Archaeological Evidence

Abstract The sixth chapter focuses on the archaeological evidence for the probable time and place of the initial domestication of the horse, the Eurasian steppes of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. It analyzes evidence from the Late Bronze-Age Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaïm culture (ca. 2000 bc), where spoked-wheeled vehicles make horse domestication on the Kazakhstan steppe certain and then moves backward in time to the Botaĭ Culture where multiple lines of evidence point to horse domestication in the later Chalcolithic (3600–3100 bc) and finally to late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic sites such as Derievka, Repin, and Samara on the Volga-Don steppe where abundant horse remains or depictions of horses suggest the possible presence of domestic horses. It compares those sites with questionable interpretations about the Palaeolithic, reviews literary evidence for horse riding, and questions the uncritical use of ‘chariot’ to describe the recovered vehicles.