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)
I have to believe it was much before that.
“217 human skeletons”
My guess is most were not wearing the proper boots, jodhpurs, gloves & helmets.
Wouldn’t that be the “Golden Horde” Mongolians? Lots of high cheekbones in eastern Europe.
That may explain why Aunt Manya had a pony.
Interesting article. This is a fascinating subject.
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NY Times Discovers New Source of Racism-And this could be the most absurd one yet.
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.
Cossack Cavalry Charge
https://ehive.com/collections/5946/objects/806971/beccles-damaris-26652
This is a record/photo of my uncle’s champion Suffolk Punch - .
I’ve always imagined the first person to ride a horse as some surly 12 year old who was sent out in the cold and snow to milk the mare. “Screw it,” he said, as he turned over the wooden pail, and impulsively jumped on the horse’s back. Startled, the horse took off, with the kid barely holding on by the mane. Then, “Wooot!”
You just gotta know that the first attempt to ride a horse went like this:
Dude 1: Big fast beast. Bet you can’t ride it.
Dude 2: Here, hold my beer and watch this.
I suspect we can trace the existence of beer back through all the wild crazy stuff humans have done throughout history and pre-history.
So it took 7000 years to go from hunting and eating horses to riding them...
Clan of the Cave Bear was a tad early...
[Assuming the last glaciation was about 12k yrs ago...]
Decades ago I saw a National Geographic article about examination of a 50 foot tall village mound in Bulgaria. The oldest pottery was bright and colorfull with a happy mood. Around 5000 years ago the pottery changed to a dull earth color, although well formed. My immediate reaction, was “Wow, sommbody sure rained on that parade. My conclusion was that this society had been conquered and the fate of the women was great misery for centuries thereafter. Historically it has been suggested that around this time a formerly women respecting culture had been overthrown by a strongly patriarcal culture in many places in Eurasia and the middle east.
My son recently had his genes analyzed. It was a well known service, but not the one that includes Neanderthal figures. This service also offered information on parents. My mother’s parents came from East Prussia in the 1880s or 90s. My grandmother was from the Prussian pettit nobility and I have a German geneology paper going back to the 1700s, which I can’t read. My report indicated about 40% genes from Baltic and German sources, but from 6 to 9% from far, far east. My assumption was perhaps conquerers from the Golden Hoard, but who knows, perhaps much earlier. Presumably the Prussian pettit nobility would have included conquerers in the blood line. One of these days I’ll have to do my own DNA, the one that does Neanderthal. My 2 upper lateral incisors have “shoveling” which I have read is a Neanderthal trait, also very large molars.
I should get that genealogy done some day also. It does
interest me.
You just posted this for me. Thank you Civ!!!