Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan

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

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.

Reconstructing Equine Bridles in the Mongolian Bronze Age

Archaeozoological remains provide a key dataset for understanding horse control in Mongolias Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) Complex, a late Bronze Age culture dating to circa 1300–700 BC. Although no horse tack has been recovered from DSK contexts, archaeological finds from nearby areas of East and Central Asia suggest that a bridle with a noseband, soft organic bit, and rigid cheekpieces was used by late Bronze Age Mongolian herders. Osteological data from a sample of 25 ritually interred horse crania corroborate these inferences. Deformation to the bridge of the nose on several archaeological specimens suggests that DSK bridles incorporated a noseband, while limited damage to the premolars or diastema is consistent with organic mouthpiece use. A preliminary comparison between archaeological and contemporary horses ridden with known bridle equipment implies that osteological changes to the lateral margin of the premaxilla, present in the DSK sample, might have been produced by a rigid cheekpiece. This study highlights the promise of combining multiple lines of skeletal evidence with other archaeological data to reconstruct ancient equine bridles and tack.

Origins of equine dentistry

Significance The domestication of horses and adoption of horse riding were critical processes that culminated in the emergence of mounted warriors and nomadic empires that shaped world history. The constraints of horse biology and riding equipment meant that equine veterinary care, particularly of teeth, was a core component of the success of the human–horse relationship. We report the earliest evidence of equine dentistry, from the Mongolian Steppe, at 1150 BCE. Key shifts in equine dentistry practice through time can be linked first to the emergence of horseback riding and later to the use of metal bits that enabled better control of horses. The maintenance of horse health through dentistry underwrote the key role of horses in cultures and economies around the world. From the American West to the steppes of Eurasia, the domestic horse transformed human societies, providing rapid transport, communication, and military power, and serving as an important subsistence animal. Because of the importance of oral equipment for horse riding, dentistry is an essential component of modern horse care. In the open grasslands of northeast Asia, horses remain the primary form of transport for many herders. Although free-range grazing on gritty forage mitigates many equine dental issues, contemporary Mongolian horsemen nonetheless practice some forms of dentistry, including the removal of problematic deciduous teeth and the vestigial first premolar (“wolf tooth”). Here, we present archaezoological data from equine skeletal remains spanning the past 3,200 y, indicating that nomadic dental practices have great antiquity. Anthropogenic modifications to malerupted deciduous central incisors in young horses from the Late Bronze Age demonstrate their attempted removal, coinciding with the local innovation or adoption of horseback riding and the florescence of Mongolian pastoral society. Horse specimens from this period show no evidence of first premolar removal, which we first identify in specimens dating to ca. 750 BCE. The onset of premolar extraction parallels the archaeological appearance of jointed bronze and iron bits, suggesting that this technological shift prompted innovations in dentistry that improved horse health and horse control. These discoveries provide the earliest directly dated evidence for veterinary dentistry, and suggest that innovations in equine care by nomadic peoples ca. 1150 BCE enabled the use of horses for increasingly sophisticated mounted riding and warfare.

Stone lines and burnt bones: ritual elaborations in Xiongnu mortuary arenas of Inner Asia

The vast mortuary complexes of the Xiongnu, the world’s first nomadic empire (c. 200 BC–AD 100), were important statements of elite power and ritual commemoration in Inner Asia. Very few of the features that accompanied the main tombs, however, have been fully excavated and investigated. This study is one of the first to assess completely the small archaeological features—and associated faunal remains—that surround the more monumental structures, features that intimate substantial investments in, and ritual activities around, these mortuary arenas. This research provides an important contribution to the understanding of the social politics of ritual practices and the development of complex institutions in steppe pastoral societies.