Rapid land travel earlier than thought?

[Bella-Angelique]

I found this interesting because history this far back always portrays man moving slowly on foot from place to place. I think finding domestication of horses this far back shows that man may have moved around farther and faster than they previously thought he did.

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New evidence of early horse domestication

Soil from a Copper Age site in northern Kazakhstan has yielded new evidence for domesticated horses up to 5,600 years ago. The discovery, consisting of phosphorus-enriched soils inside what appear to be the remains of horse corrals beside pit houses, matches what would be expected from Earth once enriched by horse manure. The Krasnyi Yar site was inhabited by people of the Botai culture of the Eurasian Steppe, who relied heavily on horses for food, tools, and transport.

"There's very little direct evidence of horse domestication," says Sandra Olsen, an archaeologist and horse domestication researcher at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA. That's because 5,600 years ago there were no saddles or metal bits to leave behind. Equipment like bridles, leads, and hobbles would have been made from thongs of horse hide, and would have rotted away long ago. Likewise horses themselves have not changed much physically as a result of domestication, unlike dogs or cattle. So ancient horse bones don't easily reveal the secrets of domestication. source

[Bone_Collector]

The oldest wheel found in archeological excavations was discovered in Mesopotamia about 5500 years ago, roughly the same time period, evidence of domestication of horses points to.

I'm thinking they might have used horses to pull carts and carraiges during this time, much before man totally domesticted the horse and learnt to travel ON it.

Edited October 30, 2006 by Bone_Collector

[Azaezel]

That's facinating!! Thanks for the post