William Atkins
Saturday, 07 March 2009 21:13
Science -
Biology
Page 1 of 3
New evidence from an international team of researchers show that horses were first domesticated about 1,000 years earlier than previously thought. These people rode, milked, and sometimes ate their horses.
The researchers found three pieces of evidence that showed people, on what is now the northern steppes of the country of Kazakhstan, were riding and milking horses about 5,500 years ago, over one thousand years earlier than previously thought by scientists.
One of the authors of the study, British archaeologist
Alan Outram (from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom), stated,
“They were not only eating horses, but were also exploiting them for milk.” [National Geographic: “
Horse Taming, Milking Started in Kazakhstan”]
Outram added,
"Here, we have both riding and milking at a very early stage.”
The March 6, 2009 article summarizing the conclusions of the researchers is called “
The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking.” Within the article the researchers state that horses were domesticated at least 5,500 years ago.
The authors of the article published in the journal Science (volume 323, number 5919, pages 1332-1335, DOI: 10.1126/science.1168594) are: Alan K. Outram (United Kingdom), Natalie A. Stear (United Kingdom), Robin Bendrey (France and United Kingdom), Sandra Olsen (United States), Alexei Kasparov (United Kingdom and Russia), Victor Zaibert (Kazakhstan), Nick Thorpe (United Kingdom), and Richard P. Evershed (United Kingdom).
They state in the abstract to their paper,
“Horse domestication revolutionized transport, communications, and warfare in prehistory, yet the identification of early domestication processes has been problematic.”
Page two talks about the three pieces of evidence that was discovered by the international team of researchers.
