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Equine cranial morphology and the identification of riding and chariotry in late Bronze Age Mongolia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2015

William Timothy Treal Taylor ,
Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan  and
Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal
William Timothy Treal Taylor
Affiliation:
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, MSC01 1050, 1 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131–000, USA (Email: [email protected])
Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan
Affiliation:
National Museum of Mongolia, Juulchin Street-1, Ulaanbaatar 210646, Mongolia (Email: [email protected]; [email protected])
Tumurbaatar Tuvshinjargal
Affiliation:
National Museum of Mongolia, Juulchin Street-1, Ulaanbaatar 210646, Mongolia (Email: [email protected]; [email protected])
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Abstract

The adoption of the horse for chariots, wagons and riding had a major impact on human societies, but it has proved difficult to reliably identify early domesticated horses in the archaeological record. This comparative study of equine palaeopathology addresses the problem by analysing wild and domestic horses used for traction or riding. Osteological changes to the skull appear to be the result of mechanical and physiological stress from the use of horses for transport. The results are applied to archaeological examples from the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex of Bronze Age Mongolia (1300–700 BC) and show that those horses were probably bridled and used for transport.

Keywords

MongoliaBronze AgeDeer Stone-Khirigsuur Complexequestrianismzooarchaeologynasal remodelling
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 346 , August 2015 , pp. 854 - 871
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

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