Botai culture

The Botai culture is an archaeological culture (c. 3700–3100 BC) of ancient Kazakhstan. It was named after the settlement of Botai in Aqmola Province of Kazakhstan. The Botai culture has two other large sites: Krasnyi Yar, and Vasilkovka.

David W. Anthony connects the Botai culture to the eastward migration of peoples from the Volga-Ural steppe in the mid 4th Millenia BC, which would lead to the establishment of the Afanasevo culture in South Siberia.

The site of Botai is located on the Iman-Burluk River, a tributary of the Ishim River. The site has at least 153 pithouses. The settlement was partly destroyed by the steeply eroding river bank which is still occurring and by management of the wooded area.

The occupations of the Botai people were connected to their horses. Some researchers state that horses were domesticated right here by the Botai. It was once thought that most of the horses in evidence were probably the wild species, Equus ferus, hunted with bows, arrows and harpoons. However, evidence reported in 2009 for pottery containing mare's milk and of horse bones with telltale signs of being bred after domestication have demonstrated a much stronger case for the Botai culture as a major user of domestic horses by about 3,500 BC, close to 1,000 years earlier than the previous scientific consensus. This does not necessarily mean they were the first to domesticate horses, but makes them the earliest known candidate. Thus, in some ways, this culture appears to be the nearest to have ever existed on the Eurasian Steppe to that of North American Plains Indian tribes like the Lakota or the Comanche, when they ruled the Great Plains..

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Botai_culture

Latest News for: botai culture

Tracing how horse domestication turned the Eurasian Steppe into a highway

Ars Technica 11 May 2018

The first evidence we have of domesticated horses comes from a site called Botai in Northern Kazakhstan, where archaeologists have found evidence of milking, corrals, and the use of harnesses ... If they had, that would be a clue that the Botai had interacted with the Yamnaya enough to perhaps exchange cultural ideas as well as genes....

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How five became one: the odd history of horses' hooves

The Guardian 07 Mar 2018

“With horses, we travelled way faster, and could transport goods, people, germs and culture at unprecedented speed ... These include horses from the Botai. a Central Asian steppe culture with the earliest archaeological evidence for horse husbandry, beginning around 5,500 years ago ... The Botai were credited with first domesticating horses, and it was ......

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Classic whodunnit: First domestic horses might have arisen outside Central Asia

Topix 01 Mar 2018

The earliest credible evidence of horse domestication dates back to the Botai culture, who are believed to have tamed horses in northern Kazakhstan around 3500 BC. But scientist Ludovic Orlando and his colleagues, writing in the journal Science, turned that belief on its head last week ... ....

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Scientists are trying to figure out where the heck horses came from

Popular Science 27 Feb 2018

Experts long thought that all modern horses were probably descended from a group of animals that belonged to the Botai culture, which flourished in Kazakhstan around 5,500 years ago. But now, a new study published in Science suggests that the Botai horses were not the ancestors of our modern equine companions—and challenges what we thought we knew about one of the only “wild” horse species left today....

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Ancient DNA rules out archeologists’ best bet for horse domestication

Ars Technica 25 Feb 2018

(credit ... Remains from the Botai culture in present-day Kazakhstan point to evidence of horse milking and possible riding more than 5,000 years ago ... modern horses appear not to be descended from the Botai horses ... Comments ....

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DNA analysis reveals there are no wild horses left in the world

Inhabitat 23 Feb 2018

Researchers have been examining the DNA of horses and what they've discovered completely upends what we thought we knew. According to the research, the last 'wild' horses on the planet are actually descendants of horses domesticated in Kazakhstan 5,500 years ago by the people of the Botai culture. This discovery also means that today's domesticated horses don't come from the Botai, as previously thought ... Przewalski's horses,... ....

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World's last remaining wild horses aren't really wild after all

Yahoo Daily News 23 Feb 2018

But researchers said on Thursday an examination of the genomes of dozens of ancient and modern horses concluded that Przewalski's horse, saved from extinction in the 20th century, descended from horses domesticated in northern Kazakhstan some 5,500 years ago by people in what is called the Botai culture. The research showed that the Botai culture ......

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photo: WN / RTayco

Horses on a field sniffs grasses. Taken on May 2017.

Wild Horses Can't Drag Me Away Because They Don’t Exist, Genetic Analysis Finds

Newsweek 22 Feb 2018

They also believed that the Botai horse, an ancient breed named for the Botai people of modern-day Kazakhstan, was the genetic father of all domestic horses today ... They found that neither of the assumptions about Botai and Przewalski’s horses were true ... They also kept multiple horses in corrals, demonstrating that keeping, riding and eating domestic horses was an integral part of the Botai culture....

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Mysterious origin of domesticated horses ‘turned upside down’ by DNA analysis

Yahoo Daily News 22 Feb 2018

The oldest known domestic horse population belonged to the Botai people who inhabited the Central Asian steppes around 5500 years ago ... “It was essential to Botai people to manage the horse resource as it provided the basis of their subsistence strategy,” said Professor Alan Outram, an archaeologist at the University of Exeter who has carried out excavations of the Botai Culture for decades....

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Why The Last 'Wild' Horses Really Aren't

National Public Radio 22 Feb 2018

It looks like the Botai culture's use of horses petered out to a dead end, as the horses somehow became untethered from humans and produced the feral descendants known today as Przewalski's horses, which are commonly described as the only wild horses left in the world ... Although the Botai culture has the first known evidence of horse domestication, ......

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Why it's so hard to unravel the mysterious origins of domestic horses

The Conversation 22 Feb 2018

Experts long thought that all modern horses were probably descended from a group of animals that belonged to the Botai culture, which flourished in Kazakhstan around 5,500 years ago. But now, a new study published in Science suggests that the Botai horses were not the ancestors of our modern equine companions – and challenges what we thought we knew about one of the only “wild” horse species left today....

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