Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Let's be accurate and clarify that the Times article merely reported  
what was published by the journal "Science".

Poor newspapers have such a hard time these days, let's not impugn  
their work in this case.

Lynne
<http://www.lynnesite.com>



On Mar 9, 2009, at 8:02 AM, Mike Sherrell wrote:

> The article in the Times made an unfortunate mistake: the book "The  
> Horse,
> The Wheel and Language" by David Anthony that it referred to had in  
> fact
> also concluded that the Botai culture began riding horses in  
> 3700-3500 BC,
> so that the evidence reported by the Times article simply confirmed
> Anthony's views. Anthony and his wife, who was or maybe still is a
> horsewoman, Dorcas Brown, were the ones who figured out that bits,  
> even
> rawhide bits, made characteristic wear on certain teeth because  
> horses tend
> to play with the bit with their tongue, rolling it back until it  
> hits those
> particular teeth.
>
> The sequence went like this: on the steppes hunter-gatherers hunted  
> horses
> for food. Then herders with cattle and sheep showed up on the edge  
> of the
> steppes. The steppe hunters learned herding cattle and sheep from  
> them, but
> didn't have very large herds, as cattle don't do all that well in  
> snow. They
> then figured out that they could herd horses as easily, and they'd  
> been
> eating them anyway. From there the next step was riding. The  
> percentage of
> ridden horses to herded horses in the Kazakh Botai culture was  
> small, like
> 3% -- the first horse riders rode in order to more easily herd  
> horses to
> eat.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Sherrell
> Grizzly Analytical (USA)
> www.grizzlyanalytical.com
> 707 887 2919; fax = 707 887 9834

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