Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 48 (1) 2020   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.1.129-139

Annotation:  Early Upper Paleolithic Serpentine Ornaments from Ust-Karakol, Northwestern Altai Unshaped Bone Tools from Denisova Cave, Altai The Sartan Upper Paleolithic Assemblages of the Northwestern Altai Stages in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene Peopling of Lake Bolshoye Ushkovskoye Shore, Kamchatka Fishing in the Early Holocene Human Ecosystem of the Northern Angara Region: Findings from Stratifi Late Bronze Age Smelting and Processing Furnaces of the Eastern Variant of the Pakhomovskaya Culture Late Bronze Age Petroglyphs of Unyuk Mountain, in the Minusinsk Basin Tagar Artifacts at the Stavropol State Museum Reserve (G.N. Prozritelev’s Collection) An Early Pazyryk Kurgan at Khankarinsky Dol, Northwestern Altai: Chronology and Attribution of Artif The Triquetras from the Filippovka Kurgans, Southern Urals Early Iron Age Carpenter Tools from the Altai and Adjacent Territories A Comparative Analysis of Structural and Developmental Trends at Major Cheptsa Fortifi ed Sites in t Ancestors of the Oriental Horse in Eurasia: Origin and Distribution Regional Features of the Traditional Clothing of Ukrainians and Belarusians in the South of the Russ Collection Related to the Omaguaca Indians from the Pucara de Tilcara Fortress, Northwestern Argenti   

Ancestors of the Oriental Horse in Eurasia: Origin and Distribution

V.B. Kovalevskaya

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

This study discusses the origin and dispersal of the Oriental agile horse, using a range of data—historical, faunal, genetic, and iconographic. It focuses on the Akhal-Teke horses as the model breed of the Oriental horse. Their unambiguous ancestors were horses ridden by the Pazyryk chieftains (400-200 BC). Findings about the Oriental horses, based on the analysis of the Akhal-Teke and Pazyryk breeds, are compared with osteological and iconographic data relating to horses from adjacent territories. This paper looks at horse breeding in Iran and at the Nisaean breed— the earliest one mentioned in written sources. Using the criteria outlined by the prominent Russian horse expert W.O. Witt, the exterior of the Oriental horse is described, and its homeland and dispersal across the neighboring areas are reconstructed. The likely homeland was Central Asia from the Caspian coast to Fergana, and the time of origin is between the beginning of horse riding and military campaigns. The Oriental horse was possibly an outcome of a cross between the domesticated horse from the Middle Volga and the tarpan of the Eurasian or Asian steppes.

Keywords: Oriental horse, Akhal-Teke, Nisaean horse, origin, distribution, Eurasia, Middle East, 1000 BC-1000 AD.