Of horses and Humans and how it all began - The Neolithic Botai Culture of Kazakhstan (about 3500 B.C.E.) and the Przewalski horse

How and when exactly the history of horses and humans beyond the hunter and prey relationship began has long been a matter of debate. Nonetheless, there is increasing scientific evidence that it all started in today's northern Kazakhstan with the ancient people of the Botai. The Botai culture is a prehistoric culture (c. 3700–3100 BC) of northern Central Asia, named after the settlement of Botai.

After all that is known to date, the Botai are the oldest people to have domesticated the horse. Whether the Botai horse husbandry was more similar to semi-wild domestication such as e.g. Reindeer husbandry or whether the domestication was more modern using the horse for riding or as “draft” animals has been debated. However, Allen Outram and coworkers (Outram A et al. 2009) have provided evidence that at least some of the Botai horses must have been fully domesticated. 

Their first line of argumentation is that they found bitting damage evidence in the skulls/jaws of the Botai horses, which corresponds well with the use of bitts and bridles. In addition, findings of leather thong–producing tools supports the assumption, that tools such as bridles were used to control horses. Moreover, remnants of mare milk and other products from horse carcasses have been found in storage devices. Therefore, the authors conclude that the Botai developed a full domestic economy encompassing secondary products from horses. All these findings make it plausible, that the Botai have fully domesticated the horse.

The importance of horse domestication in the early Bronze Age must have been fundamental and cannot be underestimated! Horse domestication has surely secured a horse related economy providing food and other necessities of everyday life just like reindeer husbandry has. Nonetheless, beyond the domestic economy, horse domestication has not only revolutionized transport in prehistory. Moreover, horses became particularly relevant in all aspects of life and especially in warfare. Latest when cultures appeared, who documented wars and warfare in pictures and scripts such as in ancient Egypt, Sumer, or Babylonia, pictures of chariots pulled by horses are prominent. In the millennia to come, horses have until recently been an essential part of warfare. Thus, it may not be surprising that historically, quite a substantial part of riding education is rooted in military tradition.

 
But who were the Botai horses? All evidence suggests, that the Botai horses are very closely related other Bronze Age domestic horses rather than Paleolithic wild horses from the same region. A fact which supports the assumption of domestication and targeted breeding. Nonetheless, are they still alive in our modern horses? Yes and no! As Gaunitz and Coworkers (Science, 2018) reported in their genetic study, the Botai horses were the ancestors not of modern domestic horses, but rather of modern Przewalski's horses. 

Przewalski's horses were first discovered by in 1881 by Ivan Semyonovich Polyakov in central Asia. Even though, profound efforts including international breeding programs have been undertaken, the Przewalsky horse is still a severely endangered species and was extinct in the wild. However, several attempts are currently made to reintroduce Przewalsky horses into the wild in several regions in central Asia.

Przewalski's horses are genetically different from modern and other feral horses and contribute only 2.7% ancestry to modern domestic horses. Until recently, they were considered to be the only living species resembling truly wild horses descending from prehistoric wild horses. However, these new genetic findings suggest that they are rather the feral descendants of the domesticated Botai horses. 

Something has happened during the Early Bronze Age which has dramatically changed the genetic distribution of horse and human ancestry. In the Early Bronze Age (3300–2600 BC), a new group of people appeared on the scene and migrated from central Asia into eastern Europe, the Yamnaya people. Like for the Botai, horses were central to the Yamnaya culture. In opposite to the Botai, the appearance of the Yamnaya is associated with large scale migrations out of central asia into western Asia and eastern Europe. Thus, it is likely that the genetic turnover that has happened sometime during the Bronze age was related to the large human migration waves of the Early Bronze Age.

Thus, horses and humans share a long history, not only as prey and predator. Domestication, especially when the domesticated animal is not entirely used as a food supply, requires a sophisticated relationship. In dogs and horses, this must have been the case. Dogs already had a long domestication history when horses were domesticated. They supported humans while hunting and offered protection. The domestication of horses offered new means of transportation, and, last but most certainly not least, of warfare. All these factors require knowledge about the horses’ behavior and how to communicate with and how to handle horses. Latest through selective breeding, not only the outer appearance of a species changes, but also its character. Moreover, domestication is not a one-way street. Horses, most likely, have also changed humans, at least in “horse cultures”. 

Is some of this ancient horse-husbandry still alive? I believe so. After a break of two years due to the Corona epidemic, the Mongol Derby, which is said to be the worlds toughest horse race, was conducted again. Every year, this race on semi-wild Mongolian horses attracts not only adventurers from all over the world, but also many horse trainers. It seems, that this experience changes the way they see horses fundamentally (I happen to know two of them, who participated). What is it, that attracts so many trainers to this event? I can only speculate but I do believe that the way the Mongolian breeders and herders handle their horses, who are living semi-wild and are by no means comparable to our modern horses, must be fascinating to observe! The Mongolian breeders often have a nomadic lifestyle, and their life stock is semi-wild or semi-domesticated, whatever perspective one wants to take. I can only imagine what it takes to be able to ride those horses! How much understanding of horses and their nature does that require!

In our modern horse world, to participate in a “horsemanship” course is almost mandatory. Apparently, we have lost that natural bond with horses that is immanent I horse cultures. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with it, quite the opposite! Nonetheless, this fact also reflects a perceived need to learn about the fundamentals of horse handling because we have lost it due to lack of exposure. Yet still, I do believe that some of this long history between humans and horses is still alive within us. Why would we otherwise engage in something so expensive and elaborate as horses in a world, where they are not needed anymore in everyday life?

Domestication is not a one-way street. Otherwise, horses would have long disappeared in our modern world. Horses and dogs have been more to humankind than food resources (although both have also been eaten all along). They have been comrades, while hunting, in times of war, but also after the neolithic revolution when mankind discovered how to grow crops, became settlers, and horses (and in fact cattle) took over the role of a tractor. All these tasks need communication. Communication between two different species requires a certain amount of empathy. Empathy will eventually lead to mutual understanding, companionship, and bonding. 

After almost 4000 years of domestication, at least some of us still carry the love for horses in us. And maybe it is a good thing that horses are not necessarily needed so much anymore, that they have become “pets”, even though on a “large-scale” dimension. This fact has fostered a genuine interest in the horse and its welfare and has recently stimulated an increase in horse related research activity far beyond horse husbandry. The scientifically secured knowledge base about equine intelligence, the social behavior of horses, their ability to communicate not only within their own species, but also with a completely different species, the human, is growing by the day. The results of this research are astounding and amaze not only the research community, but also many in the equestrian community. We begin to understand how intelligent, how social, how amazing and fascinating these animals are. And this is, what this blog is about!

References:
https://www.science.org/content/article/these-asian-hunter-gatherers-may-have-been-first-people-domesticate-horses
Outram, Alan K.; et al. ( 6 March 2009 ) , " The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking " , Science, 323 ( 5919 ) : 1332–335, Bibcode:2009Sci...323.1332O, doi:10.1126/science.1168594, PMID 19265018, S2CID 5126719
Gaunitz C, Fages A, Hanghøj K, Albrechtsen A, Khan N, Schubert M, et al. ( 6 April 2018 ) . " Ancient genomes revisit the ancestry of domestic and Przewalski's horses " . Science Magazine. 360 ( 6384 ) : 111–114.