By analyzing human bones from the Yamna culture, researchers find for the first time evidence pointing to the origin of horse riding. Ancient Europeans rode horses as early as 5,000 years ago, a study released on Friday (03/03) has revealed. The group of international researchers involved in the discoveries said they had found compelling evidence that confirmed this hypothesis.
For this, the team from the University of Helsinki and other European institutions analyzed more than 200 human skeletons that were in museum collections in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Published in the journal Science Advances, the study says it found signs in the skeletons of what the researchers have called “riding syndrome”. It is recognized in six markers that indicate that the person rode a horse regularly, including signs of wear and tear on the hip, femur, pelvis, and stress-induced spinal degeneration.
“When you’re sitting on the horse, you have to balance yourself with every step of the mount and hold yourself firmly with your legs,” said Martin Trautmann, a researcher at the University of Helsinki. He added that early horsemen probably rode bareback and held on to the animal’s mane.
“Our results provide a strong argument that horse riding was already a common activity for some individuals of the Yamna culture around 3000 BC,” the study points out.
A decisive step for human development
University of Helsinki archaeologist Volker Heyd said the find “fits very well into the big picture” of the Bronze Age Yamna culture, known for its graves, or Kurganes, and originating in the Pontic steppe where they find Ukraine and Western Russia.
Researchers have long suspected that the Yamna culture used horses, which would explain their rapid geographic expansion within a few generations.
“It’s hard to imagine how this expansion would have happened without improved means of transportation. The use of horses for transportation was a decisive step in human cultural development,” the study says.
According to Heyd, the spread of Indo-European languages is linked to the movement of this culture, which also reshaped the genetic makeup of Europe.
The researchers also say that the Yamna culture is unlikely to have been a warlike people. “They were cowboys”, adds Trautman.
The study also indicates that a small number of individuals in this group would have been horse riders. These individuals likely helped protect cattle and sheep.
Although scientists had previously found evidence that horses were domesticated between 3500 BC and 300 BC, the new study is the first to point to the origin of horse riding. Until then, there was only visual evidence of this practice shortly before 2000 BC in drawings from the Third Dynasty of Ur. Images and mentions of horse riding in cuneiform texts are also found in the Old Babylonian period, around 1880 BC and 1595 BC
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Source: Terra
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