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Wooden wheels dated to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries AD. The wheels are stored in the Museum-Reserve ‘Arkaim’
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This paper aims to examine some societal principles that underlie the development of horse-drawn chariots in Inner Eurasia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (cal. 2050–1750 BC). Analysis is based on an evaluation and re-examination of the archaeological evidence for horse-drawn chariots, and the social constructs they entail. Chariots were deve...
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... yr BP) in the Altai Region and probably preluded the shift of primary subsistence from hunting/fishing-gathering to herding herbivorous livestock supplemented by barley and wheat cultivation. 4,25,63 The domestication of horses started to revolutionize transportation, allowing early humans to traverse vast distances on an annual or seasonal basis during the Neolithic and Eneolithic Ages in the Eurasian Steppes. [64][65][66] This opened more pastures for sheep, goats, and cattle, which became the dominant livestock at around 4500-4000 cal. ...
The Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages witnessed the extensive expansion of human settlements, along with the dispersal of crops and livestock originating from West and East Asia. These events profoundly reshaped the human-environment relationship in mid-latitude Eurasia and the underlying trans-Eurasian exchange. While the processes and factors that underpin the interaction between human societies and ever-changing environments have been a heated debate in various regions of Eurasia, there is still a lack of synergistic discussion regarding human-environment interactions at regional and continental scales. To this end, we provide a comprehensive review and synthesis of updated radiocarbon dates and archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from sites dated between 6000 and 3000 cal. yr BP in mid-latitude Eurasia, coupled with associated archaeological and palaeoclimatic records. The results reveal the emergence and expansion of a number of regional settlement centers along the prehistoric Silk Roads and Eurasian Steppes during the 6th–4th millennium cal. yr BP. The prime drivers include the spread of new technologies, human migration, and climate change. As a result of successful food production and increasing social complexity, many areas have experienced rapid population growth, creating a foundation for subsequent widespread expansion of farming and herding communities across Eurasia. Under this overarching picture, many regional patterns arose due to specific natural and social conditions, weaving into broad spatiotemporal variations across Eurasia. A new conceptual model is proposed to depict this feedback loop of the interaction between human-environment systems at and between regional and continental scales.
... Впервые появляются традиции прочной оседлости, воплощенные в сложных архитектурных формах. Бурно развиваются новые технологии: металлургия и обработка дерева, кости и рога, включая связанные с колесничным комплексом [Chechushkov, Epimakhov, 2018]. ...
The practice of archaeological research often illustrates situations where the sum of facts does not correspond to the cultural-historical approach; it is impossible to squeeze this sum into the framework of the term “archaeological culture”. Deviations from his canonical understanding of the term may relate to the duration of the phenomenon, its spatial distribution or the degree of stereotyping of material culture and rituals. The frontier can be one of the options for interpreting such non-standard groups of archaeological objects. The purpose of the study is to test the possibilities of using the concept for the interpretation of the Sintashta sites of the Bronze Age of the Southern Urals (the turn of 3rd — 2nd millennium cal BC) in the light of new data from a comprehensive study (paleogenetics, chronology, etc.). Sintashta settlements and cemeteries are located on the compact territory of the northern steppe: settlements in the Trans-Urals, the burial ground — on both sides of the Ural Mountains. Previous studies have accumulated a huge amount of data on all major aspects, but the general concept remains debatable. The new data comes from mass radiocarbon dating, which allowed using Bayesian modeling. New data of mass radiocarbon dating confirm the brevity of the functioning of the Sintashta settlements and burial grounds, as well as the possibility of partial synchronization of this tradition with others. Paleogenetic analyzes (more than 50 samples) have shown the heterogeneity of the Sintashta population. Peleogenetic data made it possible to diagnose traces of a subtratian population absorbed by the main migratory group. In material culture, the evidences in material culture are not traced. The same data confirmed a special scenario for the formation of necropolises, weakly associated with the consanguinity of the buried individuals. Only 1/5 of the deceased turned out to be relatives of the first and second degree. The new data significantly complement the previously formulated criteria, which allow us to consider the group of Sintashta sites as a reflection of the situation of the frontier. The Sintashta society in the frontier was formed as complex society. Nevertheless, it did not have the prospect of forming statehood.
... The relative rarity of deposits and the livestock farming life-support system gave rise to extended connections, regional and local mobility, and migrations of various scales. The open nature of the landscape and the mastery of wheeled transport (Chechushkov and Epimakhov 2018) facilitated the movement of individuals and groups of different sizes. As a result, the Bronze Age (3rd-early 1st millennia cal BC) in the Southern Urals can be considered as an alternation of migratory activity phases with stabilization phases (based on a relatively settled way of life) and evolutionary development (Koryakova and Epimakhov 2007). ...
This research aims to contribute to our knowledge of the chronology of the main cultural entities of the Bronze Age in the Southern Urals. The objectives of this work include the verification of earlier conclusions regarding individual sites, expanding the date series for the key cultures with reliable dates, and creating reference series for the Bayesian modeling of key archaeological sites. Thirty-two samples were selected from reliable contexts. They reflect seven different cultural traditions of the 2nd millennium calBC (Sintashta, Srubnaya, Alakul, Fedorovka, Cherkaskul, Final Bronze Age 1 , Transition to Early Iron Age 2). Collagen (human and domestic animal bones), charcoal, and wood samples were used for radiocarbon dating. Pairs of different-type samples (human bone-animal bone, animal bone-charcoal) were obtained for the same undisturbed burial and the building floor at the time of its abandonment. The data and the composition of δ 15 N and δ 13 C isotopes allow the new dates to be considered reliable. Furthermore, the new results do not conflict with the previously obtained accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates. Determining boundary intervals for the main cultures of the Andronovo cultural community (Alakul and Fedorovka) resulted in statistically reliable conclusions on their relationship. The Alakul culture appeared earlier than the Fedorovka culture. The latter has a migratory origin in the Southern Urals. The two traditions have a long history of interaction, but the Alakul culture ending earlier. The series of dates for the Final Bronze Age, divided into two sub-periods, has been significantly expanded. Bayesian modeling of the chronology of the stratified settlement Sintashta II (Levoberezhnoe) made it possible to determine the intervals of the main phases of its history: 2004-1852 calBC (Sintashta culture) and 1410-1170 calBC (Final Bronze Age). Intermediate Cherkaskul phase is represented by a single date (1731-1541 cal BC).
... 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). However, the appearance of DOM2 genetic profiles in Europe and Anatolia before evidence for chariotry suggests that use for riding drove the initial spread of domestic horses beyond the western Eurasian steppes . ...
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.
... BC (Pinheiro 2010;Burmeister et al. 2019;Crouwel 2019). The latest studies (Librado et al. 2021;Makarowicz et al. 2022) accept that the lighter chariot with spokes was most likely discovered in the war-oriented Sintashta culture (for arguments, see also Drews 2004, 50-51;Anthony 2007, 374-375;Chechushkov -Epimakhov 2018;Lindner 2020). This culture, mostly dated between 2200 BC and 1800 BC, settled across a wide area of the Southern Urals at the border of eastern Europe and western Asia, an area which overlapped with the homeland of the DOM2. ...
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.
... Wheeled transport in the form of wagons first appears in kurgans (burial mounds) of the Steppe Late Maykop in the second half of the fourth millennium bc 50 , and such technology is argued to be essential for enabling the household mobility required for mobile pastoralism 40 . Oxen teams dated to the same period and, later, horses and chariots in the second millennium bc, further facilitated mobility 51 . Sheep wool was present in the North Caucasus by the early third millennium bc, possibly having originated in Anatolia, and the use of wool subsequently spread across the steppe and into Inner Asia during the second millennium bc 52 . ...
... In the North Caucasus, skeletal remains of the ancestors of DOM2 horses are sporadically found in steppe kurgans from the Late Maykop period onwards 43 , but the role of horses in these pastoralist societies is unclear. The first undisputed evidence of horse traction dates to ca. 2000 bc at the site of Sintashta east of the Urals, where elaborate horse chariot burials have been found in Middle and Late Bronze Age kurgans 51,76,77 . Earlier Bronze Age wagons, such as those associated with the Late Maykop, Yamnaya and Catacomb cultures, had been pulled by oxen teams 50 . ...
Archaeological and archaeogenetic evidence points to the Pontic–Caspian steppe zone between the Caucasus and the Black Sea as the crucible from which the earliest steppe pastoralist societies arose and spread, ultimately influencing populations from Europe to Inner Asia. However, little is known about their economic foundations and the factors that may have contributed to their extensive mobility. Here, we investigate dietary proteins within the dental calculus proteomes of 45 individuals spanning the Neolithic to Greco-Roman periods in the Pontic–Caspian Steppe and neighbouring South Caucasus, Oka–Volga–Don and East Urals regions. We find that sheep dairying accompanies the earliest forms of Eneolithic pastoralism in the North Caucasus. During the fourth millennium bc , Maykop and early Yamnaya populations also focused dairying exclusively on sheep while reserving cattle for traction and other purposes. We observe a breakdown in livestock specialization and an economic diversification of dairy herds coinciding with aridification during the subsequent late Yamnaya and North Caucasus Culture phases, followed by severe climate deterioration during the Catacomb and Lola periods. The need for additional pastures to support these herds may have driven the heightened mobility of the Middle and Late Bronze Age periods. Following a hiatus of more than 500 years, the North Caucasian steppe was repopulated by Early Iron Age societies with a broad mobile dairy economy, including a new focus on horse milking.
... So far, the oldest horse specimens that carry the DOM2 lineage date to between 2074 to 1625 calibrated years bc, at which time the lineage is archaeologically attested in present-day Russia, Romania and Georgia 15 . Our identification of-to our knowledge-the earliest horse milk proteins yet identified on the steppe or anywhere else reveals the presence of domestic horses in the western steppe by the Early Bronze Age, which suggests that the region (where the first evidence for horse chariots later emerged at about 2000 bc 47 ) may have been the initial epicentre for domestication of the DOM2 lineage during the late fourth or third millennium bc. ...
During the Early Bronze Age, populations of the western Eurasian steppe expanded across an immense area of northern Eurasia. Combined archaeological and genetic evidence supports widespread Early Bronze Age population movements out of the Pontic–Caspian steppe that resulted in gene flow across vast distances, linking populations of Yamnaya pastoralists in Scandinavia with pastoral populations (known as the Afanasievo) far to the east in the Altai Mountains1,2 and Mongolia3. Although some models hold that this expansion was the outcome of a newly mobile pastoral economy characterized by horse traction, bulk wagon transport4–6 and regular dietary dependence on meat and milk5, hard evidence for these economic features has not been found. Here we draw on proteomic analysis of dental calculus from individuals from the western Eurasian steppe to demonstrate a major transition in dairying at the start of the Bronze Age. The rapid onset of ubiquitous dairying at a point in time when steppe populations are known to have begun dispersing offers critical insight into a key catalyst of steppe mobility. The identification of horse milk proteins also indicates horse domestication by the Early Bronze Age, which provides support for its role in steppe dispersals. Our results point to a potential epicentre for horse domestication in the Pontic–Caspian steppe by the third millennium bc, and offer strong support for the notion that the novel exploitation of secondary animal products was a key driver of the expansions of Eurasian steppe pastoralists by the Early Bronze Age. Analysis of ancient proteins suggests that Early Bronze Age dairying and horse domestication catalysed eastern Yamnaya migrations.
... The earliest definitively domestic horses, however, are associated with the southern Trans-Uralian Sintashta Culture, dated to c. 2000 BC (Fages et al. 2019). Sintashta horses are found in paired burials and are sometimes accompanied by chariot wheel remains and bridle components (Chechushkov & Epimakhov 2018). Historical records and archaeological finds from the late second millennium BC reveal the proliferation of chariots across much of western Eurasia and North Africa, with only sparse reference to horse riding (Littauer & Crouwel 1979). ...
Across Eurasia, horse transport transformed ancient societies. Although evidence for chariotry is well dated, the origins of horse riding are less clear. Techniques to distinguish chariotry from riding in archaeological samples rely on elements not typically recovered from many steppe contexts. Here, the authors examine horse remains of Mongolia's Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) Complex, comparing them with ancient and modern East Asian horses used for both types of transport. DSK horses demonstrate unique dentition damage that could result from steppe chariotry, but may also indicate riding with a shallow rein angle at a fast gait. A key role for chariots in Late Bronze Age Mongolia helps explain the trajectory of horse use in early East Asia.
... Crone-Romanovski [35] draws comparable conclusions for the role of horse-drawn carriages in Frances Burney's novel Evelina, set in 1778. Chechushkov and Epimakho [36] look much further back in time, exploring social principles underlying the development of horse-drawn chariots in Inner Eurasia during the Middle and Late Bronze Age, 2050-1750 BCE. These vehicles were not so much a practical method of transport as an expression of their owners' prestige and technical expertise. ...
President Joe Biden’s stated policy is to decarbonize the US light vehicle fleet by 2050 and improve on projected Obama-era standards for the years until then. The automobile as a socially constructed artifact is subject to social-cultural as well as technical constraints. The four main routes to decarbonization are reductions in horsepower, reductions in vehicle weight, technical efficiency improvements, and switching to zero-carbon-emission vehicles. The last two of these face technical constraints, and the first two are constrained by deeply entrenched social-cultural attitudes and practices. This paper offers an in-depth analysis of technical possibilities available to five major automakers (Ford, General Motors, Kia, BMW/Mini and Nissan) to progressively decarbonize their US light vehicle fleets by 2020 under these technical and social-cultural constraints. It utilizes fine-grained laboratory-standard vehicle test data on all these automakers’ vehicle models for 2011–2021 and in more depth for 2019 weighted by each model’s sales. Using the results of regression analyses it models two possible pathways for each automaker, which meet Biden’s stated objectives with the least possible offence to social-cultural sensibilities. However, there appear to be no ideal pathways that would achieve credible decarbonization trajectories without substantial changes to the social construction of the automobile.
... Wheeled means of transportation began to appear in the Eurasian steppes between 5600 and 4300 BP [30,31]. It is widely accepted that first draft animals belonged to the bovine family and there is no evidence of draft horses being used at that time [31]. ...
... Wheeled means of transportation began to appear in the Eurasian steppes between 5600 and 4300 BP [30,31]. It is widely accepted that first draft animals belonged to the bovine family and there is no evidence of draft horses being used at that time [31]. The first undeniable evidence of horse-powered transportation-light, two-wheeled chariots-comes from the Sintashta-Petrovka archeological site, and dates to c. 4100-3700 BP [30][31][32][33][34]. ...
... It is widely accepted that first draft animals belonged to the bovine family and there is no evidence of draft horses being used at that time [31]. The first undeniable evidence of horse-powered transportation-light, two-wheeled chariots-comes from the Sintashta-Petrovka archeological site, and dates to c. 4100-3700 BP [30][31][32][33][34]. The chariot graves, where, together with humans, horses and chariots were buried as a sacrificial deposit, indicate importance of horses in sacral aspect of the culture. ...
The domestication of the horse began about 5500 years ago in the Eurasian steppes. In the following millennia horses spread across the ancient world, and their role in transportation and warfare affected every ancient culture. Ownership of horses became an indicator of wealth and social status. The importance of horses led to a growing interest in their breeding and management. Many phenotypic traits, such as height, behavior, and speed potential, have been proven to be a subject of selection; however, the details of ancient breeding practices remain mostly unknown. From the fourth millennium BP, through the Iron Age, many literature sources thoroughly describe horse training systems, as well as various aspects of husbandry, many of which are still in use today. The striking resemblance of ancient and modern equine practices leaves us wondering how much was accomplished through four thousand years of horse breeding.
