Editing Domestication of the horse (section)

==Archaeological evidence==
[[File:Modern loose interpretation at the The Pharaonic Village in Cairo of a Battle scene from the Great Kadesh reliefs of Ramses II on the Walls of the Ramesseum.jpg|thumb|225px|Chariots of [[Ramesses II]] and the [[Hittites]] in the [[Battle of Kadesh]], 1274 BCE. Modern interpretation of a relief on the walls of the [[Ramesseum]]]]
Archaeological evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from three kinds of sources: 1) changes in the skeletons and teeth of ancient horses; 2) changes in the geographic distribution of ancient horses, particularly the introduction of horses into regions where no wild horses had existed; and
3) [[archaeology|archaeological]] sites containing artifacts, images, or evidence of changes in human behavior connected with horses.

Examples include horse remains [[horse burial|interred in human graves]]; changes in the ages and sexes of the horses killed by humans; the appearance of horse [[corral]]s; equipment such as [[bit (horse)|bits]] or other types of [[horse tack]]; horses interred with equipment intended for use by horses, such as [[chariot]]s; and depictions of horses used for equestrianism, driving, draught work, or symbols of human power.

Few of these categories, taken alone, provide irrefutable evidence of domestication, but the cumulative evidence becomes increasingly more persuasive.
[[File:Рисунок лошади, мамонта, носорога. Пещера Шульган-Таш.png|thumb|225px|Drawing of a horse, a mammoth, and a rhinoceros in the [[Kapova Cave|Shulgan-Tash Cave]], 25-10 thousand years B.C.]]

===Horses interred with chariots===
The least ancient, but most persuasive, evidence of domestication comes from sites where horse leg bones and skulls, probably originally attached to hides, were interred with the remains of chariots in at least 16 graves of the [[Sintashta]] and [[Petrovka settlement|Petrovka]] cultures. These were located in the steppes southeast of the [[Ural Mountains]], between the upper [[Ural River|Ural]] and upper [[Tobol River]]s, a region today divided between southern [[Russia]] and northern [[Kazakhstan]]. Petrovka was a little later than and probably grew out of Sintashta, and the two complexes together spanned about 2100–1700 BCE.<ref name="Anthony2007" /><ref name="Kuznetsov2006">{{cite journal | last = Kuznetsov | first = P. F. | year = 2006 | title = The emergence of Bronze Age chariots in eastern Europe | journal = [[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] | volume = 80 | issue =  309| pages = 638–645 | doi = 10.1017/s0003598x00094096 | s2cid = 162580424}}</ref> A few of these graves contained the remains of as many as eight sacrificed horses placed in, above, and beside the grave.

In all of the dated chariot graves, the heads and hooves of a pair of horses were placed in a grave that once contained a chariot. Evidence of chariots in these graves was inferred from the impressions of two spoked wheels set in grave floors 1.2–1.6m apart; in most cases the rest of the vehicle left no trace. In addition, a pair of disk-shaped antler "cheekpieces," an ancient predecessor to a modern [[bit shank]] or [[bit ring]], were placed in pairs beside each horse head-and-hoof sacrifice. The inner faces of the disks had protruding prongs or studs that would have pressed against the horse's lips when the [[rein]]s were pulled on the opposite side. Studded cheekpieces were a new and fairly severe kind of control device that appeared simultaneously with chariots.

All of the dated chariot graves contained wheel impressions, horse bones, weapons (arrow and javelin points, axes, daggers, or stone mace-heads), human skeletal remains, and cheekpieces. Because they were buried in teams of two with chariots and studded cheekpieces, the evidence is extremely persuasive that these steppe horses of 2100–1700 BCE were domesticated. Shortly after the period of these burials, the expansion of the domestic horse throughout Europe was little short of explosive. In the space of possibly 500 years, there is evidence of horse-drawn chariots in Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. By another 500 years, the horse-drawn chariot had spread to China.

===Skeletal indicators of domestication===
Some researchers do not consider an animal to be "domesticated" until it exhibits physical changes consistent with [[selective breeding]], or at least having been born and raised entirely in captivity. Until that point, they classify captive animals as merely "tamed". Those who hold to this theory of domestication point to a change in skeletal measurements detected among [[skeletal system of the horse|horse bones]] recovered from middens dated about 2500 BCE in eastern [[Hungary]] in [[Beaker culture|Bell-Beaker]] sites, and in later [[Bronze Age]] sites in the [[Russia]]n steppes, [[Spain]], and [[Eastern Europe]].<ref name="Benecke and von den Dreisch 2003"/><ref name="Bökönyi1978">{{cite journal | last = Bökönyi | first = Sándor | year = 1978 | title = The earliest waves of domestic horses in east Europe | journal = [[Journal of Indo-European Studies]] | volume = 6 | issue = 1/2 | pages = 17–76 }}</ref> Horse bones from these contexts exhibited an increase in variability, thought to reflect the survival under human care of both larger and smaller individuals than appeared in the wild; and a decrease in average size, thought to reflect penning and restriction in diet. Horse populations that showed this combination of skeletal changes probably were domesticated. Most evidence suggests that horses were increasingly controlled by humans after about 2500 BCE. However, more recently there have been skeletal remains found at a site in [[Kazakhstan]] which display the smaller, more slender limbs characteristic of corralled animals, dated to 3500 BCE.<ref name="Outram"/>

===Botai culture===
Some of the most intriguing evidence of early domestication comes from the [[Botai culture]], found in northern [[Kazakhstan]]. The Botai culture was a culture of [[Hunter-gatherer|forager]]s who seem to have adopted horseback riding in order to hunt the abundant wild horses of northern Kazakhstan between 3500 and 3000 BCE.<ref name="Olsen2003">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse |last=Olsen |first=Sandra L. |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Boyle, Katie |year=2003 |publisher=McDonald Institute |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-09-0 |pages=83–104 |chapter=The exploitation of horses at Botai, Kazakhstan }}</ref><ref name="Anthony and Brown 2000" /> Botai sites had no cattle or sheep bones; the only domesticated animals, in addition to horses, were dogs. Botai settlements in this period contained between 50 and 150 pit houses. Garbage deposits contained tens to hundreds of thousands of discarded animal bones, 65% to 99% of which had come from horses. Also, there has been evidence found of horse milking at these sites, with horse milk fats soaked into pottery shards dating to 3500 BCE.<ref name="Outram"/> Earlier hunter-gatherers who lived in the same region had not hunted wild horses with such success, and lived for millennia in smaller, more shifting settlements, often containing less than 200 wild animal bones.

Entire herds of horses were slaughtered by the Botai hunters, apparently in hunting drives. The adoption of horseback riding might explain the emergence of specialised horse-hunting techniques and larger, more permanent settlements. Domesticated horses could have been adopted from neighboring herding societies in the steppes west of the Ural Mountains, where the [[Khvalynsk culture]] had herds of cattle and sheep, and perhaps had domesticated horses, as early as 4800 BCE.<ref name="Anthony and Brown 2000"/>

Other researchers have argued that all of the Botai horses were wild, and that the horse-hunters of Botai hunted wild horses on foot. As evidence, they note that zoologists have found no skeletal changes in the Botai horses that indicate domestication. Moreover, because they were hunted for food, the majority of the horse remains found in Botai-culture settlements indeed probably were wild. On the other hand, any domesticated riding horses were probably the same size as their wild cousins and cannot now be distinguished by bone measurements.<ref name="Benecke and von den Dreisch 2003"/> They also note that the age structure of the horses slaughtered at Botai represents a natural demographic profile for hunted animals, not the pattern expected if they were domesticated and selected for slaughter.<ref name="Levine1999" /> However, these arguments were published before a Copper Age corral was discovered at Krasnyi Yar in 2006 and mats of horse-dung at two other Botai sites.<ref name="Biello">{{cite news |last1=Biello |first1=David |title=Horsemen of the Steppes: Ancient Corrals Found in Kazakhstan |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/horsemen-of-the-steppes-a/ |access-date=18 May 2022 |work=Scientific American |date=October 27, 2006 |language=en}}</ref> Current findings continue to support the Botai as having domesticated horses.<ref name=Outram2023>{{cite journal| doi=10.3389/fearc.2023.1134068| doi-access=free| title=Horse domestication as a multi-centered, multi-stage process: Botai and the role of specialised Eneolithic horse pastoralism in the development of human-equine relationships| date=2023| last1=Outram| first1=Alan K.| journal=Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology| volume=2| hdl=10871/133044| hdl-access=free}}</ref>

A study in 2018 revealed that the Botai horses did not contribute significantly to the genetics of modern domesticated horses, and that therefore a subsequent and separate domestication event must have been responsible for the modern domestic horse. Genetic evidence also connects Botai horses with [[Przewalski's horse]] in Mongolia, which has led to debates over whether Przewalski's horses should be considered a never-domesticated population or feral descendants of domesticated Botai horses.<ref name="Dance"/><ref name="Librado">{{cite journal |last1=Librado |first1=Pablo |last2=Khan |first2=Naveed |last3=Fages |first3=Antoine |last4=Kusliy |first4=Mariya A. |last5=Suchan |first5=Tomasz |last6=Tonasso-Calvière |first6=Laure |last7=Schiavinato |first7=Stéphanie |last8=Alioglu |first8=Duha |last9=Fromentier |first9=Aurore |last10=Perdereau |first10=Aude |last11=Aury |first11=Jean-Marc |last12=Gaunitz |first12=Charleen |last13=Chauvey |first13=Lorelei |last14=Seguin-Orlando |first14=Andaine |last15=Der Sarkissian |first15=Clio |last16=Southon |first16=John |last17=Shapiro |first17=Beth |last18=Tishkin |first18=Alexey A. |last19=Kovalev |first19=Alexey A. |last20=Alquraishi |first20=Saleh |last21=Alfarhan |first21=Ahmed H. |last22=Al-Rasheid |first22=Khaled A. 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|last53=Somogyi |first53=Krisztina |last54=Kulcsár |first54=Gabriella |last55=Gál |first55=Erika |last56=Bendrey |first56=Robin |last57=Allentoft |first57=Morten E. |last58=Sirbu |first58=Ghenadie |last59=Dergachev |first59=Valentin |last60=Shephard |first60=Henry |last61=Tomadini |first61=Noémie |last62=Grouard |first62=Sandrine |last63=Kasparov |first63=Aleksei |last64=Basilyan |first64=Alexander E. |last65=Anisimov |first65=Mikhail A. |last66=Nikolskiy |first66=Pavel A. |last67=Pavlova |first67=Elena Y. |last68=Pitulko |first68=Vladimir |last69=Brem |first69=Gottfried |last70=Wallner |first70=Barbara |last71=Schwall |first71=Christoph |last72=Keller |first72=Marcel |last73=Kitagawa |first73=Keiko |last74=Bessudnov |first74=Alexander N. |last75=Bessudnov |first75=Alexander |last76=Taylor |first76=William |last77=Magail |first77=Jérome |last78=Gantulga |first78=Jamiyan-Ombo |last79=Bayarsaikhan |first79=Jamsranjav |last80=Erdenebaatar |first80=Diimaajav |last81=Tabaldiev |first81=Kubatbeek |last82=Mijiddorj |first82=Enkhbayar |last83=Boldgiv |first83=Bazartseren |last84=Tsagaan |first84=Turbat |last85=Pruvost |first85=Mélanie |last86=Olsen |first86=Sandra |last87=Makarewicz |first87=Cheryl A. |last88=Valenzuela Lamas |first88=Silvia |last89=Albizuri Canadell |first89=Silvia |last90=Nieto Espinet |first90=Ariadna |last91=Iborra |first91=Ma Pilar |last92=Lira Garrido |first92=Jaime |last93=Rodríguez González |first93=Esther |last94=Celestino |first94=Sebastián |last95=Olària |first95=Carmen |last96=Arsuaga |first96=Juan Luis |last97=Kotova |first97=Nadiia |last98=Pryor |first98=Alexander |last99=Crabtree |first99=Pam |last100=Zhumatayev |first100=Rinat |last101=Toleubaev |first101=Abdesh |last102=Morgunova |first102=Nina L. |last103=Kuznetsova |first103=Tatiana |last104=Lordkipanize |first104=David |last105=Marzullo |first105=Matilde |last106=Prato |first106=Ornella |last107=Bagnasco Gianni |first107=Giovanna |last108=Tecchiati |first108=Umberto |last109=Clavel |first109=Benoit |last110=Lepetz |first110=Sébastien |last111=Davoudi |first111=Hossein |last112=Mashkour |first112=Marjan |last113=Berezina |first113=Natalia Ya |last114=Stockhammer |first114=Philipp W. |last115=Krause |first115=Johannes |last116=Haak |first116=Wolfgang |last117=Morales-Muñiz |first117=Arturo |last118=Benecke |first118=Norbert |last119=Hofreiter |first119=Michael |last120=Ludwig |first120=Arne |last121=Graphodatsky |first121=Alexander S. |last122=Peters |first122=Joris |last123=Kiryushin |first123=Kirill Yu |last124=Iderkhangai |first124=Tumur-Ochir |last125=Bokovenko |first125=Nikolay A. |last126=Vasiliev |first126=Sergey K. |last127=Seregin |first127=Nikolai N. |last128=Chugunov |first128=Konstantin V. |last129=Plasteeva |first129=Natalya A. |last130=Baryshnikov |first130=Gennady F. |last131=Petrova |first131=Ekaterina |last132=Sablin |first132=Mikhail |last133=Ananyevskaya |first133=Elina |last134=Logvin |first134=Andrey |last135=Shevnina |first135=Irina |last136=Logvin |first136=Victor |last137=Kalieva |first137=Saule |last138=Loman |first138=Valeriy |last139=Kukushkin |first139=Igor |last140=Merz |first140=Ilya |last141=Merz |first141=Victor |last142=Sakenov |first142=Sergazy |last143=Varfolomeyev |first143=Victor |last144=Usmanova |first144=Emma |last145=Zaibert |first145=Viktor |last146=Arbuckle |first146=Benjamin |last147=Belinskiy |first147=Andrey B. |last148=Kalmykov |first148=Alexej |last149=Reinhold |first149=Sabine |last150=Hansen |first150=Svend |last151=Yudin |first151=Aleksandr I. |last152=Vybornov |first152=Alekandr A. |last153=Epimakhov |first153=Andrey |last154=Berezina |first154=Natalia S. |last155=Roslyakova |first155=Natalia |last156=Kosintsev |first156=Pavel A. |last157=Kuznetsov |first157=Pavel F. |last158=Anthony |first158=David |last159=Kroonen |first159=Guus J. |last160=Kristiansen |first160=Kristian |last161=Wincker |first161=Patrick |last162=Outram |first162=Alan |last163=Orlando |first163=Ludovic |display-authors=5  |title=The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes |journal=Nature |date=October 2021 |volume=598 |issue=7882 |pages=634–640 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9 |pmid=34671162 |pmc=8550961 |bibcode=2021Natur.598..634L |language=en |issn=1476-4687}}</ref>

===Bit wear===
[[File:Persianbit1.jpg|thumb|A [[Luristan bronze]] horse [[bit (horse)|bit]]]]

The presence of [[bit (horse)|bit]] wear is an indicator that a horse was ridden or driven, and the earliest of such evidence from a site in Kazakhstan dates to 3500 BCE. The absence of bit wear on [[horse teeth]] is not conclusive evidence against domestication because horses can be ridden and controlled without bits by using a [[noseband]] or a [[hackamore]], but such materials do not produce significant physiological changes nor are they apt to be preserved for millennia.

The regular use of a bit to control a horse can create wear facets or bevels on the anterior corners of the lower second [[premolars]]. The corners of the horse's mouth normally keep the bit on the "bars" of the mouth, an [[diastema|interdental space]] where there are no teeth, forward of the premolars. The bit must be manipulated by a human or the horse must move it with its tongue for it to touch the teeth. Wear can be caused by the bit abrading the front corners of the premolars if the horse grasps and releases the bit between its [[horse teeth|teeth]]; other wear can be created by the bit striking the vertical front edge of the lower premolars,<ref name="Brown1998">{{cite journal | last = Brown | first = Dorcas |author2=Anthony, David W. | year = 1998 | title = Bit Wear, Horseback Riding and the Botai site in Kazakstan | journal = Journal of Archaeological Science | volume = 25 | issue = 4 | pages = 331–347 | doi = 10.1006/jasc.1997.0242 | bibcode = 1998JArSc..25..331B }}</ref><ref name="Bendry2007">{{cite journal | last = Bendry | first = Robin | year = 2007 | title = New methods for the identification of evidence for bitting on horse remains from archaeological sites | journal = Journal of Archaeological Science | volume = 34 | issue = 7 | pages = 1036–1050 | doi = 10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.010 | bibcode = 2007JArSc..34.1036B }}</ref> due to very strong pressure from a human handler.

Modern experiments showed that even organic bits of rope or leather can create significant wear facets, and also showed that facets 3mm (.118 in) deep or more do not appear on the premolars of wild horses.<ref name="Anthony2006">{{cite book |title=Horses and Humans: The Evolution of the Equine-Human Relationship |last=Anthony |first=David W. |author2=Brown, Dorcas R. |author3=George, Christian  |editor=Olsen, Sandra L. |editor2=Grant, Susan |editor3=Choyke, Alice |editor4=Bartosiewicz, Laszlo |year=2006 |publisher=Archaeopress |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-84171-990-0 |pages=137–156 |chapter=Early horseback riding and warfare: the importance of the magpie around the neck |series=British Archaeological Reports International Series |volume=1560 }}</ref> However, other researchers disputed both conclusions.<ref name="Levine1999">{{cite book |title=Late Prehistoric Exploitation of the Eurasian Steppe |last=Levine |first=Marsha A. |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Rassamakin, Yuri |editor3=Kislenko, Aleksandr |editor4=Tatarintseva, Nataliya |year=1999 |publisher=McDonald Institute Monographs |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-03-8 |pages=5–58 |chapter=The Origins of Horse Husbandry on the Eurasian Steppe }}</ref>

Wear facets of 3&nbsp;mm or more were found on seven horse premolars in two sites of the Botai culture, Botai and Kozhai 1, dated about 3500–3000 BCE.<ref name="Anthony and Brown 2000" /><ref name="Anthony1991" /> The Botai culture premolars are the earliest reported multiple examples of this dental pathology in any archaeological site, and preceded any skeletal change indicators by 1,000 years. While wear facets more than 3&nbsp;mm deep were discovered on the lower second premolars of a single [[stallion]] from [[Dereivka]] in [[Ukraine]], an [[Eneolithic]] settlement dated about 4000 BCE,<ref name="Anthony1991">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1038/scientificamerican1291-94 | last = Anthony | first = David W. |author2=Telegin, Dimitri |author3=Brown, Dorcas | year = 1991 | title = The origin of horseback riding | journal = [[Scientific American]] | volume = 265 | issue = 6 | pages = 94–100 | bibcode = 1991SciAm.265f..94A }}</ref> dental material from one of the worn teeth later produced a radiocarbon date of 700–200 BCE, indicating that this stallion was actually deposited in a pit dug into the older Eneolithic site during the [[Iron Age]].<ref name="Anthony and Brown 2000">{{cite journal | last = Anthony | first = David W. |author2=Brown, Dorcas | year = 2000 | title = Eneolithic horse exploitation in the Eurasian steppes: diet, ritual and riding | journal = Antiquity | volume = 74 | issue = 283| pages = 75–86 | doi = 10.1017/S0003598X00066163 | s2cid = 163782751 }}</ref>

===Dung and corrals===
[[Soil scientist]]s working with Sandra Olsen of the [[Carnegie Museum of Natural History]] at the [[Chalcolithic]] settlements of Botai and [[Krasnyi Yar (Kazakhstan)|Krasnyi Yar]] in northern Kazakhstan found layers of horse dung, discarded in unused house pits in both settlements.<!--dated to when??--><ref name="French2003">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse |last=French |first=Charly |author2=Kousoulakou, Maria |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Boyle, Katie |year=2003 |publisher=McDonald Institute |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-09-0 |pages=105–114 |chapter=Geomorphological and micromorphological investigations of paleosols, valley sediments, and a sunken-floored dwelling at Botai, Kazakstan }}</ref> The collection and disposal of horse dung suggests that horses were confined in corrals or stables. An actual corral, dated to 3500–3000 BCE was identified at Krasnyi Yar by a pattern of post holes for a circular fence, with the [[soil]]s inside the fence yielding ten times more [[phosphorus]] than the soils outside. The phosphorus could represent the remains of manure.<ref name="Olsen2006">{{cite conference |first=Sandra L. |last=Olsen |title=Geochemical evidence of possible horse domestication at the Copper Age Botai settlement of Krasnyi Yar, Kazakhstan |conference=Geological Society of America Annual Meeting |date=2006-10-23 }}</ref>

===Geographic expansion===
The appearance of horse remains in human settlements in regions where they had not previously been present is another indicator of domestication. Although images of horses appear as early as the [[Upper Paleolithic]] period in places such as the caves of [[Lascaux]], France, suggesting that wild horses lived in regions outside of the Eurasian steppes<!--i.e. what today is the Ukraine and Eastern Europe--> before domestication and may have even been hunted by early humans, concentration of remains suggests animals being deliberately captured and contained, an indicator of domestication, at least for food, if not necessarily use as a working animal.

Around 3500–3000 BCE, horse bones began to appear more frequently in archaeological sites beyond their center of distribution in the Eurasian steppes and were seen in central [[Europe]], the middle and lower [[Danube]] valley, and the North [[Caucasus]] and [[South Caucasus|Transcaucasia]]. Evidence of horses in these areas had been rare before, and as numbers increased, larger animals also began to appear in horse remains. This expansion in range was contemporary with the Botai culture, where there are indications that horses were corralled and ridden. This does not necessarily mean that horses were first domesticated in the steppes, but the horse-hunters of the steppes certainly pursued wild horses more than in any other region.<ref name="Bökönyi1978" /><ref name="Benecke1994" /><ref name="Bökönyi1991" />

European wild horses were hunted for up to 10% of the animal bones in a handful of [[Mesolithic]] and [[Neolithic]] settlements scattered across [[Spain]], [[France]], and the marshlands of northern [[Germany]], but in many other parts of Europe, including [[Greece]], the [[Balkans]], the [[British Isles]], and much of central Europe, horse bones do not occur or occur very rarely in Mesolithic, Neolithic or Chalcolithic sites. In contrast, wild horse bones regularly exceeded 40% of the identified animal bones in Mesolithic and Neolithic camps in the Eurasian steppes, west of the Ural Mountains.<ref name="Benecke1994" /><ref name="Benecke1997">{{cite journal | last = Benecke | first = Norbert | year = 1997 | title = Archaeozoological studies on the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in the North Pontic region |url=http://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/sites/default/files/articles/pdf/az1998n25-26a73.pdf| journal = Anthropozoologica | volume = 25–26 | pages = 631–641 }}</ref><ref name="Uerpmann1990">{{cite journal | last = Uerpmann | first = Hans-Peter | year = 1990 | title = Die Domestikation des Pferdes im Chalcolithikum West– und Mitteleuropas | journal = Madrider Mitteilungen | volume = 31 | pages = 109–153 }}</ref>

Horse bones were rare or absent in [[Neolithic]] and [[Chalcolithic]] kitchen garbage in western [[Turkey]], [[Mesopotamia]], most of [[Iran]], South and Central [[Asia]], and much of Europe.<ref name="Benecke1994">{{cite book |title=Archäozoologische Studien zur Entwicklung der Haustierhaltung in Mitteleuropa und Südskandinavien von Anfängen bis zum ausgehenden Mittelalter |last=Benecke |first=Norbert |year=1994 |publisher=Akademie Verlag |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-05-002415-8 |series=Schriften zur Ur– und Frühgeschichte |volume=46 }}</ref><ref name="Bökönyi1991">{{cite book |title=Equids in the Ancient World |series=Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients: Reihe A (Naturwissenschaften) |volume=19 |last=Bökönyi |first=Sándor |editor=Meadow, Richard H. |editor2=Uerpmann, Hans-Peter |year=1991 |publisher=Ludwig Reichert Verlag |location=Wiesbaden |pages=123–131 |chapter=Late Chalcolithic horses in Anatolia }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last = Meadow | first = Richard H. |author2=Patel, Ajita | year = 1997 | title = A comment on 'Horse Remains from Surkotada' by Sándor Bökönyi | journal = South Asian Studies | volume = 13 | pages = 308–315| doi=10.1080/02666030.1997.9628545}}</ref> While horse bones have been identified in Neolithic sites in central Turkey, all [[equid]]s together totaled less than 3% of the animal bones. Within this three percent, horses were less than 10%, with 90% or more of the equids represented by [[onager]]s (''Equus hemionus'') or another ass-like equid that later became extinct, the hydruntine or European wild ass (''[[Equus hydruntinus]]'').<ref name="Russell2005">{{cite book |title=Inhabiting Çatalhöyük: Reports From the 1995–1999 Seasons |volume=4 |last=Russell |first=Nerissa |author2=Martin, Louise |editor=Hodder, Ian |year=2005 |publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research |location=Cambridge |pages=33–98 |chapter=Çatalhöyük Mammal Remains }}</ref> Onagers were the most common native wild equids of the Near East. They were hunted in [[Syria]], [[Anatolia]], [[Mesopotamia]], [[Iran]], and Central Asia; and domesticated asses (''[[Equus asinus]]'') were imported into Mesopotamia, probably from [[Egypt]], but wild horses apparently did not live there.<!--where? Egypt or Mesopotamia?--><ref name="Oates2003">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse |last=Oates |first=Joan |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Boyle, Katie |year=2003 |publisher=McDonald Institute |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-09-0 |pages=115–125 |chapter=A note on the early evidence for horse and the riding of equids in Western Asia }}</ref>

====Other evidence of geographic expansion====
[[File:Ashurbanipal inspects booty and prisoners from Babylon, 645-640 BCE.jpg|thumb|225px|Relief depicting [[Assyria]]n king [[Ashurbanipal]] in a chariot, inspecting booty and prisoners from [[Babylon]]]]
In [[Northern Caucasus]], the [[Maikop culture]] settlements and burials of c. 3300 BC contain both horse bones and images of horses. A frieze of nineteen horses painted in black and red colours is found in one of the Maikop graves. The widespread appearance of horse bones and images in Maikop sites suggest to some observers that horseback riding began in the Maikop period.<ref name="Anthony2007"/>{{rp|291}}

Later, images of horses, identified by their short ears, flowing manes, and tails that bushed out at the dock, began to appear in artistic media in Mesopotamia during the [[Akkadian Empire|Akkadian]] period, 2300–2100 BCE. The word for "horse", literally translated as ''ass of the mountains,'' first appeared in [[Sumer]]ian documents during the [[Third dynasty of Ur]], about 2100–2000 BCE.<ref name="Oates2003" /><ref name="Drews2004">{{cite book |title=Early Riders: The beginnings of mounted warfare in Asia and Europe |last=Drews |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Drews |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-0-415-32624-7 }}</ref> The kings of the Third Dynasty of Ur apparently fed horses to lions for royal entertainment, perhaps indicating that horses were still regarded as more exotic than useful, but King [[Shulgi]], about 2050 BCE, compared himself to "a horse of the highway that swishes its tail", and one image from his reign showed a man apparently riding a horse at full gallop.<ref name="Owen1991">{{cite journal | last = Owen | first = David I. | year = 1991 | title = The first equestrian: an Ur III glyptic scene | journal = Acta Sumerologica | volume = 13 | pages = 259–273}}</ref> Horses were imported into Mesopotamia and the lowland Near East in larger numbers after 2000 BCE in connection with the beginning of [[Chariot tactics|chariot warfare]], replacing the long-established [[Kunga (equid)|kunga]] (a hybrid between the now-extinct [[Syrian wild ass]] and a [[domestic donkey]]) as the main equid for warfare.

[[File:Shirenzigou panorama.png|thumb|Surroundings of the [[Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County|Shirenzigou]] archaeological site in Barkol County.]]
A further expansion, into the lowland [[Near East]] and northwestern [[China]], also happened around 2000 BCE. Although ''Equus'' bones of uncertain species are found in some Late Neolithic sites in China dated before 2000 BCE, ''Equus caballus'' or ''Equus ferus'' bones first appeared in multiple sites and in significant numbers in sites of the [[Qijia culture|Qijia]] and [[Siba culture|Siba]] cultures, 2000–1600 BCE, in [[Gansu]] and the northwestern provinces of China.<ref name="Linduff2003">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse |last=Linduff |first=Katheryn M. |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Boyle, Katie |year=2003 |publisher=McDonald Institute |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-09-0 |pages=139–162 |chapter=A walk on the wild side: late Shang appropriation of horses in China }}</ref> Skeletal evidence from sites in [[Shirenzigou]] and Xigou in eastern [[Xinjiang]] indicate that by the fourth century BCE both horseback riding and mounted archery were practiced along China’s northwest frontier.<ref name="Li">{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Yue |last2=Zhang |first2=Chengrui |last3=Taylor |first3=William Timothy Treal |last4=Chen |first4=Liang |last5=Flad |first5=Rowan K. |last6=Boivin |first6=Nicole |last7=Liu |first7=Huan |last8=You |first8=Yue |last9=Wang |first9=Jianxin |last10=Ren |first10=Meng |last11=Xi |first11=Tongyuan |last12=Han |first12=Yifu |last13=Wen |first13=Rui |last14=Ma |first14=Jian  |display-authors=5 |title=Early evidence for mounted horseback riding in northwest China |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=24 November 2020 |volume=117 |issue=47 |pages=29569–29576 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2004360117 |pmid=33139545 |pmc=7703595 |bibcode=2020PNAS..11729569L |language=en |issn=0027-8424|doi-access=free }}</ref>

A few horse bones, and an iron horse bit, have been found at [[Gandhara grave culture]] (c. 1200 - 800 BCE) sites, of Pakistan's, Swat Valley.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Azzaroli |first=Augusto |date=1975 |title=Two Proto-historic Horse Skeletons from Swāt, Pakistan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29756092 |journal=East and West |volume=25 |issue=3/4 |pages=353–357 |issn=0012-8376}}</ref> While the contemporary [[Vedas]] (c. 1500–500 BCE) make numerous references to both the use of [[History of the horse in the Indian subcontinent|horses and chariots within the Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sparreboom |first=M. |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Chariots_in_the_Veda.html?id=6alT6zhVUlAC&redir_esc=y |title=Chariots in the Veda |date=1985 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-07590-0 |language=en}}</ref>

In 2008, archaeologists announced the discovery of rock art in [[Somalia]]'s northern [[Dhambalin]] region, which the researchers suggest is one of the earliest known depictions of a hunter on horseback. The rock art is in the Ethiopian-Arabian style, dated to 1000 to 3000 BCE.<ref name="Tdodras">{{cite journal|last=Mire|first=Sada|title=The Discovery of Dhambalin Rock Art Site, Somaliland|journal=African Archaeological Review|year=2008|volume=25|issue=3–4|pages=153–168|url=http://www.mbali.info/doc494.htm|doi=10.1007/s10437-008-9032-2|s2cid=162960112|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627100400/http://www.mbali.info/doc494.htm|archive-date=27 June 2013}}</ref><ref name="Guafcpaonas">{{cite news|last=Alberge|first=Dalya|title=UK archaeologist finds cave paintings at 100 new African sites|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/17/cave-paintings-found-in-somaliland|newspaper=The Guardian|date=17 September 2010}}</ref>

===Horse images as symbols of power===
[[File:Uffington-White-Horse-sat.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A Bronze Age hill figure of a running horse.|The [[Uffington White Horse]], a British [[Bronze Age]] [[hill figure|chalk-carved figure]] associated with the construction of a nearby [[hill fort]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Darvill |first=Timothy |year=1996 |title=Prehistoric Britain from the Air |page=223 |isbn=0521551323 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>]]
About 4200-4000 BCE, more than 500 years before the geographic expansion evidenced by the presence of horse bones, new kinds of graves, named after a grave at [[Suvorovo]], appeared north of the [[Danube]] delta in the coastal steppes of Ukraine near [[Izmail]]. Suvorovo graves were similar to and probably derived from earlier funeral traditions in the steppes around the [[Dnieper River]]. Some Suvorovo graves contained polished stone mace-heads shaped like horse heads and horse tooth beads.<ref name="Dergachev1999">{{cite journal | last = Dergachev | first = Valentin | year = 1999 | title = Cultural-historical dialogue between the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Neolithic-Bronze Age | journal = Thraco-Dacica (București) | volume = 20 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 33–78 }}</ref> Earlier steppe graves also had contained polished stone mace-heads, some of them carved in the shape of animal heads.<ref name="Kuzmina2003">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Steppe Adaptation and the Horse |last=Kuzmina |first=E. E. |editor=Levine, Marsha |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Boyle, Katie |year=2003 |publisher=McDonald Institute |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-09-0 |pages=203–232 |chapter=Origins of pastoralism in the Eurasian steppes }}</ref> Settlements in the steppes contemporary with Suvorovo, such as [[Sredni Stog]] II and [[Dereivka]] on the Dnieper River, contained 12–52% horse bones.<ref name="Telegin1986">{{cite book |title=Dereivka: a Settlement and Cemetery of Copper Age Horse Keepers on the Middle Dnieper |last=Telegin |first=Dmitriy Yakolevich |year=1986 |series=British Archaeological Reports International Series |volume=287 |publisher=BAR |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-86054-369-5 }}</ref>

When Suvorovo graves appeared in the Danube delta grasslands, horse-head maces also appeared in some of the indigenous farming towns of the [[Trypillia]] and [[Hamangia culture|Gumelnitsa]] cultures in present-day [[Romania]] and [[Moldova]], near the Suvorovo graves.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ancient Interactions: East and West in Eurasia |last=Dergachev |first=Valentin A. |editor=Boyle, Katie |editor2=Renfrew, Colin |editor3=Levine, Marsha |year=2002 |publisher=McDonald Institute Monographs |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-902937-19-9 |pages=93–112 |chapter=Two studies in defense of the migration concept }}</ref> These agricultural cultures had not previously used polished-stone maces, and horse bones were rare or absent in their settlement sites. Probably their horse-head maces came from the Suvorovo immigrants. The Suvorovo people in turn acquired many copper ornaments from the Trypillia and Gumelnitsa towns. After this episode of contact and trade, but still during the period 4200–4000 BCE, about 600 agricultural towns in the Balkans and the lower Danube valley, some of which had been occupied for 2000 years, were abandoned.<ref name="Todorova1995">{{cite book |title=Prehistoric Bulgaria |last=Todorova |first=Henrietta |editor=Bailey, Douglass W. |editor2=Panayotov, Ivan |year=1995 |publisher=Prehistoric Press |location=Madison, WI |isbn=978-1-881094-11-1 |pages=79–98 |chapter=The Neolithic, Eneolithic, and Transitional in Bulgarian Prehistory |series=Monographs in World Archaeology |volume=22 }}</ref> Copper mining ceased in the Balkan copper mines,<ref name="Pernicka1997">{{cite journal | last = Pernicka | first = Ernst | year = 1997 | title = Prehistoric copper in Bulgaria | journal = Eurasia Antiqua | volume = 3 | pages = 41–179 }}</ref> and the cultural traditions associated with the agricultural towns were terminated in the Balkans and the lower Danube valley. This collapse of "Old Europe" has been attributed to the [[Indo-European migrations|immigration of mounted Indo-European warriors]].<ref name="Gimbutas1991">{{cite book |title=The Civilization of the Goddess |url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationofgo0000gimb |url-access=registration |last=Gimbutas |first=Marija |year=1991 |publisher=Harper |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-06-250368-8 }}</ref> The collapse could have been caused by intensified warfare, for which there is some evidence; and warfare could have been worsened by mounted raiding; and the horse-head maces have been interpreted as indicating the introduction of domesticated horses and riding just before the collapse.

However, mounted raiding is just one possible explanation for this complex event. Environmental deterioration, ecological degradation from millennia of farming, and the exhaustion of easily mined oxide copper ores also are cited as causal factors.<ref name="Anthony2007" /><ref name="Todorova1995" />

===Artifacts===
Perforated antler objects discovered at Derievka (mistakenly, Dereivka) and other sites contemporary with Suvorovo have been identified as cheekpieces or ''psalia'' for horse [[bit (horse)|bits]].<ref name="Kuzmina2003" /><!--did this one have a full cite somewhere? Let's use the "ref name" tag for these multiple refs, more consistent with wikipedia citation form--> This identification is no longer widely accepted, as the objects in question have not been found associated with horse bones, and could have had a variety of other functions.<ref name="Dietz1992">{{cite journal | last = Dietz | first = Ute Luise | year = 1992 | title =  Zur Frage vorbronzezeitlicher Trensenbelege in Europa | journal = Germania | volume = 70 | issue = 1 | pages = 17–36 }}</ref> However, through studies of microscopic wear, it has been established that many of the bone tools at Botai were used to smooth rawhide thongs, and rawhide thongs might have been used to manufacture of rawhide cords and ropes, useful for [[horse tack]].<ref name="Olsen2003" /> Similar bone thong-smoothers are known from many other steppe settlements, but it cannot be known how the thongs were used. The oldest artifacts clearly identified as horse tack—bits, [[bridle]]s, cheekpieces, or any other kind of horse gear—are the antler disk-shaped cheekpieces associated with the invention of the chariot, at the [[Sintashta-Petrovka]] sites.

===Horses interred in human graves===
The oldest possible archaeological indicator of a changed relationship between horses and humans is the appearance about 4800–4400 BCE of horse bones and carved images of horses in Chalcolithic graves of the early [[Khvalynsk culture]] and the [[Samara culture]] in the middle [[Volga River|Volga]] region of Russia. At the Khvalynsk cemetery near the town of [[Khvalynsk]], 158 graves of this period were excavated. Of these, 26 graves contained parts of sacrificed domestic animals, and additional sacrifices occurred in ritual deposits on the original ground surface above the graves. Ten graves contained parts of lower horse legs; two of these also contained the bones of domesticated cattle and sheep. At least 52 domesticated sheep or [[goat]]s, 23 domesticated cattle, and 11 horses were sacrificed at Khvalynsk. The inclusion of horses with cattle and sheep and the exclusion of obviously wild animals together suggest that horses were categorized symbolically with domesticated animals.{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}}

At S'yezzhe, a contemporary cemetery of the Samara culture, parts of two horses were placed above a group of human graves. The pair of horses here was represented by the head and hooves, probably originally attached to hides. The same ritual—using the hide with the head and lower leg bones as a symbol for the whole animal—was used for many domesticated cattle and sheep sacrifices at Khvalynsk. Horse images carved from bone were placed in the above-ground ochre deposit at S’yezzhe and occurred at several other sites of the same period in the middle and lower Volga region. Together these archaeological clues suggest that horses had a symbolic importance in the Khvalynsk and Samara cultures that they had lacked earlier, and that they were associated with humans, domesticated cattle, and domesticated sheep. Thus, the earliest phase in the domestication of the horse might have begun during the period 4800-4400 BCE.{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}}