Horse domestication as a multi-centered, multi-stage process

Botai and the role of specialized Eneolithic horse pastoralism in the development of human-equine relationships

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21263643
AutoresA K Outram (0000-0003-3360-089X, University of Exeter, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen2
Fecha de publicación2023-04-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFrontiers in Environmental Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2813-432X • E-ISSN: 2813-432X
EditorialFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fearc.2023.1134068
OpenAlexW4366828405
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas85

For over a decade there has been general, but not universal, consensus that the earliest known evidence for horse husbandry was at Eneolithic Botai, Kazakhstan, circa 3,500 BCE. Recent ancient genomic analyses, however, indicate that Botai is not the source of modern domestic horse stock (DOM2 lineage), but is instead related to the Przewalski clade of horses. DOM2 appears to instead to have emerged in early Bronze Age (mid 3rd Mill. BCE) in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, and spread quickly replacing other horse lineages after approximately 2,000 BCE. Whilst the specific evidence for earlier husbandry at Botai is not diminished by this evidence, it has broken the consensus regarding the early stages of horse domestication, with some now viewing it as a later event. This paper argues that domestication is rarely an event, but instead a process that is ongoing. The case is made for a “prey pathway” initial phase of domestication in multiple localities during the Eneolithic, which was based around local subsistence pastoralist niche construction. This took different forms due to the presence or absence of ruminant domestic stock in the Eastern European or Central Asian steppes, respectively. Whilst “push” factors likely played a part in the development of horse specialist pastoralism at Botai, it is suggested that “pull” factors accelerated the spread of DOM2 lineages, replacing others, in the later Bronze Age. The DOM2 spread was principally driven, not by local subsistence needs, but wider social, economic and military desirability of equestrianism. The long-term process of horse domestication continues in modernity with major breed changes caused first by the post-medieval agricultural revolution and, more currently, the desire for sporting achievement

Agriculture · Ancient DNA · Animal husbandry · Archaeology · Biology · Bronze Age · Chalcolithic · Domestication · Geography · Herding · Livestock · Pastoralism · Sociology · Subsistence agriculture · Zooarchaeology · Animal Diversity and Health Studies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Demography · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research · Ecology