The discoveries in Al-Magar, in Saudi Arabia, are equally startling.
They not only push evidence of horse domestication back to about 9000 years ago, but may also point to the very roots of the Arabian horse breed.
One statue shows the unique neck and head characteristics of the breed. Two are said to show evidence of harness and a bridle. A nearby cave drawing appears to show a man riding a horse, and other evidence points to horses and other animals being part of the inhabitants' daily lives.
Among more than 80 artifacts found at Al-Magar is a one-metre long statue of a horse, comprising head, neck and chest.
Officials say the statue, which could well be the largest known sculpture of a horse during that period, has features similar to that of the original Arabian horses, characterised by a long neck and unique head shape.
The head of the statue carries what officials say are clear signs of a bridle.
October 28, 2011
More on Al-Magar horses
I had covered a news story about the Al-Magar site and its possible early use of the domesticated horse. Now, Horsetalk has some more information, including some pictures:
I wonder about the accuracy of the dating of the find. If the Arabians really had horses and bridles so early, how did they so pathetically fail to leverage that into any practical benefit over their neighbors who lacked horses and bridles for so many thousands of years later? And, why didn't domesticates horses get used in a wider geographic area much sooner? Why aren't there horses in early Neolithic Europe?
ReplyDeleteOf course, if true, it also casts real doubt on the horses as the motive force of Indo-European expansion?
how did they so pathetically fail to leverage that into any practical benefit over their neighbors who lacked horses and bridles for so many thousands of years later?
ReplyDeleteHorses were pretty much useless as a military weapon until the Bronze Age, and even then they had marginal utility. Even in the Iron Age, when cavalries of mounted horsemen were established, their utility depended greatly on terrain.
Why aren't there horses in early Neolithic Europe?
Horses are not very useful animals in the context of the Neolithic. They eat a lot, and prior to the invention of wheels they could not be used to draw stuff. Even for plowing, a pair of oxen is more useful, and cattle have other uses besides motive power.
I'm not saying I'm buying into 9,000-year old domesticated horses before more information surfaces. But, I don't discount the possibility that horses were domesticated at an early date in Arabia even if they found their niche much later and elsewhere.
The more we look, the more we find. Sometimes we add too much betweeen the lines. We can imagine anything. There is so much we do not know, and we are impatient. Lacking a camel, a horse would do to drag a travois for a shepherd's tent.
ReplyDeleteI've read that some Semitic and Egyptian words for horse are loans from some IE languages
ReplyDeletesuch as Hebrew sus, Akkadian sisu, Ugaritic sisw, Aramaic sisya, Egyptian ssm, I think we can also connect Arabic šušan
šuš (quick young female camel) and Arabic šawšan (camel servant), All those words stem perhaps from the word such as Mitanni Aryan ašušanni
wich means horse trainer however on light of this discovery it could be that it's from one(s) of the Semitic languages that IE languages borrowed this word because:
1/this word shows very aberrant reflexions on each one of the IE languages it is attested on so that we cannot even provide a secure form of the proto IE word for horse
2/this word seems to lack an internal semantico-phonetical motivation within IE, while it looks very well rooted and explainable on Semitic motivation
Indeed the root "šwš" means to be quick and hurry in Semitic
3/this word is attested in Semitic and Egyptian as early as script begins
But of course those are speculations that need to be confirmed by archeologists and linguists
"Horses are not very useful animals in the context of the Neolithic. They eat a lot, and prior to the invention of wheels they could not be used to draw stuff. Even for plowing, a pair of oxen is more useful, and cattle have other uses besides motive power."
ReplyDeleteJust want to point out that Plains tribes used the travois quite effectively with horses. Wheels aren't really necessary.
I think any scholar hypothesizing about the utility of horses should ride one regularly--I ride bareback for the most part, and I could definitely see the utility in horses as a war animal. Again, Plains tribes used them for war quite effectively before they had iron-tipped arrows or leather stirrups.