The horses of the Botai culture
Early domestic horses — and maybe the 'wild' ones' ancestors
Around 3500 BC the Botai people kept horses: their settlements hold vast numbers of horse bones, dung-filled pens and pots with traces of mare's milk. Genetics suggests that Przewalski's horses, long thought the last truly wild horses, descend from Botai stock.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 35th century BC
Did you know
Przewalski's horse, 'the last wild horse', may not be wild at all. Genetics links it to the horses of Kazakhstan's Botai culture, kept by people 5,500 years ago, so it is probably feral. Share →
People in Kazakhstan were drinking mare's milk almost a thousand years before the Great Pyramid. Traces of it on Botai pottery from about 3500 BC are among the earliest evidence of domestic horses. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 3500 BC The invention of the wheel — same year