Scientists from the AMU Faculty of Archaeology - Prof. Przemysław Makarowicz and Jan Romaniszyn, PhD, co-authored a publication in "Nature" on the ancestors of today's domesticated horses, specifically the so-called second domestication. The process saw the spread of horses from the steppes of western Eurasia at the end of the 3rd thousand B.C. (after 2200 B.C.).
The research was led and coordinated by Prof Ludovic Orlando, Director of the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics, CAGT, CNRS/Université Paul Sabatier in Nice. The first author was Paulo Librado, PhD, from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, CSIS/Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Nearly 140 authors from 113 institutions in over 20 countries participated in the project, including four scientists from Poland.
The International Research Team discovered the spread of domestic horses commenced about 4,200 years ago from the Ural steppes (more broadly, the Volga-Donian steppes), resulting in the gradual replacement of all previous developmental lines, including the lineage associated with the most probable centre of original horse domestication in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan (Botai or Botai-Tersek culture, 3700-3500 BC). The article presents evidence of progressive changes in breeding techniques at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. ( among others, the extension of the life span of reproductive horses, in effect almost doubling the generation interval). - "The beginnings of this process can be traced to communities of the Sintashta culture from the Ural steppes, known as 'chariot riders' and builders of fortified settlements," says Professor Przemysław Makarowicz from the AMU Faculty of Archaeology. It can be said that from this period onwards, the mobility of horses increased and their international, 'global' career (transport, trade, war) began, which was gradually ended only by the invention of the steam engine." - the researcher adds
The study's authors also proved that the well-documented (genetic and archaeological evidence) migrations of Pto-Indo-European communities of the Yamna pit culture from the Pontic-Caspian steppes to the Carpathian Basin and Central Europe (c. 3100/3000 BC) were not accompanied by numerous herds of horses.
The Director Ludovic Orlando invited Prof. Przemysław Makarowicz and his team (scientists from Poland and Ukraine) to research barrow cultures from the 3rd and 2nd thousand B.C. in Ukraine within the framework of several NCN and NPRH projects (the fifth one is currently underway), to join the research team. The team members compiled materials from the last step of western Ukraine from their research. In the villages of Husiatyn and Myluvannya, they uncovered the remains of sub-kurhan burials of two pairs of horses in a characteristic sledging arrangement. The horses from Husiatyn were exceptional in size, and the preserved fragments of their harnesses are among the most spectacular finds from the mid-2,000 B.C.
Link to article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07597-5 "Widespreadhorse-based mobility arose around 2200 BCE in Eurasia", Nature, Vol. 631, 25 July 2024, 819-847 + suppl. Mat. DOI.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07597-5
Photo: Tomb of two horses in a sled system from Husiatyn, photo by Vasyl Ilchyschyn