Scientists at the University of Helsinki believe that man mastered riding at least 4.5-5 thousand years ago.
European and American anthropologists have discovered the first evidence that the representatives of the civilization of the northern Black Sea and Caspian regions were the first riders in the world, since at least 4.5-5 thousand domesticated horses mastered the art of riding. This was announced on Friday, March 3, by the press service of the Finnish University of Helsinki.
Volker Heid, a professor at the University of Helsinki, said: “We found that the art of horsemanship appeared after the domestication of horses in the plains of Western Eurasia in the fourth millennium BC. This is confirmed by a large number of our discoveries. which we have made within the hills of the civilization of the Northern Caspian and the Black Seas”. He explained that Her age ranges from 4.5 to 5 thousand years.
According to modern scientists, mankind first tamed a horse about 4.5-5.5 thousand years ago. Meanwhile, many researchers suggest that a person first bred a horse in order to obtain meat and milk, and only then began to use it as a horse. Historians believe that his ancestors were tarpan horses or the horses of Przewalski (the famous Russian traveler of the 19th century), but in 2018 geneticists discovered that the horses descended from wild Botai horses that lived in the territory of modern northeastern Kazakhstan.
Professor Hyde and his colleagues established that the first riders were representatives of the so-called “Yemeni” civilization that inhabited the Black Sea and Caspian steppes about 5-7 thousand years ago. These ancients are now considered the ancestors of all the Indo-European peoples now inhabiting Europe and Asia, which attracts the interest of leading scientists to this ancient civilization.
These considerations prompted European and American anthropologists to study the traces of 5 representatives of the “Yemenite” civilization, recently discovered in the burial mounds of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. And they lived on earth about 4.5-5 thousand years ago during the era of mass settlement of the tribes of this ancient people in Eastern Europe. During their lives, including damage to the sacral vertebrae, hip joints and other bones, modern nomadic tribes and professional riders. In addition, scientists have found several possible horse bite marks on the bones of ancient Eastern Europeans.
This discovery forced scientists to analyze the structure of the bones of another 150 representatives of the “pit” civilization, which were found in different regions of Europe over the past few decades. Subsequent examination of these remains showed that a quarter of them had the same damage, revealed in the study of the skeletons of 5 men from the mounds of Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
According to Professor Head and his colleagues, this indicates that the ability to ride a horse was widespread among the representatives of the “Yemeni” civilization 4500-5000 years ago. For this reason, the researchers conclude, it can be assumed that mankind learned to use horses as riding and draft animals after their domestication.
Source: TASS
