторических наук профессор (Москва, Россия) Редакционная коллегия: А.А. Выборнов-доктор исторических наук, профессор (Самара, Россия) М.Ш. Галимова-кандидат исторических наук (Казань, Россия) Р.Д. Голдина-доктор исторических наук, профессор (Ижевск, Россия) И.Л. Измайлов-доктор исторических наук (Казань, Россия) С.В. Кузьминых-кандидат исторических наук (Москва, Россия) А.Е. Леонтьев-доктор исторических наук (Москва, Россия) Т.Б. Никитина-доктор исторических наук (Йошкар-Ола, Россия) Ответственный за выпуск: М.Ш. Галимова-кандидат исторических наук (Казань, Россия)

The paper presents new data on the dating and paleogeography of the Sholma I site, which has been studied by the authors since the early 2000s on the Tsivil River in Chuvashia. Two AMS dates obtained from horse bones from the 2017 excavation: 10838-10717 Cal BC (95,4%) (UOC-8154) и 11131-10846 Cal BC (95,4%) (UOC-8155) confirmed the authors ' opinion expressed in 2009 that the site of the final Paleolithic functioned in the natural conditions of the interstadial warming of the Allerød at the end of the ice Age. Results of a soil study of samples in 2017, in particular, analyzes for the content of gross phosphorus and microbiomorphs carried out by A. A. Golyeva are highlighted. Analogies to the features of the blade stone industry and trapezoid inserts of throwing weapons in the sites of the Pleistocene and Holocene boundary are revealed. As a result, the authors have outlined two possible directions of communication of specialized hunters who came to the Middle Volga region with a characteristic set of combat weapons in the conditions of interstadial warming. It could be south-east and south-west directions. The south-eastern one is represented by complexes with trapezia of the lower layers of the Shiderty 3 site in north-eastern Kazakhstan and the Gora Mayak settlement in the Samara trans-Volga region, and the south-western one – by the sites with trapezia and other forms of inserts that existed during Allerød in the valleys of the Seversky Donets and the Middle Don.