(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Top Comments: The First Horse Riders [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-03-05

Grave of a horse rider discovered in Malomirovo, Bulgaria. Credit: Michał Podsiadło

Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!

A crucial moment in the development of human civilization is when humans first started riding horses. At that moment, the potential distance a person could travel during their lifetime expanded dramatically, which had deep impacts on settlement patterns, trade, and warfare. New evidence found west of the Black Sea suggests that the earliest horse riders started doing so about 5000 years ago.

This evidence has been found in graves found in modern Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia. The researchers analyzed the skeletons found from 4500-5000 years old for signs of the effects of horseback riding on the human skeleton:

The international team decided to use a set of six diagnostic criteria established as indicators of riding activity (the so-called "horsemanship syndrome"): Muscle attachment sites on pelvis and thigh bone (femur); Changes in the normally round shape of the hip sockets; Imprint marks caused by pressure of the acetabular rim on the neck of the femur; The diameter and form of the femur shaft; Vertebral degeneration caused by repeated vertical impact; Traumata that typically can be caused by falls, kicks or bites from horses.

Altogether, out of the 156 adult individuals of the total sample at least 24 (15.4%) can be classified as "possible riders" ...

The riders were from a group of people called the Yamnayans, who came from a region called the Pontic-Caspian steppes. (This region stretches along the north coast of the Black Sea to northeast of the Caspian Area.) Sometime around 5000 years ago, Yamnayans migrated west presumably seeking greener pastures. Interestingly, there is no evidence of violence between the migrants and the native residents associated with this migration. The Yamnayans are also believed to have spread proton-Indo-European languages both east and west. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that they spread these languages on horseback.

Comments are below the fold.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/5/2156458/-Top-Comments-The-First-Horse-Riders

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.