New DNA evidence published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this week supports the domestication of horses as having occurred one time, somewhere in the western steppe region of Eurasia, somewhere in what is today Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, or Uzbekistan.
Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii). Pictured are Przewalski's horses, the closest wild relative of the domestic horse ancestor. image courtesy of Vera Warmuth
That's pretty much what the archaeological evidence has been saying for some time, at sites such as Krasni Yar, Botai and Kozhai I in Kazakhstan: that horses were domesticated by pastoralist nomads in the steppe societies perhaps as long ago as 5000 BC. But the new evidence certainly adds conviction to what we've been saying.
- Horse History, including a brief summary of the recent research
- Krasni Yar
- Steppe Societies
Warmuth V, Eriksson A, Bower MA, Barker G, Barrett E, Hanks BK, Li S, Lomitashvili D, Ochir-Goryaeva M, Sizonov GV et al. 2012. Reconstructing the origin and spread of horse domestication in the Eurasian steppe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early edition.
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