Editing Domestication of the horse (section)

==Background==
[[File:Terracotta urn in the shape of a horse (Iran, 1000&nbsp;BCE), stored at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.jpg|thumb|Terracotta urn in the shape of a horse (Iran, 1000&nbsp;BCE) at the [[Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum|Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library]]]]

The date of the domestication of the horse depends to some degree upon the definition of "domestication". Some zoologists define "domestication" as human control over breeding, which can be detected in ancient skeletal samples by changes in the size and variability of ancient horse populations. Other researchers look at the broader evidence, including skeletal and dental evidence of working activity; weapons, art, and spiritual artifacts; and lifestyle patterns of human cultures. There is evidence that horses were kept as a source of meat and milk before they were trained as working animals.<ref name="Dance"/><ref name="Outram"/>

Attempts to date domestication by genetic study or analysis of physical remains rest on the assumption that there was a separation of the [[genotypes]] of domesticated and wild populations. Such a separation appears to have taken place, but dates based on such methods can only produce an estimate of the latest possible date for domestication without excluding the possibility of an unknown period of earlier gene flow between wild and domestic populations (which will occur naturally as long as the domesticated population is kept within the habitat of the wild population).<ref name="Apfel">{{cite news |last1=Apfel |first1=Karin |title=Horses and Man: Digging Up the Truth about Domestication |url=https://horse-canada.com/magazine/miscellaneous/horses-and-man-digging-up-the-truth-about-domestication/ |access-date=20 May 2022 |work=Horse Canada |date=March 25, 2020 |language=en-CA}}</ref> 

Whether one adopts the narrower zoological definition of domestication or the broader cultural definition that rests on an array of zoological and archaeological evidence affects the time frame chosen for the domestication of the horse. The date of 4000&nbsp;BCE is based on evidence that includes the appearance of dental pathologies associated with [[Bit (horse)|bitting]], changes in butchering practices, changes in human economies and settlement patterns, the depiction of horses as symbols of power in artifacts, and the appearance of horse bones in human graves.<ref name="Anthony2007">{{cite book |title=The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World |last=Anthony |first=David W. |year=2007 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-05887-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/horsewheelandlanguage }}</ref> On the other hand, measurable changes in size and increases in variability associated with domestication occurred later, about 2500–2000&nbsp;BCE, as seen in horse remains found at the site of Csepel-Haros in [[Hungary]], a settlement of the [[Beaker culture|Bell Beaker culture]].<ref name="Benecke and von den Dreisch 2003">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse |last=Benecke |first=Norbert |author2=Von den Dreisch, Angela |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Boyle, Katie |year=2003 |publisher=McDonald Institute |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-09-0 |pages=69–82 |chapter=Horse exploitation in the Kazakh steppes during the Eneolithic and Bronze Age }}</ref>

Use of horses spread across [[Eurasia]] for transportation, agricultural work and warfare. Horses and mules in agriculture used a [[Breastplate (tack)|breastplate]] type harness or a [[yoke]] more suitable for [[ox]]en, which was not as efficient at utilizing the full strength of the animals as the later-invented padded [[horse collar]] that arose several millennia later.<ref>{{cite book |title=Science and Civilization in China; Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering |last=Needham |first=Joseph |year=1986 |publisher=Caves Books |location=Taipei }}</ref><ref name="Clutton-Brock1992">{{cite book |title=Horse Power: A History of the Horse and the Donkey in Human Societies |last=Clutton-Brock |first=Juliet |year=1992 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-674-40646-9 |page=138 }}</ref>