World's 1st horseback riders swept across Europe roughly 5,000 years ago

LiveScience ^ | March 3, 2023 | Kristina Killgrove

[SunkenCiv]

...Archaeologists accidentally discovered the world's earliest horseback riders while studying skeletons found beneath 5,000-year-old burial mounds in Europe and Asia... part of the so-called Yamnaya culture, groups of semi-nomadic people who swept across Europe and western Asia, bringing the precursor to the Indo-European language family with them...

The new analysis came from 217 human skeletons from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, a geographical area that runs roughly from Bulgaria to Kazakhstan... 5,000-year-old horse skeletons show wear on their teeth that could have been from bridles, while others have found possible fenced enclosures. In the same time period, horse milk peptides have been detected in the dental plaque of people from Russia. Importantly, the geographical explosion of the Yamnaya culture — which expanded across 3,000 miles (4,500 kilometers) over a mere century or two — suggests horses may have assisted as transportation animals...

Since bone is a living tissue, it responds to stresses placed on it. Consistent horseback riding can cause trauma and spine degeneration, but it can also result in more subtle changes to the leg and hip bones as the human body adapts to regular riding.

In the skeletons from 39 sites across Eastern Europe, Trautmann and colleagues found that two dozen had at least half of the traits of horsemanship syndrome.

They are most confident, however, about the identification of five Yamnaya culture individuals hailing from what is now Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary as likely equestrians...

Expanding so quickly and spreading their genes over such a vast area would have been difficult without horses.

Although skeletons with horsemanship syndrome are rarely found, their identification by archaeologists gives us new information about what it was like to live on the eastern steppe five millennia ago.

[SunkenCiv]

A map of the Yamnaya and Afanasievo distribution in Eurasia about 5,000 years ago.

Image credit: Trautmann et al., Sci. Adv. 9, eade2451 (2023)

[Sacajaweau]

I have to believe it was much before that.

[Tupelo]

“217 human skeletons”
My guess is most were not wearing the proper boots, jodhpurs, gloves & helmets.

[Bonemaker]

Wouldn’t that be the “Golden Horde” Mongolians? Lots of high cheekbones in eastern Europe.

[House Atreides]

Nope… well before them and from different genetic stock.

[Larry Lucido]

That may explain why Aunt Manya had a pony.

[SunkenCiv]

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, chrono sort:

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[SunkenCiv]

LOL!

[ifinnegan]

Interesting article. This is a fascinating subject.

[ifinnegan]

“I have to believe it was much before that.“

I’d think so too, I don’t know anything about it.

Is there other research showing it’s earlier?

[SunkenCiv]

• March 9th, 2023 (and earlier) Archaeologica news page topics

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  ---

[SunkenCiv]

It would be interesting to see if similar forensic research has been done (or is being planned) at the other end, in China and India.

[seowulf]

I have to believe it was much before that.

I have read that horses were domesticated before that, but they were too small to carry riders for long distances. They were better for pulling carts and packs, so chariots were used in war. It took a while to breed larger riding horses.

[ifinnegan]

Yes. I know pretty much nothing about it and it’s a hugely important part of human history.

[Tucker39]

Go right ahead. But trustworthy Bible scholars and archaeologists tell us that mankind has only been on this planet approximately 6,ooo years. So in light of that, 5K is not a bad number for horsemanship.

[SunkenCiv]

The link I use a lot:

www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm

The other news page I use a bit:

https://www.archaeology.org/news

[bitt]

p

[ProtectOurFreedom]

But did the Yamnayans have properly fitting equestrian helmets to fit all their ethnic minority hair? Was there Yamnayan superiority and systemic racism in their equestrian helmets?

NY Times Discovers New Source of Racism-And this could be the most absurd one yet.

[zeestephen]

I am really surprised at the 3,100 BC date.

That is only a couple thousand years before Socrates and Aristotle were creating Western Civilization in Greece with an Indo-European language.

Also, agriculture began in that general area about 10,000 years ago. Hard to believe that resident farmers did not instantly see that horses could pull a plow.

[whitney69]

“...traits of horsemanship syndrome.”

If it’s consistent with the thinking of our “so called “ geniuses they probably determined they were horseback riders when they saw they were bow legged.

wy69