Enlivening the bones
The Mongolian horse before its sacrifice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13094151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Esther Jacobson-Tepfer (0009-0007-8077-6333, University of Oregon, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Pages | 100689-100689 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-29 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeological Research in Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2352-2267 • E-ISSN: 2352-2275 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.ara.2026.100689 |
| OpenAlex | W7126064258 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 37 |
The roots of Mongolia's horse culture are usually located in the Late Bronze Age and associated with the appearance of horse-drawn wheeled vehicles from regions to the west. The earliest evidence in Mongolia for both horse and vehicle is not material but rather pictorial: it is detailed in hundreds of images pecked into the boulders and bedrock of the Altai Mountains. The second indication of an emerging horse culture is offered by ritual horse-head burials associated with Late Bronze Age khirgisuur , as well as with the related deer stones. Within that same period appears the earliest material evidence of the equestrianism that became the Mongolian engine of conquest over the following millennia. In all three cases, the horses in question were domesticated, Equus caballus , rather than one of the Asian wild horses, Equus przewalski and Equus ovodovi . From that has followed the assumption that Mongolia's horse culture is predicated upon the appearance of the domesticated horse in the Late Bronze Age. This paper interrogates these assumptions regarding the roots of equine significance within Mongolian prehistory. Using the pictorial documentation available in Altai Mountain rock art, it locates the roots of Mongolia's horse culture in a much earlier period and associated not with E. caballus but rather with the wild Przewalski's horse
Bronze · Bronze Age · Domestication · Equidae · Equus · Horse · Sacrifice · Seal (emblem · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking
The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes
Holocene environments and climate in the Mongolian Altai reconstructed from the Hoton-Nur pollen and diatom records
The Last Glacial Maximum
Horse domestication as a multi-centered, multi-stage process
A Review of the Evidence for Extinction Chronologies for Five Species of Upper Pleistocene Megafauna in Siberia
Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Rock Art from the Mongolian Altai
Evolution of the European regional large mammals assemblages in the end of the Middle Pleistocene – The first half of the Late Pleistocene (MIS 6–MIS 4)
Dating North Asian surface assemblages with ostrich eggshell
Radiocarbon Chronology of Complexes With Seima-Turbino Type Objects (Bronze Age) in Southwestern Siberia
From wild horses to domestic horses
Understanding early horse transport in eastern Eurasia through analysis of equine dentition
Eneolithic horse exploitation in the Eurasian steppes
The emergence of Bronze Age chariots in eastern Europe
A Tree-Ring and 14 C Chronology of the Key Sayan-Altai Monuments
The Secondary Products Revolution, Horse-Riding, and Mounted Warfare
Eurasian Steppe Chariots and Social Complexity During the Bronze Age
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
From Monumental Realism to Denatured Beast
Private Collection of Seima-Turbino Bronzes From the Irtysh
The Structure of Narrative in Early Chinese Pictorial Vessels
The emergence of the Scythians
The origin of the true chariot
Khirigsuurs, ritual and mobility in the Bronze Age of Mongolia
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |