Equine cranial morphology and the identification of riding and chariotry in late Bronze Age Mongolia

Clark

Bayarsaikhan

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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While classic models for the emergence of pastoral groups in Inner Asia describe mounted, horse-borne herders sweeping across the Eurasian Steppes during the Early or Middle Bronze Age (ca. 3000-1500 BCE), the actual economic basis of many early pastoral societies in the region is poorly characterized. In this paper, we use collagen mass fingerprinting and ancient DNA analysis of some of the first stratified and directly dated archaeofaunal assemblages from Mongolia's early pastoral cultures to undertake species identifications of this rare and highly fragmented material. Our results provide evidence for livestock-based, herding subsistence in Mongolia during the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE. We observe no evidence for dietary exploitation of horses prior to the late Bronze Age, ca. 1200 BCE-at which point horses come to dominate ritual assemblages, play a key role in pastoral diets, and greatly influence pastoral mobility. In combination with the broader archaeofaunal record of Inner Asia, our analysis supports models for widespread changes in herding ecology linked to the innovation of horseback riding in Central Asia in the final 2nd millennium BCE. Such a framework can explain key broad-scale patterns in the movement of people, ideas, and material culture in Eurasian prehistory. Horse domestication is widely recognized as a key transformative event in human prehistory. The initial domestication of horses has been linked to major changes in human mobility and social organization, particularly in Inner Asia 1. Horses have also been invoked to explain continent-scale population movements, such as the spread

Section: Horses and Bronze Age Economic Transitions In Mongoliamentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Pastoral Economies and Herding Transitions in Eastern Eurasia

Clark

Bayarsaikhan

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

Self Cite

“…1200 BCE (7). Diagnostic changes to the equine skull indicate that DSK horses were heavily exerted and used for transport (8), while anthropogenic deformations to the nasal bones of the horse, caused by a bridle, are distinctively left-biased (SI Appendix, Fig. S2), a pattern that appears best explained by mounted horseback riding rather than chariots or cart use (9).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Origins of equine dentistry

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Bayarsaikhan

Tuvshinjargal

et al. 2018

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From the American West to the steppes of Eurasia, the domestic horse transformed human societies, providing rapid transport, communication, and military power, and serving as an important subsistence animal. Because of the importance of oral equipment for horse riding, dentistry is an essential component of modern horse care. In the open grasslands of northeast Asia, horses remain the primary form of transport for many herders. Although free-range grazing on gritty forage mitigates many equine dental issues, contemporary Mongolian horsemen nonetheless practice some forms of dentistry, including the removal of problematic deciduous teeth and the vestigial first premolar ("wolf tooth"). Here, we present archaezoological data from equine skeletal remains spanning the past 3,200 y, indicating that nomadic dental practices have great antiquity. Anthropogenic modifications to malerupted deciduous central incisors in young horses from the Late Bronze Age demonstrate their attempted removal, coinciding with the local innovation or adoption of horseback riding and the florescence of Mongolian pastoral society. Horse specimens from this period show no evidence of first premolar removal, which we first identify in specimens dating to 750 BCE. The onset of premolar extraction parallels the archaeological appearance of jointed bronze and iron bits, suggesting that this technological shift prompted innovations in dentistry that improved horse health and horse control. These discoveries provide the earliest directly dated evidence for veterinary dentistry, and suggest that innovations in equine care by nomadic peoples 1150 BCE enabled the use of horses for increasingly sophisticated mounted riding and warfare.

“…Skeletal remains from these partial horse burials provide insights into how the animals were used. Characteristic osteological changes to the skull indicate that many of these horses were bridled and heavily exerted, while demographic data from dentition suggest that adult male animals were buried in prominent ritual locations (Taylor et al 2015;Taylor 2016). Together, these data suggest an increasingly important role for horses in DSK society, concurrent with the adoption of mobile herding lifeways.…”

Section: Horse Use and Early Pastoralism In Mongoliamentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, several lines of evidence suggest that the proliferation of DSK horse burials was linked to the adoption of mounted riding. For example, osteological deformation to the nasal bones and premaxillae of horses recovered from deer stones and khirigsuur ritual features indicate that many were bridled and heavily exerted (Taylor et al 2015;Taylor et al 2016), with adult male horses buried in special locations on the eastern edge of DSK monuments (Taylor 2016). Although these observations alone do little to distinguish riding from other forms of horse transport, asymmetry in some cranial features linked to human activity observed in some DSK horses might be explained by left-handed reining during horseback riding (Taylor and Tuvshinjargal in press).…”

Section: Understanding Dsk Horse Transportmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bayesian chronology for early domestic horse use in the Eastern Steppe

Journal of Archaeological Science

Burentogtokh

Lowry

et al. 2017

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Archaeological horse remains from Mongolia's late Bronze Age Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) culture present some of the oldest direct radiocarbon dates for horses in northeast Asia, hinting at an important link between late Bronze Age social developments and the adoption or innovation of horse transport in the region. However, wide error ranges and imprecision associated with calibrated radiocarbon dates obscure the chronology of early domestic horse use in Mongolia and make it difficult to evaluate the role of processes like environmental change, economic interactions, or technological development in the formation of mobile pastoral societies. Using a large sample of new and published radiocarbon dates, this study presents a Bayesian chronological model for the initiation of domestic horse sacrifice at DSK culture sites in Mongolia. Results reveal the rapid spread of horse ritual over a large portion of the eastern Steppe circa 1200 BCE, concurrent with the first appearance of draught horses in China during the late Shang dynasty. These results suggest that key late Bronze Age cultural transformationsspecifically the adoption of mobile pastoralism and early horseback riding-took place during a period of climate amelioration, and may be linked to the expansion of horses into other areas of East Asia.