Wiktor
Sandecki
Ecology
1ST
year english prgrm 2002-04-23
WHEN DID HORSE
DOMESTICATION TAKE
PLACE AND WHAT DID IT
BRING?
INTRODUCTION
“If the dog
is man`s best friend, then the horse could be well described as man`s best
slave.
For
thousands of years horses have been harnessed, ridden, spurred and whipped.
They have been ruthlessly driven into the centre of bloody battlefields where
they have been hacked to pieces. For centuries they have toiled to drag heavy
loads in the service of human ambition and then been rewarded at the end or
their days with a trip to the knackers`s yard.”
(Morris
1997)
Even though
it may seem strange that such a noble animal as the horse accept a partnership
with humans although we allways seem to end up on top, it must be said that it
is in the horse`s nature to cooporate. In the wild their social lifestyle and
ability to cooporate is as important factor as competion.
This is
probably the main reason for the possibility of horse domestication. An
invetion that would change the situation for man to a great extent. Mobility
was increased dramatically, the spreading of civilization, languages and
knowledge.
WHEN?
When did
this happen? Actually the invetion came in the late stage of animal domestication.
Catlle, dogs, sheep and goats had allready been domesticated for thousands of
years when man aimed for the magnificant athlete in the third millenium
B.C. Up until then, man`s contact with
horses often meant death for the later. Cave paintings in Spain and France
gives proof of the hunt that had been going on since the stone age. Even though
human impact often leads to destruction of nature in one way or the other,
there is a “sideline” theory saying that the spreading of thick forrests after
the ice age claimed so much ground that the horse, being an animal of open
spaces, might have been exctinct would it not have been for human intervention.
The
domestication came to increase the horse population and by 1500 B.C two
distinct breeds had developet. Stouter, heavier horses in the colder north and swifter
lighter in the warmer south. Later these two types where to be further
developet by selective breeding to be the foundation of war, farming and sport
types. The society of man came to be completely dependent on epuine skills.
However as technology developed, man would become less dependant. The “modern”
weapons of the First World War saw to that seven thousand horses were killed in
a single day`s fighting. Of the 1.000.000 british horses serving in the
conflict, only 65.000 came back, often ending up as food for prisoners of war.
The days of the proud cavallry had seen its end.
How can we
tell for sure when these proud four footed beasts came under our control?
According
to an article published by BBC, archaeologists is coming close to being able to
tell us when it happend. At a site in Kazakhstan at Krasnyi Yar, findings of
whole vertebral columns, skull and hip bones of the horse has been made. Findings
of bones from equines doesn´t nessecerely give proof that the art of
domestication was practised by the inhabitants though. When a hunter had killed
his prey he would butcher the carcase where it was and bring back the meat,
skin and maybe some bones for tools. So the precense of bone findings alone doesn´t
prove domestication. However. since these findings included whole vertebral
coloums, hip bones and skull it should mean that the horse fell at that
particular place. Horses are far to big for a hunter to bring back to his
village and if the horses weren´t draged to the village it should mean that
they where kept in the village and therefore domesticated. Graves including
horses gives further evidence to the theory. Yet another piece can be added to
the list of proof: Archaeologists are looking for traces of mare´s milk in
unglazed pottery. If such is found it would strengthen the theory further. Milk
from horses is fermented to form a mildly alcoholic drink in Kazakhstan today.
And if your of to milk a horse you better be sure it´s tame. Krasnyi Yar was
inhabited 5500 years ago so that should give us a clue about the age of horse
domestication.
EVIDENCE
Another
article by the BBC presents the method of tracing the ancestry of todays horse by using DNA analysis. 600 horses from 25
different breeds of today was used in the effort of revealing the mystery. The DNA samples was compared to those of 2000
year old wild horse remains in Sweden and Estonia and from 28.000 year old
remains found in Alaska where it had been preserved by the ice. Comparing the
samples showed that the modern horse bares traces from different ancient horse
populations. This was determined by studying the mutation rate of the
mithocondrial DNA. The mutations occur at a certain rate and once it has been
determined it can be used as a molecular clock revealing the ancient ancestry.
77 mares or more is now belived to have been the original breeding stock. The
mares carried different gene codes meaning they ought to have come from
different populations. Even by comparing todays horses one can see that the
diversity between the genes in one single breed is so large that it alone could
give proof of an origin from many populations. All this suggests that the early
horse domestication was not restricted to one location. Some claim that the
domestication took place independently at different locations. Others belive
that it may have spread from a single point and the domesticaded horses were
pushing on their genes with the aid of local mares as they went along.
DISCUSSION
So what
conclusions are there to be made of this? Well, it´s obviously still difficult
to exactly pinpoint the place and date of the first case of horse domestication
but as history has shown, theres no end to the progress of science. Soner or
later we´ll know for sure. But why bother to put down such an effort to find
out? The reason, or one of them anyway, would be the effect the domesticated
horses had on the spreading ancient culture. Spreading of languges, knowledge,
people as mentioned previously, was all greatly aided by the horse. So
knowledge of horse domestication would very much help other sciences in their
attempts to find out “how it all started” As always, man has a lot to learn
from the horse.
http://news.bbc.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2129182.stm
http://news.bbc.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2027346.stm
Morris,
Desmond. 1997 “ Illustrated Horsewatching”