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. 2023 Mar 3;9(9):eade2451.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade2451. Epub 2023 Mar 3.

First bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship

Martin Trautmann  1 , Alin Frînculeasa  2 , Bianca Preda-Bălănică  1 , Marta Petruneac  3 , Marin Focşǎneanu  3 , Stefan Alexandrov  4 , Nadezhda Atanassova  5 , Piotr Włodarczak  6 , Michał Podsiadło  7 , János Dani  8 , Zsolt Bereczki  9 , Tamás Hajdu  10 , Radu Băjenaru  11 , Adrian Ioniță  11 , Andrei Măgureanu  11 , Despina Măgureanu  11 , Anca-Diana Popescu  11 , Dorin Sârbu  11 , Gabriel Vasile  11 , David Anthony  12   13 , Volker Heyd  1
Affiliations

First bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship

Martin Trautmann et al. Sci Adv. .

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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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Map of the Yamnaya and Afanasievo overall distribution.
Sites with individuals with skeletal markers for horsemanship are marked (black circles, Yamnaya; yellow circles, graves dated to other periods) (the background map is made with Natural Earth; free vector and raster map data at naturalearthdata.com; QGIS software). 1a, Strejnicu mound I grave 3 (I/3) grave in situ (photo credit: A. Frînculeasa, Prahova County Museum of History and Archaeology).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Distribution of the 217 individuals from 39 sites that were bioanthropologically evaluated for this study.
The background map displays all excavated Yamnaya kurgans—yellow dot—in Romania (RO), Bulgaria (BG), Hungary (HU), and Serbia (Fig. 9 of , amended); light blue squares denote potential Yamnaya kurgans outside the main distribution. Sites, white triangles: RO 1, Ariceştii-Rahtivani; 2, Blejoi; 3, Coada Izvorului; 4, Nedelea; 5, Păuleşti; 6, Ploieşti; 7, Strejnicu; 8, Târgşoru Vechi; 9, Boldeşti-Grădiştea; 10, Aliman; 11, Medgidia. BG 12, Kamentsi; 13, Chudomir; 14, Vetrino; 15, Mogila; 16, Boyanovo; 17, Malomirovo. HU 18, Kétegyháza; 19, Dévaványa; 20, Sárrétudvari; 21, Püspökladány Kinczesdomb; 22, Debrecen; 23, Balmazújváros; 24, Mezőcsát; 25, Bojt; 26, Tiszavasvári; 27, Nagyhegyes-Elep; 28, Hajdunánás-Tedej; 29, Hajduböszörmény; 30, Földeák; 31, Berettyóújfalu; 32, Csongrád. Czechia (early Corded Ware) 33, Plotiště; 34, Neratovice; 35, Obříství; 36, Vliněves; 37, Trmice; 38, Stadice; 39, Konobrže.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. The Strejnicu I/3 individual: Adaptive changes to bone morphology.
(A) The sclerotic plaque caused by femoroacetabular contact. (B) The elevated entheses of the M. adductor magnus and the thickened lateral to superior acetabular rim. (C) The entheses of M. iliacus. (D) The entheses of M. glutaeus minimus and medius. (E) The entheses of M. pectineus, M. adductor magnus, M. adductor brevis, and M. vastus lateralis (photo credit: M. Trautmann, University of Helsinki). (F) Femoral shaft cross sections in the computed tomography (CT) (see section S5).
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.. The Strejnicu I/3 individual: Degenerative and traumatic traits.
(A and B) The thickened and sclerotic frontal margin of two vertebrae and the concave deformation of the end plates. (C) The misaligned processus spinosus of the first sacral vertebra (photo credit: M. Trautmann, University of Helsinki). (D) A CT image of the same feature (lateral view), displaying the replacement of spongious tissue by compact bone (see section S5)
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.. Pictorial evidence of horsemanship in the Bronze Age (c. 2100 to 1200 BCE).
(A to C) Mesopotamia. (D to F) Egypt. (G to I) Aegean-Cyprus. (A) Drawing of a seal impression depicting a horse rider, Ur III period (81). (B) Baked clay plaque mold depicting a rider, Old Babylonian period [The Trustees of the British Museum; shared under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license; except where otherwise noted, content within this article is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license] (82). (C) Drawing of a seal imprint of Ili-pada, Middle Assyrian Empire (courtesy of F. Wiggermann, Leiden) (83). (D) Astarte on horseback: an Egyptian graffito, Nineteenth Dynasty (photo credit: S. Steiß, Berlin) (84). (E) Egyptian plaque of glazed steatite showing a horse rider trampling a fallen enemy, Nineteen Dynasty (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) (85). (F) Limestone relief with a messenger on horseback from the Horemheb tomb, Saqqara, Late Eighteenth Dynasty (Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna) (86). (G) Clay figurine of the so-called “cavalryman” from Mycenae, early LH IIIB (courtesy of J. Kelder, Leiden) (87). (H) Horseman on an LHIIIB krater in the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam (courtesy of J. Kelder, Leiden) (87). (I) Drawing of a sherd showing a horse rider from Minet el-Beida, tomb VI, LH IIIB2 (courtesy of J. Kelder, Leiden) (87).
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