Humans have a very ancient relationship with horses, but the
precise nature of this is difficult to define, until the Bronze
Age when a huge innovation; the development of chariot technology,
defines the horse as a route to rapid movement across central
and east Asia. The human/horse relationship undergoes a transition
and horses begin to appear in elite burials, with chariots,
sometimes in harness with accompanying accutriments. This amazing
archaeological material gives us a fascinating opportunity
to study the people, the horses and the chariots.
April 2007 saw the beginning of a major Leverhulme
Trust funded multidisciplinary project on the evolving role
of the
horse
in the 2nd and 1st millennia BC in central and east Asia (Principal
Investigator: Prof.
Graeme Barker). Working collaboratively
with Equine Archaeozoologist and Paleopathologist Dr
Marsha Levine (McDonald
Institute) and her team, we are providing the genetic component
of the project. The project will work towards elucidating
the circumstances of the spread of the horse
and chariot complex eastwards to China between c.2000 and 1250
BC and to understand the timing and circumstances of the emergence
of equestrian pastoralism, most particularly whether it is
possible to identify if the change was gradual or sudden.
Building on work carried out as part of our Isaac Newton Trust
and McDonald Institute funded Archaeogenetics of Horse Husbandry
project, we are studying the genetics of isolated
living horse populations in central and east Asia. Through extensive sampling across Eurasia, we have built one of the largest and most geographically diverse sample sets of all domestic animals, including the first ever horse
samples
from
Tajikistan, thanks to a collaboration with Jacqueline Rippart
and the Kyrgyz
Horse Foundation.
Furthermore, we have collected a large data set of horses from archaeological sites across this range. This part of the project is in its infancy, but we are
awaiting the first results with anticipation. The background
research on the genetics of living horse populations will add
the framework for the interpretation of these results.
This project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust
|
Horse-chariot
pit of Shang period (11th century BC) Guojiazhuang, Anyang, from
Zhong guo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo Anyandui (1988) "Anyang
Guojiazhuang xinan de yindai chemakeng" Kaogu (Archaeology):
882-893.
Sampling horses in central and west China (Photograph: Elizabeth
Barrett and Lisa Quilter, 2007) |
