Horse domestication
Domesticación del caballo
- Date
- c. 3500 BCE (discutido) · confidence medium
- Place
- Botai, Akmola, Kazakhstan (claimed); Pontic-Caspian steppe (genetic consensus)
- Credited to
- Botai culture (claimed); pastoralists of the western steppe
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Corrals, mare's-milk residues and bit wear at Botai indicated horse rearing and riding around 3500 BCE; genomics (2021) shows that modern horses descend from a later domestication in the lower Don-Volga (c. 2200 BCE). An animal that revolutionised mobility, warfare and communication.
The Botai horses turned out to belong to the lineage of Przewalski's horse, not the modern domestic horse; effective domestication dates from the 3rd millennium and falls outside this period. Included for its relevance to the debate.
What it led to
- Mounted nomadic herding on the steppe and the expansion of Indo-European peoples
- The war chariot and cavalry: a new scale of warfare
- Fast long-distance communication: couriers and relay posts
Built on
Made possible
- Mare milking and fermented milk (kumis)c. 3500 BCE (discutido)
- Spoked wheelc. 2000 BCE
- Horse bit and bridle with reinsc. 2000 BCE
- War chariotc. 1900 BCE
- Yanghai trousers (oldest known woven trousers)c. 1300-1000 BCE
- Mounted cavalry as a military armc. 865 BCE
- Persian Royal Road and relay postc. 500 BCE
- War elephant326 BCE (uso documentado; origen indio anterior)
- Armoured heavy cavalry (cataphracts)c. century IV a.C. (uso documentado: 190 BCE)
- Bit and harness