Summary
Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN “speed gene,” only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.
Highlights d Genome-wide analysis of 214 ancient individuals from Mongolia and the Baikal region d Three genetically distinct dairy pastoralist groups in Late Bronze Age Mongolia d Xiongnu nomadic empire formed through mixing of distinct local and distant groups d No selection on the lactase persistence alleles despite 5,000 years of dairy culture
Dairy pastoralism is integral to contemporary and past lifeways on the eastern Eurasian steppe, facilitating survival in agriculturally challenging environments. While previous research has indicated that ruminant dairy pastoralism was practiced in the region by c. 1300 BC, the origin, extent and diversity of this custom remains poorly understood. Here we analyze ancient proteins from human dental calculus recovered from geographically diverse locations across Mongolia and spanning 5,000 years in time. We present the earliest evidence for dairy consumption on the eastern Eurasian steppe by c. 3000 BC, and the later emergence of horse milking at c. 1200 BC, concurrent with the first evidence for horse riding. We argue that ruminant dairying contributed to the demographic success of Bronze Age Mongolian populations, and that the origins of traditional horse dairy products in eastern Eurasia are closely tied to the regional emergence of mounted herding societies during the late second millennium BC.
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