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World's 1st horseback riders swept across Europe roughly 5,000 years ago
LiveScience ^ | March 3, 2023 | Kristina Killgrove

Posted on 03/11/2023 7:57:54 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: afanasievo; ancientautopsies; animalhusbandry; bronzeage; dietandcuisine; domestication; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; horse; horses; indoeuropean; steppe; yamnaya
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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)
Image credit: Trautmann et al., Sci. Adv. 9, eade2451 (2023)

1 posted on 03/11/2023 7:57:54 AM PST by SunkenCiv
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To: SunkenCiv

I have to believe it was much before that.


2 posted on 03/11/2023 8:01:32 AM PST by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: SunkenCiv

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


3 posted on 03/11/2023 8:03:13 AM PST by Tupelo (A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand)
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To: SunkenCiv

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


4 posted on 03/11/2023 8:03:47 AM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Bonemaker

Nope… well before them and from different genetic stock.


5 posted on 03/11/2023 8:06:33 AM PST by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA. -PRO-MAX)
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To: SunkenCiv; Gamecock; SaveFerris; PROCON

That may explain why Aunt Manya had a pony.


6 posted on 03/11/2023 8:08:39 AM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just postill clickbait!)
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To: 240B; 75thOVI; Adder; albertp; asgardshill; At the Window; bitt; blu; BradyLS; cajungirl; ...
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, chrono sort:

7 posted on 03/11/2023 8:08:52 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Larry Lucido

LOL!


8 posted on 03/11/2023 8:09:32 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Interesting article. This is a fascinating subject.


9 posted on 03/11/2023 8:12:08 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Sacajaweau

“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?


10 posted on 03/11/2023 8:13:48 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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11 posted on 03/11/2023 8:13:57 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: ifinnegan; Sacajaweau

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.


12 posted on 03/11/2023 8:16:57 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Sacajaweau
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.

13 posted on 03/11/2023 8:18:51 AM PST by seowulf (Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...Will Durant)
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To: SunkenCiv

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


14 posted on 03/11/2023 8:21:00 AM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Sacajaweau

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.


15 posted on 03/11/2023 8:26:33 AM PST by Tucker39 ("It is impossible so to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington )
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The link I use a lot:

www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm

The other news page I use a bit:

https://www.archaeology.org/news


16 posted on 03/11/2023 8:38:25 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; AZ .44 MAG; Baynative; bgill; bitt; ...

p


17 posted on 03/11/2023 8:43:58 AM PST by bitt (<img src=' 'width=50%>)
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To: SunkenCiv
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.

18 posted on 03/11/2023 8:48:42 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (There is lots of money and power in Green Communism and we all know where Communism ends.)
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To: SunkenCiv
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.

19 posted on 03/11/2023 8:54:37 AM PST by zeestephen (43,000)
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To: Tupelo

“...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


20 posted on 03/11/2023 9:12:04 AM PST by whitney69
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