First bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship

Trautmann, Martin and Frînculeasa, Alin and Preda-Bălănică, Bianca and Petruneac, Marta and Focşǎneanu, Focşǎneanu and Alexandrov, Stefan and Atanassova, Nadezhda and Włodarczak, Piotr and Podsiadło, Michał and Dani, János and Bereczki, Zsolt and Hajdu, Tamás and Băjenaru, Radu and Ioniță, Ioniță and Măgureanu, Andrei and Măgureanu, Despina and Popescu, Anca-Diana and Sârbu, Dorin and Vasile, Gabriel and Anthony, David and Heyd, Volker (2023) First bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship. SCIENCE ADVANCES, 9 (9). ISSN 2375-2548

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Abstract

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.

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