This refutes the fact that riding is related to the massive spread of the nomadic Yamnaja culture to Europe around 5000 years ago and that it promoted the spread of the Indo-European languages. This is what 162 researchers from all over the world report to the palaeogeneticist Ludovic Orlando from the Center national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris in the journal “Nature”.
When humans began to tame and use wild horses has so far only been incompletely clarified. That is why the international research team has now collected the remains of 273 horses, including from Iberia, Anatolia and the steppes of Western Europe and Central Asia.
With the help of genetic analyzes of these heirlooms, which are around 2000 to 50,000 years old, the researchers identified the center of horse domestication. This is therefore in the lower Volga-Don region in the North Caucasus, which is part of today’s Russia.
Around 4,200 years ago, according to the researchers, a single genetic profile, which was initially restricted to the Pontic steppe in the North Caucasus, began to displace all wild horse populations from the Atlantic to Mongolia within a few centuries.
This triumphal march is therefore connected to two genes that prevailed. The genes called GSDMC and ZFPM1 are therefore related to more docile and stress-resistant behavior and a stronger backbone. These features ensured the success of the equestrian culture, which fundamentally changed mobility and warfare.
The University of Geneva, the Natural History Museum of Geneva and the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de la Ville de Genève, among others, were involved in the study.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04018-9