Horses First Domesticated in Kazakhstan

Recent discoveries made at an archaeological site in Kazakhstan suggests it is here that man first domesticated the horse, taming it and keeping it for food, milk, and to ride.  For many years, Mongolia was thought to be the home of the domesticated horse but the artifacts in northern Kazakhstan date much farther back, all the way to the Copper Age about 5,500 years ago.

Extensive research is being conducted at three sites that represent the Botai culture.  Of these three sites, the main one is proving the most enlightening.  At a time before organized agriculture, when people were still hunters and gatherers, the main Botai village numbered as many as 160 houses, unheard of for a nomadic culture.

To sustain such a population, there had to be some continuous form of readily available food and the evidence strongly suggests horses played a tremendous role in that ancient Botai civilization.  Of all the animal bones excavated at the site, as many as 300,000 of them, or about 90% found thus far, are horse bones.

In addition, many of these horse bones bear marks made by stone tools used for butchery, suggesting a communal diet that included horse meat.  Other artifacts, including tools made from the jawbones of horses, indicate they were used to fashion rawhide into whips, hobbles, and bridles, all of which suggest the Botai rode their horses, too.

Chemical analysis of pot sherds reveal evidence the pots once contained horse's milk, a finding that strongly supports the theory of domestication because it is virtually impossible to milk a wild horse.

The early domestication of horses is of keen interest to historians in many disciplines, as horses are thought to have impacted the course of history more so than any other domesticated animal.  Throughout time, horses have served humanity as transportation; assistance in herding, plowing, and hauling; sports; warfare; and dairy production.  Geopolitcal boundaries the world over have been altered time and again thanks to the horses wielded by imperial cavalries, immigrants, and frontiersmen everywhere.