Salvete Omnes,
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| from the article |
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| one of the earliest images of a domesticated (allegedly) horse - from Maykop Culture ware |
Valete
Salvete Omnes.
March is upon us - bring peace to Ukraine, especially the Donbas region...
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| photo credit: A. Frînculeasa, Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology |
a short entry - the bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship, published in Science, vol 9, no.9, (March 3, 2023) .
Nota bene another Science article about the first horse tamers from the Eurasian steppe.
The Yamnaya Culture, the herders, horses, artefacts etc has been subject of my posts in the past, you can click on labels to go to those entries.
Today, a link to the article on skeletal remains of those Yamnaya cowboys' analysis from the point of view of osteological evidence.
from the Abstract - the entire article here.
The origins of horseback riding remain elusive. Scientific studies show that horses were kept for their milk ~3500 to 3000 BCE, widely accepted as indicating domestication.
However, this does not confirm them to be ridden. Equipment used by early riders is rarely preserved, and the reliability of equine dental and mandibular pathologies remains contested.
However, horsemanship has two interacting components: the horse as mount and the human as rider. Alterations associated with riding in human skeletons therefore possibly provide the best source of information.
Here, we report five Yamnaya individuals well-dated to 3021 to 2501 calibrated BCE from kurgans in Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, displaying changes in bone morphology and distinct pathologies associated with horseback riding.
These are the oldest humans identified as riders so far.
Skeletons from Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania were studied and analyzed. Perhaps due to the Russia-Ukraine war no tests were done on the skeletons originated from burials further east in the Western Eurasian steppe.
Nota bene , they found probable origin of the Bubonic plague in the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age gravesites.
Valete
Salvete Omnes,
the short entries rule - :)
so here we go with yet another video link this week and month (and I dare say not the last one, some 2 days are still left of this month of Omicron... sorry.. December 2021)
- nota bene I am awaiting my new drawing and painting tablet-monitor and doing some painting on canvas and paper (thanks to my loved ones and their generous gift giving).
So there is a channel on YouToube - Survive the Jive - and Tom Rowsell, the content creator, provides many an interesting video presentation there.
This is the link to his Yamnaya video that is quite informative and entertaining while educational (and vice versa - :) ). The video provides the facial reconstruction of the Yamanay individuals reconstructed by Robert Moylneaux .
Thuletide site has an article that also provides a link to this video and the facial reconstructions( using Gerasimov method) of the Yamanaya male warriors (?). You can watch on their site or go straight to YT.
Also, a British magazine article about the Yamnaya and their milk proclivities, so to speak.
Nota bene - this is a very interesting illustrator using Twitter as his vehicle for spreading his art - Graman and his art.
Valete
Salvete Omnes,
one of the most interesting artefacts of the Yamnaya period in the Pontic steppe is the stele/stelae or stone slab from Kernosovka (a village in Ukraine).
the stela is about 1,2 m high stone slab carved and sculpted; in its front there is a face, presumably of a man, with arms and a phallus under his belt.
Man's face has a deep-set eyes, pointed long nose, a chin or pointed downwards beard, with a long drooping mustache. The figure has two arms bent, between the left shoulder and bent arm there is a bow with an arrow notched. He has a belt, single one.
Under the arms and in the back of the stele there are other weapons and tools -
a battle ax
a belted battle mace with circular head
a knife?
a hoe and/or mattck
a casting mold
a 'spoon' for metal casting
etc
At the bottom there are two horses carved, and also there is an ox or bull and a turtle? .
The backs of the stele has various ornaments - perhaps representing his garments like a cow hide painted with lines ? - and under the belt there are his spare? shoes.
Left side contains an image of coitus between a man and woman under the rows of triangles and an animal under the belt; the right has rows of triangles and zigzag lines between the triangle lines.
Is this an image of a powerful chieftain ? The tools of metallurgy arts exemplify the Indo-European skills with metal working, including probably the oldest iron smithing, from a meteorite iron, in Eurasia, thousand years before the Hittite ironworking in the II millennium BC.
Salvete Omnes,
Today I came across this interview with dr David Anthony, one of my most favorite researchers on the prehistoric horses and Eurasian steppe people - How ancient DNA revived ancient migrations in archaeology.
Valete
