Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-hpxsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T02:24:52.252Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Equine cranial morphology and the identification of riding and chariotry in late Bronze Age Mongolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2015

William Timothy Treal Taylor ,
Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan  and
Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal
William Timothy Treal Taylor
Affiliation:
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, MSC01 1050, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131–000, USA (Email: wtaylor@unm.edu)
Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan
Affiliation:
National Museum of Mongolia, Juulchin Street-1, Ulaanbaatar 210646, Mongolia (Email: ja_bayaraa@yahoo.com; ttuvshinjargal01@yahoo.com)
Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal
Affiliation:
National Museum of Mongolia, Juulchin Street-1, Ulaanbaatar 210646, Mongolia (Email: ja_bayaraa@yahoo.com; ttuvshinjargal01@yahoo.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The adoption of the horse for chariots, wagons and riding had a major impact on human societies, but it has proved difficult to reliably identify early domesticated horses in the archaeological record. This comparative study of equine palaeopathology addresses the problem by analysing wild and domestic horses used for traction or riding. Osteological changes to the skull appear to be the result of mechanical and physiological stress from the use of horses for transport. The results are applied to archaeological examples from the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex of Bronze Age Mongolia (1300–700 BC) and show that those horses were probably bridled and used for transport.

Keywords

MongoliaBronze AgeDeer Stone-Khirigsuur Complexequestrianismzooarchaeologynasal remodelling
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 346 , August 2015 , pp. 854 - 871
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allard, F., Erdenebaatar, D., Olsen, S., Cavalla, A. & Maggiore, E.. 2007. Ritual horses in Bronze Age and present day Mongolia: some preliminary observations from Khanuy Valley, in L. Popova, C. Hartley & A. Smith (ed.) Social orders and social landscapes (Proceedings of the 2005 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology). Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Anthony, D. 2007. The horse, the wheel, and language: how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Anthony, D. & Brown, D.. 1998. Bit wear, horseback riding, and the Botai site in Kazakhstan. Journal of Archaeological Science 25: 331–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1997.0242 Google Scholar
Anthony, D. & Brown, D.. 2003. Eneolithic horse rituals and riding in the Steppes: new evidence, in Levine, M. (ed.) Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Anthony, D., Telgin, D. & Brown, D.. 1991. The origin of horseback riding. Scientific American 265 (6): 94–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1291-94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anthony, D.W., Brown, D. & George, C.. 2006. Early horseback riding and warfare: the importance of the magpie around the neck, in Olsen, S., Grant, S., Choyke, A. & Bartosiewicz, L. (ed.) Horses and humans: the evolution of the equine-human relationship (British Archaeological Reports International series 1560). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Bendrey, R. 2007. New methods for the identification of evidence for bitting on horse remains from archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1036–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2006.09.010 Google Scholar
Bendrey, R. 2008. An analysis of factors affecting the development of an equine cranial enthesopathy. Veterinarija Ir Zootechnika 41 (63): 25–31.Google Scholar
Bendrey, R., Cassidy, J.P., Bokovenko, N., Lepetz, S. & Zaitseva, G.I.. 2011. A possible case of ‘Poll-Evil’ in an early Scythian horse skull from Arzhan 1, Tuva Republic, Central Asia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 21: 111–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/oa.1099 Google Scholar
Brownrigg, G. 2006. Horse control and the bit, in Olsen, S., Grant, S., Choyke, A. & Bartosiewicz, L. (ed.) Horses and humans: the evolution of the equine-human relationship (British Archaeological Reports International series 1560). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Cai, D., Tang, Z., Han, L., Speller, C.F., Yang, D.Y. & Ma, X.. 2009. Ancient DNA provides new insights into the origin of the Chinese domestic horse. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 835–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.11.006 Google Scholar
Casey, R.A. 2002. Clinical problems associated with the intensive management of performance horses, in Waran, N. (ed.) Animal welfare volume 1: welfare of horses. Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
Christian, D. 2000. Silk roads or steppe roads? The Silk Roads in world history. Journal of World History 11: 1–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jwh.2000.0004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietz, U.L. 2003. Horseback riding: man's access to speed?, in Levine, M. (ed.) Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Evans, P.A., Jack, N. & Jones, S.. 2007. Aging horses by their teeth. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service (Division of Agriculture).Google Scholar
Fedorova, N. 2003a. Treasures of the Ob. Western Siberia and medieval trade routes. Salekhard & St Petersburg: Yamal-Nenets Shemanovsky Museum and State Hermitage Museum.Google Scholar
Fedorova, N. 2003b. Ust-Polui: 1st Century B.C. Salekhard & St Petersburg: Yamal-Nenets Shemanovsky Museum and State Hermitage Museum.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. 2009a. The Mongolian Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex: dating and organization of a late Bronze Age menagerie, in Bemmann, J., Parzinger, H., Pohl, E. & Tseveendorj, D. (ed.) Current archaeological research in Mongolia: papers from the 1st International Conference on Archaeological Research in Mongolia held in Ulaanbaatar, August 19th–23rd, 2007 (Bonn Contributions to Asian Archaeology, volume 4). Bonn: Bonn University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. 2009b. Pre-Scythian ceremonialism, Deer Stone Art, and cultural intensification in northern Mongolia, in Hanks, B. & Linduff, K. (ed.) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: monuments, metals, and mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511605376 Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. 2009c. American-Mongolian Deer Stone project: field report 2009. Washington (DC): Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W. & Bayarsaikhan, J.. 2011. Mapping ritual landscapes in Mongolia and beyond: unravelling the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur enigma, in Sabloff, P. (ed.) Mapping Mongolia: situating Mongolia in the world from geologic time to present. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. http://doi:10.1017/CBO9780511605376 Google Scholar
Hanks, B. 2010. Archaeology of the Eurasian steppes and Mongolia. Annual Review of Anthropology 39: 469–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.105110 Google Scholar
Harris, S., Iossa, G. & Soulsbury, C.. 2006. A review of the welfare of animals in circuses. London: Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.Google Scholar
Honeychurch, W. 2015. Inner Asia and the spatial politics of empire: archaeology, mobility, and culture contact. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1815-7 Google Scholar
Honeychurch, W., Wright, J. & Amartuvshin, C.. 2009. Re-writing monumental landscapes as Inner Asian political process, in Hanks, B. & Linduff, K. (ed.) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: monuments, metals, and mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Honeychurch, W., Fitzhugh, W. & Amartuvshin, C.. 2013. Precursor to empire, in Fitzhugh, W., Rossabi, M. & Honeychurch, W. (ed.) Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire. Washington (DC): W.W. Norton & Company. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511605376.019 Google Scholar
Hosey, G., Melfi, V. & Pankhurst, S.. 2013. Zoo animals: behaviour, management, and welfare. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houle, J.-L. 2009. Socially integrative facilities and the emergence of societal complexity on the Mongolian Steppe, in Hanks, B. & Linduff, K. (ed.) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: monuments, metals, and mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511605376.020 Google Scholar
Houle, J.-L. 2010. Emergent complexity on the Mongolian Steppe: mobility, territoriality, and the development of early nomadic polities. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Kelekna, P. 2009. The politico-economic impact of the horse on Old World cultures: an overview. Sino-Platonic Papers 190: 1–31.Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E. 2000. The Eurasian steppes: the transition from early urbanism to nomadism, in Davis-Kimball, J., Murphy, E., Koryakova, L. & Yablonsky, L. (ed.) Kurgans, ritual sites, and settlements: Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age (British Archaeological Reports International series 890). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Kuzmina, E. 2006. Mythological treatment of the horse in Indo-European culture, in Olsen, S. (ed.) Horses and humans: the evolution of human-equine relationships. Oxford: Basingstoke.Google Scholar
Legrand, S. 2006. The emergence of the Scythians: Bronze Age to Iron Age in south Siberia: the emergence of the Karasuk culture. Antiquity 80: 843–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598×00094461 Google Scholar
Levine, M.A. 1982. The use of crown height measurements and eruption-wear sequences to age horse teeth, in Wilson, B., Grigson, C. & Payne, S. (ed.) Aging and sexing animal bones from archaeological sites (British Archaeological Reports British series 109). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Levine, M.A. 1999. The origins of horse husbandry on the Eurasian steppe, in Levine, M. (ed.) Late prehistoric exploitation of the Eurasian steppe. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Littauer, M. 1969. Bits and pieces. Antiquity 43: 289–300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598×00040734 Google Scholar
Littleton, J., Floyd, B., Frohlich, B., Dickson, M., Amgalantögs, T., Karstens, S. & Pearlstein, K.. 2012. Taphonomic analysis of Bronze Age burials in Mongolian khirigsuurs. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 3361–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mair, V.H. 2003. The horse in late prehistoric China: wrestling culture and control from the “barbarians”, in Levine, M. (ed.) Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
McDonnell, S. 1988. Normal and abnormal behavior of stabled horses. Proceedings of the 1998 Alberta Horse Breeders and Owners Conference. Edmonton: Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development.Google Scholar
Olsen, S. 2003. The exploitation of horses at Botai, Kazakhstan, in Levine, M. (ed.) Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Olsen, S. 2006. Early horse domestication on the Eurasian steppe, in Zeder, M., Bradley, D., Emshwiller, E. & Smith, B. (ed.) Documenting domestication: new genetic and archaeological paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Outram, A.K., Stear, N., Bendrey, R., Olsen, S., Kasparov, A., Zaibert, B., Thorpe, N. & Evershed, R.. 2009. The earliest horse harnessing and milking. Science 323: 1332–35. http://doi:10.1126/science.1168594 Google Scholar
Perez, W. & Martin, E.. 2001. An explanation of a groove found on the nasal process of the equine incisive bone. Anatomia, Histologia Embryologia 30: 357–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1439-0264.2001.00348.x Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1998. All the King's horses: assessing cognitive maps in later prehistoric Europe, in Mithen, S. (ed.) Creativity in human evolution and prehistory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shelach, G. 2009. Prehistoric societies on the northern frontiers of China: archaeological perspectives on identity formation and economic change during the first millennium BCE. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vanderwegen, M. & Simoens, P.. 2002. Anatomical study of the notches in the nasal process of the equine incisive bone. Equine Veterinary Journal 32: 199–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.2746/042516402776767222 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Volkov, V.V. 2002 [1981]. Olennye kamni Mongolii (2nd edition). Ulaanbaatar: Academy of Sciences, Moscow; Nauka.Google Scholar
Wright, J. 2014. Landscapes of inequality? A critique of monumental hierarchy in the Mongolian Bronze Age. Asian Perspectives 51: 139–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/asi.2014.0008 Google Scholar
Wu, H.-Y. 2013. Chariots in early China: origins, cultural interaction, and identity (British Archaeological Reports international series 2457). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Yuan, J. & Flad, R.. 2006. Research on early horse domestication in China, in Mashkour, M. (ed.) Equids in time and space: papers in honor of Vera Eisenmann. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Taylor supplementary material

Table S1

Download Taylor supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 33.9 KB