The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes
Pablo Librado, Naveed Khan, Antoine Fages, Mariya A. Kusliy, Tomasz Suchan, Laure Tonasso‐Calvière, Stéphanie Schiavinato, Duha Alioğlu, Aurore Fromentier, Aude Perdereau, Jean‐Marc Aury, Charleen Gaunitz, Loreleï Chauvey, Andaine Seguin‐Orlando, Clio Der Sarkissian, John Southon, Beth Shapiro, Alexey A. Tishkin, Alexey Kovalev, Saleh A. Alquraishi, Ahmed Alfarhan, Khaled A. S. Al‐Rasheid, Timo Seregély, Lutz Klassen, Rune Iversen, Olivier Bignon‐Lau, Pierre Bodu, Monique Olive, Jean‐Christophe Castel, Myriam Boudadi‐Maligne, Nadir Álvarez, Mietje Germonpré, Magdalena Moskal‐del Hoyo, Jarosław Wilczyński, Sylwia Pospuła, Anna Lasota‐Kuś, Krzysztof Tunia, Marek Nowak, Eve Rannamäe, Urmas Saarma, Г. Г. Боескоров, Lembi Lõugas, René Kyselý, Lubomír Peške, Adrian Bălăşescu, Valentin Dumitraşcu, Roxana Dobrescu, Dániel Gerber, Viktória Kiss, Anna Szécsényi‐Nagy, Balázs Gusztáv Mende, Zsolt Gallina, Krisztina Somogyi, Gabriella Kulcsár, Erika Gál, Robin Bendrey, Morten E. Allentoft, Ghenadie Sîrbu, V. A. Dergachev, Henry M. Shephard, Noémie Tomadini, Sandrine Grouard, Aleksei Kasparov, Alexander E. Basilyan, М. А. Анисимов, Pavel A. Nikolskiy, Elena Y. Pavlova, Vladimir V. Pitulko, Г. Брем, Barbara Wallner, Christoph Schwall, Marcel Keller, Keiko Kitagawa, Alexander Bessudnov, Alexander Bessudnov, William Taylor, Jérôme Magail, Jamiyan-Ombo Gantulga, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Diimaajav Erdenebaatar, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Enkhbayar Mijiddorj, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Tsagaan Turbat, Mélanie Pruvost, Sandra L. Olsen, Cheryl A. Makarewicz, Sílvia Valenzuela, Silvia Albizuri, Ariadna Nieto Espinet, María Pilar Iborra Eres, Jaime Lira Garrido, Esther Rodríguez González, Sebastián Celestino, Carmen Olària, Juan Luís Arsuaga, Nadiia Kotova, Alexander J.E. Pryor, Pam Crabtree, Rinat Zhumatayev
Abstract
Abstract Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare 1 . However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling 2–4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc 3 . Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia 5 and Anatolia 6 , have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 bc , synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association 7 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 bc 8,9 driving the spread of Indo-European languages 10 . This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture 11,12 .