Horses and men - An historic partnership (From This is Hampshire)

Winchester archaeologists have discovered the earliest known domestic horses

10:00am Sunday 15th March 2009 in News By Andrew Napier, Winchester Chief Reporter

Horses racing at Cheltenham this week.

Today they offer the chance of sporting glory or a ride in the countryside. They used to pull our ploughs and carriages.

The horse has been a companion of man for thousands of years.

Now researchers from Winchester University have helped to discover the earliest-known ancestor of all these animals.

Academics have been taking part in an international project and uncovered far earlier evidence of domesticated horses in central Asia.

They reckon the animals in Kazakhstan date from 5,500 years ago, at least 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.

As well as transport the horses might have been used for food, and milk and all the breeds we know today originate from them.

The Przewalski horse can be seen at Marwell Zoo.

Researchers from universities in Winchester, Bristol, Exeter and Kazakhstan have undertaken extensive archaeological fieldwork on the steppes of central Asia.

They have found that in the fourth millennium BC, horses were being bred for domestic use and that they were being harnessed, possibly for riding.

The Winchester researchers, led by Dr Robin Bendrey, used a new technique to search for ‘biting damage’ to the teeth, caused by the horse being harnessed or bridled. Some evidence was radiocarbon dating to 3400BC.

Dr Nick Thorpe, from Winchester University, said: “It now seems that during the early third millennium BC that the horse was domesticated in Europe, the idea having spread from the steppes.

“It is no coincidence that after a period in which there was increased regionalisation, the third millennium BC saw the appearance of very widespread cultural trends linking Europe together again, especially the Beaker culture after 2600BC.”

The development was a key moment in human history, greatly advancing transport, communication, agriculture and warfare.

It was from these central Asian horses that Genghis Khan conquered much of Asia and Europe in the Middle Ages Marwell Zoo has a herd of the direct descendants of these central Asian horses. The chunky, punk-maned przewalski horse was hunted to near extinction in its last refuge in Mongolia. Marwell has contributed to a breeding programme that has helped pull the species back from the brink.