Was the 4.2 ka Event an Anthropogenic Disaster?

Szczęsny, Tomasz Jarosław

doi:10.4236/oje.2016.610058

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The abundance of horse bones and images of horses in Maikop culture settlements and burials of c. 3300 BCE in the northern Caucasus led to the suggestion that horseback riding began in the Maikop period ( 75 ). In addition, recent studies of ancient human genomes showed continuous gene flow between Copper Age steppes and Caucasus peoples ( 3 , 4 , 76 , 77 ), and later, during the Bronze Age, between Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the southern and northern Caucasus, and the steppes ( 78 ). This exchange between human groups appears to intensify during a century-long period of cooling and desertification, known as the 4.2-ka (thousand year) event [e.g., ( 79 ) but see ( 80 )], which may have affected subsistence strategies and social networks in the steppe zone [e.g., ( 78 , 81 )].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, recent studies of ancient human genomes showed continuous gene flow between Copper Age steppes and Caucasus peoples ( 3 , 4 , 76 , 77 ), and later, during the Bronze Age, between Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the southern and northern Caucasus, and the steppes ( 78 ). This exchange between human groups appears to intensify during a century-long period of cooling and desertification, known as the 4.2-ka (thousand year) event [e.g., ( 79 ) but see ( 80 )], which may have affected subsistence strategies and social networks in the steppe zone [e.g., ( 78 , 81 )]. On present evidence, this climatic event seems to be broadly contemporaneous with the arrival of nonlocal horse mitochondrial haplogroups and coat colors in the Caucasus and Anatolia and linked to the expansion of horse husbandry and possibly Indo-European languages [e.g., ( 14 , 75 ) but see ( 82 )].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ancient DNA shows domestic horses were introduced in the southern Caucasus and Anatolia during the Bronze Age

et al. 2020

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Despite the important roles that horses have played in human history, particularly in the spread of languages and cultures, and correspondingly intensive research on this topic, the origin of domestic horses remains elusive. Several domestication centers have been hypothesized, but most of these have been invalidated through recent paleogenetic studies. Anatolia is a region with an extended history of horse exploitation that has been considered a candidate for the origins of domestic horses but has never been subject to detailed investigation. Our paleogenetic study of pre- and protohistoric horses in Anatolia and the Caucasus, based on a diachronic sample from the early Neolithic to the Iron Age (~8000 to ~1000 BCE) that encompasses the presumed transition from wild to domestic horses (4000 to 3000 BCE), shows the rapid and large-scale introduction of domestic horses at the end of the third millennium BCE. Thus, our results argue strongly against autochthonous independent domestication of horses in Anatolia.

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