The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985912%3A_____%2F21%3A00547098" target="_blank" >RIV/67985912:_____/21:00547098 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04018-9.pdf" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04018-9.pdf</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes
Original language description
Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, 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 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60102 - Archaeology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2021
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Nature
ISSN
0028-0836
e-ISSN
1476-4687
Volume of the periodical
598
Issue of the periodical within the volume
7882
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
7
Pages from-to
634-640
UT code for WoS article
000709352200002
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85117498173