An international team of scientists used analysis of the remains of ancient people to understand when
Excavation of a burial mound of ancient horsemen near the village of Malomirovo in Bulgaria. Photos: Michał Podsiadło
Researchers analyzed 217 skeletons out of 39sites of ancient people in southeastern Europe. About 150 of them were buried in burial mounds typical of the Yamnaya culture. Although individual changes or deformations of the skeleton do not allow us to determine the profession of a person, in the aggregate, many "symptoms" give an idea of the way of life of ancient people.
To identify riders, researchersused six diagnostic criteria - "riding syndrome". These include, for example: muscle attachments to the pelvis and femur, changes in the shape of the hip joints or femur, characteristic degeneration of the vertebrae, and injuries associated with falls or horse bites.
Traces of deformity characteristic of the "riding syndrome" on the femurs (left) and vertebrae (right). Image: Martin Trautmann et al., Science Advances
The study showed that at least 24 studiedskeletons belonged to the category of "possible riders", and five Yamnaya and two later, as well as two presumably earlier individuals, were highly likely to regularly ride horses. Researchers note that such a prevalence of individual tracks associated with horse riding indicates that representatives of these peoples already used horses as riders.
Horse riding appears to have originated shortly afterthe alleged domestication of horses in the Western Eurasian steppes in the fourth millennium BC. It was already fairly common among the Yamnaya between 3000 and 2500 BC.
Volker Heid, professor of archeology at the University of Helsinki and co-author of the study
Previous studies have shown that people starteddomesticate horses for milk from about 3500 to 3000 BC But until now it was not known whether horse riding developed in parallel. Since the equipment used by the first riders has not survived, analysis of the riders' skeletons is the most reliable source of information.
Distribution of the Yamskaya culture in the territory of Eurasia (right) and burial with bent legs, characteristic of this culture (right). Image: Martin Trautmann et al., Science Advances
The Yamnaya culture was formed inBlack Sea-Caspian steppes and spread from the southern Urals throughout southern Eastern Europe. This culture is associated with developed cattle breeding, raising cattle and sheep. The Yamnians migrated from the Black Sea-Caspian steppes to find greener pastures in what is now Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia.
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