Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

landscapes with people
More direct evidence of the human/horse relationship was discovered at a large
herder settlement at Botai in the forest steppe region of northern Kazakhstan occupied
between 3700 and 3000 bc. Of the huge quantity of animal bones recovered
99.9 per cent was of horse, the rest being from a range of wild animals. Although
it remains a probability that a large number of the horses consumed at Botai were
wild animals killed during the hunt, there is strong evidence that some horses had
by this time been domesticated. Analysis showed that animal fats (lipids) found in
the fabric of some of the pots used for cookery had come from milk, the implication
being that docile mares were being kept near the settlement for milking. The
process would have required that foals be taken to a tethered mare to encourage
lactation before milking could begin: this had to be done up to six times a day. The
discovery of dung within the settlement is another indication that some horses were
being stabled. Complete carcasses were also sometimes found within the habitation
area. Since it is highly unlikely that a whole beast would have been brought
home from a hunt without first being jointed, this too supports the idea that there
were domesticated horses in or near to the settlement. The evidence taken together
is impressive and leaves little doubt that the Botai herders relied on at least some
domesticated horses.
Archaeologists studying the horse bones have made one further observation of
considerable significance. A careful investigation of the first premolar teeth from a
sample of the horses showed that 26 per cent displayed patterns of wear of the kind
most likely to have been made by a bit. If horses had been bitted, then the implication
is that they were being ridden.
The Botai community emerges, then, as one whose entire existence was dependent
on the horse. Not only did the domesticated herd provide the meat and milk so
necessary for existence but the horses trained for riding would have greatly facilitated
the hunting of wild horses as well as the rounding up of the domesticated herd at
such times that that was necessary.
Botai was unusual in its near total dependence on horses. In other herding societies
in which sheep and cattle were kept in some number, a man on horseback would
have brought great advantages. Supported by a well-trained dog, he could have
ranged over distances of up to 60 km a day caring for much larger flocks and herds.
Suddenly the scale of the world had changed.
Exactly where and when horse riding began is impossible yet to say but it must
have been somewhere on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, probably in the latter half of
the fifth millennium. It was a huge step forward. The symbiotic relationship between
horse and human was to become a decisive force in human history for the next seven
millennia. It opened the way for two major advances: the use of teams of horses pull-
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