Turning Points in Horse Breeding in the Eurasian Steppes and the Near East

Turning Points in Horse Breeding
in the Eurasian Steppes and the Near East

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.1.033-041

V.B. Kovalevskaya
Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117036, Russia

This article discusses the pivotal points in horse domestication on the Eurasian steppes and the Near East in the 5th to 2nd millennia BC, from the initial time and place of the domestication of horses to the emergence of various types of horse harnesses. On the basis of 5th and 4th millennia BC Eurasian horse-headed scepters, the means for handling horses are reconstructed. Six types of head harnesses are described, and their evolution is traced from simple muzzles (type I) and more complex ones (types 2 and 3) to those supplemented with drop nosebands (type 4) and snaffle (type 5) and non-snaffle bridles (type 6). A unique 3rd millennium BC document—an Elamite clay tablet from Susa, listing horse farms, has made it possible to assess the structure of each farm, and evaluate the size of the domestic horse population in Elam. Training techniques of chariot horses were described by the “master horse trainer Kikkuli of Mitanni”. These techniques were further developed by the proto-Indo-Aryans on the Eurasian steppes in the early 2nd millennium BC, and became known to the Hittites and Assyrians via the Mitanni horse breeders. On the basis of the Rigveda, the type and exterior of those swift horses with which the Indo-Aryans spread over Asia are characterized.

Keywords: Horse breeding, domestication, horse harness, Eurasian steppes, Near East, 5th to 2nd millennia BC.