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There is a period of some 5000 years or so in the prehistory of Europe when horse populations were greatly depleted and perhaps even disappeared in many places. Before this time, during the Upper Palaeolithic, wild horses were common; after, during the Bronze Age, domestic horses were being raised and used across Europe. What happened in between is...
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... the end of the Pleistocene, during the Upper Palaeolithic ( c . 35,000–10,000 BP ), Europe had a glacial climate that would have been more continental than the temperate one of today, with long cold winters potentially falling below -10 8 C for weeks on end (Mellars 1994). At the maximum of the last glaciation ( c . 20,000–18,000 BP ), ice sheets covered much of the northern and mountainous areas of Europe (including most of Ireland, the northern half of Britain, Scandinavia and the territories of the Baltic coastline) (Fig. 2). Fringed by forest at its Mediterranean southern margins, much of Europe consisted of open steppe tundra (Mellars 1994). Cold-tolerant species, adapted to the open steppe tundra dominate the Upper Palaeolithic fauna of Europe, among which the wild horse was common (Arbogast et al. 2002; Benecke 2006a; Brugal et al. 2001; Clutton-Brock and Burleigh 1991b; Olsen 1996; Stewart and Lister 2001; Table 1). Horses were an important provider of meat and other materials to the hunter-gather populations of Europe, as seen in the butchered bones recovered from archaeological sites and also from preserved Palaeolithic art (Clutton- Brock 1992: 24–5; Guthrie 2006a; Olsen 1996; West 2006). Increasing warmth brought the Ice Age in Europe to a close. These dramatic environmental changes, marking the end of the Palaeolithic, replaced the open landscape of the steppe tundra with one dominated by trees (Mithen 1994). Along with the changes in vegetation we see a change in the post-glacial animals of Europe: the herds of horse and reindeer that had been well-adapted to the cold, open conditions were replaced by fauna more suited to the new conditions (Mithen 1994; Yalden 1999). Finds of horse remains from c . 10,000 BP become increasingly rare across Europe, and it has been debated whether environmental change at the start of the Holocene, pushing horse populations back, was solely responsible for the decrease in horse populations or whether over-hunting by humans might also have been responsible (Arbogast et al. 2002: 18; Clutton-Brock 1992: 24–5). It has also been debated whether horses became locally extinct in many areas or just greatly reduced in number, surviving only as relic populations (e.g. Bo ̈ ko ̈ nyi 1974; Burleigh et al. 1991; Clutton-Brock and Burleigh 1991a). There is increasing evidence that the extinction of large mammals at the end of the Pleistocene, of which the decrease in horse populations is part, was primarily as a ...
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... the climatic and environmental changes that occurred, rather than massive ‘blitzkrieg’- style over-hunting by humans (e.g. Grayson and Meltzer 2003; Guthrie 2006b; Stuart 1999). However, human impact on animal species may also have played a part. It is known that, for modern feral horses, disruption of the social group will adversely affect reproduction (Berger 1986) and so, also, the expanding human populations in the Early Holocene could have brought about widespread disruption to wild horse ecology (Clutton-Brock 1992: 25). The question of whether horses became extinct in western and central Europe is also becoming clearer. It is evident that horses did not die out in Europe following the last Ice Age, but local populations persisted in many regions and some degree of continuity in horse populations is assumed for many areas (e.g. Altuna 1998; Benecke 1994; Boyle 2006; Liesau 2005). These could have been in relatively small numbers and possibly as localized ‘relic’, geographically scattered, groups. Benecke’s (1994) survey of horse on European sites of Mesolithic to Middle Neolithic date indicates horses are present, although discontinuously, across much of continental Europe, as far west as the Iberian peninsula and as far north as the North European Plain and the southern shores of the Baltic Sea (Fig. 2). Generally they constitute 0–10 per cent of bones at sites, with the highest representation of horse seen on the Eurasian steppes (from the Pontic steppes east towards the Urals; Fig. 2) where it achieves 4 40 per cent at some sites (Benecke 1994). Again, it is worth reiterating that horses prefer open habitat to forest, and the steppe and forest- steppe are more natural habitats for the horse (Linklater et al. 2000; Olsen 1996). Establishing the precise biogeographical range of the Holocene wild horse is problematic due to the low number of sites analysed and the fact that the absence of a species from archaeological deposits does not necessarily prove that it was extinct (Levine 2004, 2005). Establishing a more rigorous biogeography of the horse has been improved by programmes of direct radiocarbon dating of horse bones. Although radiocarbon-dated finds from Neolithic contexts have often returned significantly earlier or later dates and were therefore intrusive (Kaagan 2000; Uerpmann 1995), verification of the stratigraphic position of some of these finds by direct dating confirms the presence of horse in several regions (Table 1). The work by Benecke (2006a), in particular, has confirmed the continued presence of horses in Germany (Table 1; Fig. 3). That adequate habitats for wild horses did actually exist is confirmed by palynological data available from the study region (Benecke 2006a). It is difficult, from available direct radiocarbon dates, to identify the continued presence of horse populations in many areas of Europe. In Britain, for example, there is a single radiocarbon date, from Cavall’s Cave (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2002), to indicate that horse populations existed between those of the early Mesolithic and those that are present in increasing numbers from around the start of the second millennium BC (Fig. 4; Bendrey 2010). Certain regions have been proposed as being devoid of wild horses in the post-glacial period, and so when horses are subsequently recorded they are interpreted as domestic introductions. There is very limited evidence for wild horses in the fossil record of ...
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... the climatic and environmental changes that occurred, rather than massive ‘blitzkrieg’- style over-hunting by humans (e.g. Grayson and Meltzer 2003; Guthrie 2006b; Stuart 1999). However, human impact on animal species may also have played a part. It is known that, for modern feral horses, disruption of the social group will adversely affect reproduction (Berger 1986) and so, also, the expanding human populations in the Early Holocene could have brought about widespread disruption to wild horse ecology (Clutton-Brock 1992: 25). The question of whether horses became extinct in western and central Europe is also becoming clearer. It is evident that horses did not die out in Europe following the last Ice Age, but local populations persisted in many regions and some degree of continuity in horse populations is assumed for many areas (e.g. Altuna 1998; Benecke 1994; Boyle 2006; Liesau 2005). These could have been in relatively small numbers and possibly as localized ‘relic’, geographically scattered, groups. Benecke’s (1994) survey of horse on European sites of Mesolithic to Middle Neolithic date indicates horses are present, although discontinuously, across much of continental Europe, as far west as the Iberian peninsula and as far north as the North European Plain and the southern shores of the Baltic Sea (Fig. 2). Generally they constitute 0–10 per cent of bones at sites, with the highest representation of horse seen on the Eurasian steppes (from the Pontic steppes east towards the Urals; Fig. 2) where it achieves 4 40 per cent at some sites (Benecke 1994). Again, it is worth reiterating that horses prefer open habitat to forest, and the steppe and forest- steppe are more natural habitats for the horse (Linklater et al. 2000; Olsen 1996). Establishing the precise biogeographical range of the Holocene wild horse is problematic due to the low number of sites analysed and the fact that the absence of a species from archaeological deposits does not necessarily prove that it was extinct (Levine 2004, 2005). Establishing a more rigorous biogeography of the horse has been improved by programmes of direct radiocarbon dating of horse bones. Although radiocarbon-dated finds from Neolithic contexts have often returned significantly earlier or later dates and were therefore intrusive (Kaagan 2000; Uerpmann 1995), verification of the stratigraphic position of some of these finds by direct dating confirms the presence of horse in several regions (Table 1). The work by Benecke (2006a), in particular, has confirmed the continued presence of horses in Germany (Table 1; Fig. 3). That adequate habitats for wild horses did actually exist is confirmed by palynological data available from the study region (Benecke 2006a). It is difficult, from available direct radiocarbon dates, to identify the continued presence of horse populations in many areas of Europe. In Britain, for example, there is a single radiocarbon date, from Cavall’s Cave (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2002), to indicate that horse populations existed between those of the early Mesolithic and those that are present in increasing numbers from around the start of the second millennium BC (Fig. 4; Bendrey 2010). Certain regions have been proposed as being devoid of wild horses in the post-glacial period, and so when horses are subsequently recorded they are interpreted as domestic introductions. There is very limited evidence for wild horses in the fossil record of ...
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... and innovative multi-disciplinary approaches, which are tied into a robust and precise chronology. It will be only through such integrated approaches that we will move closer to an understanding of the complex history of the horse in Europe. I am very grateful to the many people who have kindly shared information and reports with me. In particular thanks must go to Emilie Blaise, Stuart Needham, Dale Serjeantson and Louise H van Wijngaarden-Bakker. I would also like to thank Amy Richardson for assistance with OxCal, Tony Bendrey for Figure 1, Rebecca Oakes for Figure 2 and the editors for the invitation to contribute to this ...
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... Fig. 2), for example, with a sole radiocarbon date predating the last glacial maximum (Table 1; Woodman et al. 1997). After this date wild horses are thought to have become locally extinct due to glacial cover (McCormick 2007a, 2007b). There had been a very good biogeographical case for a Beaker period introduction of domestic horse into Ireland, with the earliest post-Pleistocene horse bones being found in association with Beaker pottery at the passage tomb of Newgrange (in contexts dating to around 2400 BC by radiocarbon dates on charcoal) (van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974). However, recent radiocarbon dating of two of these bones has placed them in the first few centuries AD and the dating of the horse remains from this site are in need of reassessment (Bendrey et al. in prep.). At the opposite end of Europe, to the south east, Benecke (2006b) suggests that the Balkan Mountains probably marked a natural boundary for the post-glacial range of wild horses (Fig. 2), with horse being found in small numbers at some Neolithic sites in the lower Danube area north of the mountains, but not to the south. The first recorded appearance of horses in the southern Balkan Peninsula (south of the Balkan Mountains) is at 2600–2300 cal. BC at Kirklareli-Kanligec ̧ it in Turkish Thrace (Benecke 2006b; Canteul et al. 2010; Greenfield 2006). Benecke (2006b) interprets this as indicating a later third millennium BC spread of domestic horses into this area (from Anatolia rather than from southeast/eastern Europe based on bone measurement evidence; see discussion of this method below). In addition to the targeted radiocarbon-dating programmes, synthetic surveys of archaeological bone assemblages attest to the widespread presence of horses in the Neolithic of Europe – found in many regions, although generally represented by relatively few remains when present (e.g. Arbogast et al. 2001; Boyle 2006; Grigson 1966; Kysely ́ 2005; Liesau 2005). Synthetic study of Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) sites ( c . 5500–4900 BC ) (Arbogast et al. 2001) indicates the presence of horse in many assemblages across Europe. Indeed, the opening up of the forests of northern Europe by the pioneer LBK farmers (Ebersbach and Schade 2004; Kalis et al. 2003) may have, in fact, subsequently benefited horse populations (discussed below). Table 2 presents data on the presence or absence of horse within 133 LBK assemblages from across Europe. The number of different species, or taxa, recovered from an archaeological assemblage is in part related to the size of the assemblage, and it is the case that rarer animals are likely to appear in larger samples and not in smaller ones, whereas commoner animals will appear in relatively small samples (Bendrey 2007a: 13–60; Grayson 1984; Lyman, 1995). For this reason, the assemblages have been grouped by assemblage size (number of identified specimens): 0–99 specimens, 100–99 specimens and so on (Table 2). This allows the presence/absence of horse in each area to be considered in relation to the sizes of the excavated assemblages. Even though the horse can be seen to be present in many regions, this is generally at a very low level within an individual assemblage – for example at the site of Cuiry-le ` s-Chaudardes in the Paris Basin, northern France, there were only four horse bones out of over 15,000 identified specimens (Hachem 1995). In the following few millennia, horse bones continue to be found at sites across Europe, and also continue to be generally rare at individual sites. For example, a study of zooarchaeological assemblages from Middle to Later Neolithic western Europe ( c . 4900– 3800 BC ) shows the horse to be present in low numbers at sites across this time period (on average contributing 0.2 per cent of bones) (Boyle 2006). However, it is not rare at all sites, with the highest value for western Europe at Roucador, France (Lesur et al. 2001). This generally low presence of horses has created problems for those trying to identify which bones come from wild animals and which from domestic. It is problematic, for example, to undertake demographic and metrical analyses on populations represented by so few remains. This is further confused by uncertainty over which criteria are valid for identifying domestic horses. Different forms of evidence have been used to identify the earliest domestic horses: some direct (where there is unambiguous textual or artistic evidence of domestic status); some indirect (where the evidence is based upon inference or interpretation, and is thus open to other interpretations) (Levine 1999, 2004, 2005). There is considerable uncertainty over the temporal and geographical origins of domestic horses in Europe, as the majority ...
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... Fig. 2), for example, with a sole radiocarbon date predating the last glacial maximum (Table 1; Woodman et al. 1997). After this date wild horses are thought to have become locally extinct due to glacial cover (McCormick 2007a, 2007b). There had been a very good biogeographical case for a Beaker period introduction of domestic horse into Ireland, with the earliest post-Pleistocene horse bones being found in association with Beaker pottery at the passage tomb of Newgrange (in contexts dating to around 2400 BC by radiocarbon dates on charcoal) (van Wijngaarden-Bakker 1974). However, recent radiocarbon dating of two of these bones has placed them in the first few centuries AD and the dating of the horse remains from this site are in need of reassessment (Bendrey et al. in prep.). At the opposite end of Europe, to the south east, Benecke (2006b) suggests that the Balkan Mountains probably marked a natural boundary for the post-glacial range of wild horses (Fig. 2), with horse being found in small numbers at some Neolithic sites in the lower Danube area north of the mountains, but not to the south. The first recorded appearance of horses in the southern Balkan Peninsula (south of the Balkan Mountains) is at 2600–2300 cal. BC at Kirklareli-Kanligec ̧ it in Turkish Thrace (Benecke 2006b; Canteul et al. 2010; Greenfield 2006). Benecke (2006b) interprets this as indicating a later third millennium BC spread of domestic horses into this area (from Anatolia rather than from southeast/eastern Europe based on bone measurement evidence; see discussion of this method below). In addition to the targeted radiocarbon-dating programmes, synthetic surveys of archaeological bone assemblages attest to the widespread presence of horses in the Neolithic of Europe – found in many regions, although generally represented by relatively few remains when present (e.g. Arbogast et al. 2001; Boyle 2006; Grigson 1966; Kysely ́ 2005; Liesau 2005). Synthetic study of Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) sites ( c . 5500–4900 BC ) (Arbogast et al. 2001) indicates the presence of horse in many assemblages across Europe. Indeed, the opening up of the forests of northern Europe by the pioneer LBK farmers (Ebersbach and Schade 2004; Kalis et al. 2003) may have, in fact, subsequently benefited horse populations (discussed below). Table 2 presents data on the presence or absence of horse within 133 LBK assemblages from across Europe. The number of different species, or taxa, recovered from an archaeological assemblage is in part related to the size of the assemblage, and it is the case that rarer animals are likely to appear in larger samples and not in smaller ones, whereas commoner animals will appear in relatively small samples (Bendrey 2007a: 13–60; Grayson 1984; Lyman, 1995). For this reason, the assemblages have been grouped by assemblage size (number of identified specimens): 0–99 specimens, 100–99 specimens and so on (Table 2). This allows the presence/absence of horse in each area to be considered in relation to the sizes of the excavated assemblages. Even though the horse can be seen to be present in many regions, this is generally at a very low level within an individual assemblage – for example at the site of Cuiry-le ` s-Chaudardes in the Paris Basin, northern France, there were only four horse bones out of over 15,000 identified specimens (Hachem 1995). In the following few millennia, horse bones continue to be found at sites across Europe, and also continue to be generally rare at individual sites. For example, a study of zooarchaeological assemblages from Middle to Later Neolithic western Europe ( c . 4900– 3800 BC ) shows the horse to be present in low numbers at sites across this time period (on average contributing 0.2 per cent of bones) (Boyle 2006). However, it is not rare at all sites, with the highest value for western Europe at Roucador, France (Lesur et al. 2001). This generally low presence of horses has created problems for those trying to identify which bones come from wild animals and which from domestic. It is problematic, for example, to undertake demographic and metrical analyses on populations represented by so few remains. This is further confused by uncertainty over which criteria are valid for identifying domestic horses. Different forms of evidence have been used to identify the earliest domestic horses: some direct (where there is unambiguous textual or artistic evidence of domestic status); some indirect (where the evidence is based upon inference or interpretation, and is thus open to other interpretations) (Levine 1999, 2004, 2005). There is considerable uncertainty over the temporal and geographical origins of domestic horses in Europe, as the majority ...
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... (Arbogast et al. 2002; Clutton-Brock, 1992). By the Bronze Age, domestic horses ( Equus caballus ) were in use throughout Europe (Harding 2000; Kristiansen and Larsson 2005), achieving a remarkably high-profile position by the first millennium BC in the equestrian societies of Celtic Europe (Aldhouse Green 1997; Arbogast et al. 2002: 67–84; Bo ̈ ko ̈ nyi 1974: 255–62; Renfrew 1998). This transition is still poorly understood. This is in terms of the continuity of regional wild horse populations into the Holocene, the role of European wild horses in horse domestication, the origins and early use of domestic horses and the mechanisms of spread of the domestic horses once they appear. This paper will review the evidence for the transition from wild horses to domestic horses in Europe. Horse domestication has been the subject of considerable research and debate (see recent critical reviews by Levine (1999, 2004) and Olsen (2006)). A great deal of this has focused on the archaeology of the Eurasian steppes – the grasslands stretching from Hungary in the west to the mountains of Central Asia in the east – which is a natural habitat for the horse (Bendrey 2011a; Ferret 2009; Olsen 1996). Earlier claims for domestic horses at Eneolithic Dereivka, Ukraine (e.g. Bibikova 1986; Bo ̈ ko ̈ nyi 1978) have been convincingly disputed (see Levine 1990, 1999, 2004; Uerpmann 1990). However, recent results of projects investigating early horse domestication have identified a number of lines of evidence that point to horse domestication on the Eurasian steppes during the fourth millennium BC . In the eastern steppes (defined here as that part of the steppes east of the line of the Ural Mountains; see Fig. 2), zooarchaeological and lipid residue analyses by Outram et ...
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... Both of these species went extinct on the Iberian peninsula by the late Pleistocene or early to mid-Holocene (Geigl and Grange, 2012;Crees and Turvey, 2014). The wild horse declined notably across Europe at this time (Bendrey, 2012), although some think it survived to historic times in the forests of Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia (Olsen, 2006), although that seems unlikely (Lovász et al., 2021). By the Chalcolithic (5.5-4 ka BP) there were again two equids on the Iberian peninsula, but they were both domestic: the larger and more common domestic horse, E. caballus; and the smaller donkey, E. asinus (Cardoso et al., 2013). ...
The genus Equus was represented on the Iberian Peninsula by four species during the late Quaternary: the wild, now extinct, E. ferus (wild horse) and E. hydruntinus (European wild ass) and the extant, domestic E. caballus (horse) and E. asinus (donkey). The distribution and timing of the extinctions of the wild species and arrival of the domestic species is important to understand the changing environment and cultures through this dynamic period in one of the three southern Pleistocene glacial refugia in Europe. Here we collected data from all zooarchaeological studies that meet basic completeness criteria from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age (45-3.2 ka BP) and analysed the equine data in light of other large mammals at the same sites in order to document the species turnover and distributions through this culturally and ecologically dynamic period. The vast majority of Palaeolithic Equus were confidently identified as E. ferus, and by the Bronze age as E. caballus, with much uncertainty in between. Over time the larger equids (horses) were much more common than the smaller equids (asses). Equids were not common, but they were distributed across the southern Iberian peninsula through the Chalcolithic, and then appear to have become restricted to the drier eastern region in the Bronze Age. These analyses indicate that both E. ferus and E. hydruntinus went extinct by the end of the Pleistocene/ Palaeolithic in Andalucia. Not all communities maintained equal numbers of equids, and their distribution changed with the changing climate through time, most notably between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age when confidence in species identification and local density of horses increase, but the distribution is restricted to the drier eastern region.
... During the Pleistocene, horses were among the most common animals in Eurasia (5). The interaction between humans and horses in the Pleistocene and Holocene was based on hunting. ...
The evolving research methods and tools, along with the archived historical data, shed new light on the domestication process and origin of horses in North America. According to previous theories, horses became extinct in that region, and their current presence could only be attributed to the colonization by conquistadors.
Contrary to these speculations, genetic data, primarily from well-preserved dental and jaw structures, indicate that the evolution of horses was of a polyphyletic nature. Traditional oral accounts, which challenge reports from the first European settlers, are now carefully analysed. This article is a synthetic analysis of literature concerning the domestication process of horses. It suggests that the thesis about the reintroduction of horses to both Americas may be flawed and needs revision. It presents a completely new picture of the direction of equid migration, beyond the already known overland route through the Land Bridge of Beringia. Additionally, it reveals possible new human-horse relationships associated with the domestication and expansion of only certain lineages of this species. This opens the possibility of a new interpretation of historical data and suggests new research areas.
... A range of interdisciplinary approaches have been used to explore domestic animal origins, focussing on the investigation of archaeological sites and associated finds, the skeletal remains of the animals themselves, and the genetics of both modern and ancient animal populations (e.g. Bendrey, 2012;Olsen, 2006;Orlando, 2020;Zeder, 2012a). ...
... Around the same time that the DOM2 horse lineage first spread through parts of the steppes and Europe, there is also clear artefactual and contextual evidence to indicate the importance of horses as transport animals (Bendrey, 2012;Kanne, 2022;Orlando, 2020). Around this time, shortly before c. 2000 BCE, the earliest finds of horse-drawn spoke-wheeled chariots are found in the southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan at Sintashta, Petrovka, and Alakul' cultural complexes (Chechushkov & Epimakhov, 2018). ...
Here we explore the long-term trajectories of human–domestic equid relationships from the domestication of donkeys and horses to the present day. We consider some of the characteristics of these animals that have shaped their relationships with humans, and how the plasticity of these traits has enabled them to adapt to new socio-ecological contexts. Regionally restricted domestication processes are assessed and located in the ecological contexts of the past natural ranges and behaviours of the wild animals. We follow the subsequent spread throughout the world of domestic equids and hybrids associated with their fundamental contributions to mobility, trade, subsistence, warfare, and social stratification. As transport animals in particular, domestic equids have supported larger interacting human communities, and the movement and circulation of humans, ideas, possessions, and diseases. The value of equids to human communities fluctuates significantly by context, from one of elite status to one of neglect. In the world today, the mechanisation of work and transport in many regions has re-defined human–equid relationships again, for example to contexts of leisure and conservation. In taking a long view, we here explore these transitions in economic roles and value. In cross-referencing case studies through time, we consider the contribution that archaeology and history can make to understanding and valuing modern human–equid relationships.
... /fearc. . into patchy refugia (Leonardi et al., 2018), favoring the plains of the Iberian Peninsula, North and Central Europe (Benecke, 1994;Bendrey, 2012) and the steppes of Eastern Europe and Northern Central Asia (Kuzmina, 1997). Horse/human relationships of the early Holocene are relatively poorly evidenced or understood. ...
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.
... The domestication of equines provided horsepower and a means of transport that revolutionised the way humans could farm the land, control and trade resources, travel and fight each other (Bendrey, 2012;Hallberg, 2008;Hall, 2005;Levine, 2005;Mitchell, 2015). According to Buffon (1791: 306), "the reduction of the horse to a domestic state is the greatest acquisition from the animal world, which was ever made by the art and industry of man". ...
... This pathology is better known to archaeologists studying the origins of domestication (Bendrey, 2007a(Bendrey, , 2007b(Bendrey, , 2011(Bendrey, , 2012 and to veterinary practitioners trying to study the relationship between bone pathology, the bit and the horse's experience (Cooke, 1999(Cooke, , 2011. Attending to the physical signs of trauma left behind by the bit is thus 18 Field Notes 6, page 12 (17th April, 2014) 19 The study was undertaken by a final year student from the Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, in Rabat. ...
The welfare of working equines is born of the relationship co-created with humans and the relational practices humans bring to this work. Our understanding of this relationship remains elusive, however, for it involves attending to that which arises both within and between the equine and the human. Attempts to study such relationships have, arguably, been confounded by the liminalities of relational practices, power literacy and the limitations of language, propositional knowing and the dualistic thinking that characterises many scientific disciplines. This paper presents the theoretical framework that underpins an experiential awareness-based Action Research approach to transforming human-equine relations within the international mountain tourism industry. This approach privileges curiosity, compassion and primary or contemplative knowing and the development of self-awareness. Drawing on the work of Martin Buber on genuine dialogue and of Otto Scharmer on generative dialogue, this paper provides insights into what can arise in the between when attitudinal shifts are encouraged and facilitated that allow humans and equines to meet genuinely and be fully present to each other. This ultimately involves surrendering control, letting go, the dissolution of subject-object awareness and access to non-dualistic ways of knowing. An awareness of the importance of such shifts and of the source from which we operate is of fundamental importance to the realisation of the co-creative project that humans and equines can engage in. Failure to appreciate this distinction, arguably, leads and gives rise to relationships, whether human-to-human or human-to-horse, characterised by domination rather than partnering, absencing rather than presencing, by monologue rather than dialogue. The ethical and practical implications of this awareness are profound, with implications felt at the level of the individual, for whom the I deepens the more you pay attention, and at the level of the relationship, but also at the level of communities, whether these be constituted locally, nationally, internationally or indeed globally.
... Because of the total absence of credible artefactual and historical written or iconographic evidence of horse domestication prior to the end of the 3 rd millennium BC, we rely on other sources from this early period, especially bone finds (for artefacts and historical records, see sections 10-11). The research methods and arguments based on osteology and morphology have been summarised and weighed in several studies and reviews (e.g., Bökönyi 1969;Levine 1999;Olsen 2006;Bendrey 2012). Here we mention only the main existing categories of methods and arguments and repeat the basic points. ...
... Further, the study of horse bones can bring priceless information regarding size, robustness, and various morphological features (and the variability of these). Rapid changes in size and a widening of variability in size are mostly difficult to explain from natural causes and are generally considered to be signs of domestication (Bökönyi 1969;Meadow 1999;Uerpmann 1990;Bendrey 2012). They were, for example, used as important arguments for interpreting the status of central European and other Eneolithic horses (section 9). ...
The great importance of the domestic horse in human history and culture has long made it a significant subject of research. The historical role of the horse and new studies and discoveries that are key to understanding its domestication provided the impetus for this paper. The review presents and discusses the current state of know ledge and ideas concerning the origins, domestication, early history, historical roles, and exploitation of this domestic animal from central European and global perspectives. Ecological, biological, phylogenetic, archaeological and historical aspects are combined to explore the issue in a comprehensive manner and to provide insights into various scientific fields and the different regions of Eurasia.
... The four potential distributions became much more similar from the Late Glacial onwards. However, an overlap in range does not necessarily imply identical habitat preferences: for example, the archaeological record from Holocene sites in Europe suggests that, even though our four species might have at time coexisted, horses (not adapted to forested areas) were relatively rare before domestication when the others were abundant 11,[28][29][30][31] . ...
Predicting the effects of future global changes on species requires a better understanding of the ecological niche dynamics in response to climate; the large climatic fluctuations of the last 50,000 years can be used as a natural experiment to that aim. Here we test whether the realized niche of horse, aurochs, red deer, and wild boar changed between 47,000 and 7500 years ago using paleoecological modelling over an extensive archaeological database. We show that they all changed their niche, with species-specific responses to climate fluctuations. We also suggest that they survived the climatic turnovers thanks to their flexibility and by expanding their niche in response to the extinction of competitors and predators. Irrespective of the mechanism behind such processes, the fact that species with long generation times can change their niche over thousands of years cautions against assuming it to stay constant both when reconstructing the past and predicting the future.
... bone in the assemblage revives the problem of when domestic horses were introduced in Italy. In the recent past Equus ferus, which roamed Eurasian steppes and prairies during the Late Pleistocene, was thought to have disappeared from the central and western areas of the continent around 10,000 BP. (Bendrey, 2012;Sommer et al, 2011). Excessive human predation and, above all, the challenging Holocene climatic and environmental changes could explain this event. ...
... Excessive human predation and, above all, the challenging Holocene climatic and environmental changes could explain this event. Recently, new evidence was found indicating the survival of wild horses in Europe (Italy included) between the Pre-Boreal and the Atlantic (9,600-3,750 BC) (Aprile et al, 2017;Bendrey, 2012;Bon and Boscato, 1993;Sommer et al, 2011). Presently, the earliest evidence of Equus caballus comes from sites dated to the 5th-4th millennium BC in Kazakstan and Ukraine (Bökönyi 1980;Gaunitz et al, 2018). ...
... bone in the assemblage revives the problem of when domestic horses were introduced in Italy. In the recent past Equus ferus, which roamed Eurasian steppes and prairies during the Late Pleistocene, was thought to have disappeared from the central and western areas of the continent around 10,000 BP. (Bendrey, 2012;Sommer et al, 2011). Excessive human predation and, above all, the challenging Holocene climatic and environmental changes could explain this event. ...
... Excessive human predation and, above all, the challenging Holocene climatic and environmental changes could explain this event. Recently, new evidence was found indicating the survival of wild horses in Europe (Italy included) between the Pre-Boreal and the Atlantic (9,600-3,750 BC) (Aprile et al, 2017;Bendrey, 2012;Bon and Boscato, 1993;Sommer et al, 2011). Presently, the earliest evidence of Equus caballus comes from sites dated to the 5th-4th millennium BC in Kazakstan and Ukraine (Bökönyi 1980;Gaunitz et al, 2018). ...
The aim of this paper is to explore the integration of the Bell Beaker phenomenon in a local context, in order to examine the mechanisms underlying its introduction and discuss possible factors related to it. As a case study, the authors use the Upper Rhône valley in southwestern Switzerland and focus specifically on the renowned Sion ‘Petit-Chasseur’ necropolis. Prehistoric populations repeatedly came to this megalithic site during the Final Neolithic (2900–2450 cal. BC), the Bell Beaker period (2450–2200 cal. BC), and the Early Bronze Age (2200–1600 cal. BC), offering ideal conditions to address the issues stated above. This multidisciplinary research focuses on pottery manufacturing processes through the chaîne opératoire approach, reconstructing each step from the raw material selection all the way to finishing treatments and firing. The analyses, both macro- and microscopic, carried out on the Bell Beaker pottery, led to the identification of an exogenous pottery tradition and of local raw material procurement sources. These results point towards a mobility of Bell Beaker potters, who exploited local raw materials but applied their own know-how. Probably specialised, these craftsmen/women were thus one of the factors active in the diffusion of the Bell Beaker phenomenon.
... Horses have a long history of being used in Britain for riding, traction and draught, with evidence of bridles from the Bronze Age (3100-300 BCE) and bit-related damage in the mouths of horses from the Iron Age (500-332 BCE) when metal bits were initially introduced [3,4]. The first documented use of horses for sport dates back to 800 BCE when chariot races took place, and in subsequent centuries, the Romans raced horses during high-profile events in purpose-built arenas [5]. ...
Equestrian sports, including racing (e.g., flat, steeple-chasing, harness or donkey derby); show-jumping; cross-country; dressage; polo; polocrosse; endurance; carriage driving; vaulting and hunting; are hugely popular in the UK, and they involve a significant number of people, both as participants and spectators, and tens of thousands of equids. In this paper, we discuss animal welfare as a complex and disputed issue, clarifying what the term means and how it can be measured. We review many aspects of welfare risk to equids used for sport, addressing issues encountered throughout their lives, including housing, feeding, veterinary intervention, shoeing, handling, training, breeding and equipment. This is followed by a unique exploration of the institutions and social processes influencing equine welfare. The institutional components comprise the rules of competition, the equids, attributes of the stakeholders and the space where participants strive to achieve a common purpose. We endeavour to untangle the most significant elements that create barriers or provide opportunities for equine welfare improvement. We expose the challenges faced by a broad range of stakeholders with differing ethics, attitudes and values. Evidently, there are many welfare risks to which equids used in sports continue to be exposed. It is also evident that significant improvements have occurred in recent times, but there remains a barrier to reducing the risks to an acceptable level. We conclude with recommendations regarding a process for change, involvement of stakeholders and management of knowledge to improve equine welfare that involves identifying and prioritising the risk factors and ultimately leading to interventions, further research and/or education.
