A Bayesian chronology for early domestic horse use in the Eastern Steppe

Abstract

Archaeological horse remains from Mongolia's late Bronze Age Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) culture present some of the oldest direct radiocarbon dates for horses in northeast Asia, hinting at an important link between late Bronze Age social developments and the adoption or innovation of horse transport in the region. However, wide error ranges and imprecision associated with calibrated radiocarbon dates obscure the chronology of early domestic horse use in Mongolia and make it difficult to evaluate the role of processes like environmental change, economic interactions, or technological development in the formation of mobile pastoral societies. Using a large sample of new and published radiocarbon dates, this study presents a Bayesian chronological model for the initiation of domestic horse sacrifice at DSK culture sites in Mongolia. Results reveal the rapid spread of horse ritual over a large portion of the eastern Steppe circa 1200 BCE, concurrent with the first appearance of draught horses in China during the late Shang dynasty. These results suggest that key late Bronze Age cultural transformationsspecifically the adoption of mobile pastoralism and early horseback riding-took place during a period of climate amelioration, and may be linked to the expansion of horses into other areas of East Asia.

Origins of equine dentistry

“…S2), a pattern that appears best explained by mounted horseback riding rather than chariots or cart use (9). This osteological evidence for horse riding coincides with the first clear evidence for mobile, horsebased pastoralism, suggesting a link between changes in horse transport and the intensification of nomadic herding in the Eastern Steppes (7,10).…”

“…795-815 cal. BCE (42), coeval with the end of the DSK period (7). In Mongolia itself, metal bits first enter the archaeological record in the Early Iron Age, via burials of the Slab Burial or Duruvljin Bulsh culture (33).…”

“…Precision chronology modeling demonstrates that horse sacrifice spread rapidly through DSK ritual across a wide region of eastern Eurasia, ca. 1200 BCE (7). Diagnostic changes to the equine skull indicate that DSK horses were heavily exerted and used for transport (8), while anthropogenic deformations to the nasal bones of the horse, caused by a bridle, are distinctively left-biased (SI Appendix, Fig.…”

High-precision dating of ceremonial activity around a large ritual complex in Late Bronze Age Mongolia

“…They do, however, strongly suggest that the time period required to construct the B10 complex was short-around 50 years at most. Bayesian modelling of the radiocarbon dates also demonstrates that ritual activities around the deer stones and the large Tsatsyn Ereg khirgisuur complex are contemporaneous, highlighting a probable functional connection between the two types of monuments (in agreement with Fitzhugh 2009a;Taylor et al 2017;contra Jacobson-Tepfer 2001). This work highlights the importance of large monuments as structuring elements of Bronze Age societies, at a time of significant sociopolitical transformations on a level not previously seen in this region of Eastern Eurasia.…”

Complexity as Integration: Pastoral Mobility and Community Building in Ancient Mongolia

“…According to recent chronological analysis by Taylor et al 2017, the period between 1250 and 1200 BC marks a major transformation in the kinds of activities being performed at khirigsuur sites. It is clear that new khirigsuur mounds were still being constructed but in addition to the central mounds and circular or rectangular surrounds, small stone mounds with horse head interments became a standard practice at this time -both at newly constructed khirigsuurs and at older pre-existing sites.…”