Ancient Horse Corral Unearthed in Kazakhstan

[Poll_Blind]

From LiveScience.com:

The remnants of what could be an ancient corral for keeping horses have been unearthed in northern Kazakhstan. The finding suggests the Botai culture living in the region 5,600 years ago didn't just hunt the creatures for meat, but were domesticating them, too.

Researchers found the remnants of 54 ancient homes and dozens of fence-post moulds where vertical posts once stood at a site called Krasnyi Yar. Some of the moulds were arranged circularly, as might be expected of a corral.

Soil in the area had chemical compositions matching what would be expected from Earth once enriched by horse manure, which is abundant in phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen. Soil at Krasnyi Yar was rich in all of these elements except nitrogen. This, too, would be expected if the soil was old, since nitrogen typically dissolves over time into groundwater and the atmosphere.

The Botai are not thought to have kept sheep or cattle, so the researchers ruled these animals out as sources of the manure, and the geochemical signature of the samples did not match human wastes.

--snip--

  This just blows me away. Almost 6,000 years ago. I'm not as big a fan of history as some but lately I've been intrigued by prehistoric civilizations, mostly in South America. One of the popular definitions of prehistoric is "a time before written records were kept". Sumerian writings go back to somewhere around 3,500 BC, about 5,500 years ago. But of course, it's not like humanity went from flea-picking and eating to a full blown writing system overnight. There's a sort of prehistoric preparatory period, probably 3-4,000 years before and leading up to written records (~9,000 years ago) which fascinates me because even though written language didn't exist (that we know of) there must have been a huge wealth of oral knowledge passed on about things like cultivation of crops, medicine, religions and (as above) domestication of animals.

  Is there a term besides "prehistoric civilizations" which describes mankind for a few thousand years before the written word appeared? Kind of like certain periods (Jurassic, Mesozoic, etc.) describe much earlier times in Earth's history? I have a very poor archaeological vocabulary. :-(

PB

[Big Kahuna]

1. That would be in the Bronze Age I believe

...though I tend to think that human civilizations are cyclical, not progressive. Civilizations tend to reach a certain level of complexity where it becomes unsustainable, and they go back to a simpler existance.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Hunh! Interesting. Thank you for the information. n/t

PB

[Igel]

3. Copper Age, per this link.

http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/06-49.htm A bit more info.00

Also check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestication_of_the_horse, where it's suggested this is in the ballpark of expectations, but is really useful evidence.

Compare it with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan_culture. (I dabble in Indo-European linguistics ... I'm a Slavist.)

So the Botai Culture is a tad east of the farthest extent of the Kurgan Culture (Kurgan IV didn't reach there), but started about the same time this domestication is attested. So Gimbutas' (and others') hypothesis about much earlier domestication is confirmed, it seems.

We know that cattle and sheet were domesticated about the same time as a lot of founder crops in S. Turkey/N. Syria, c. 10k years ago. So Wiki's anonymous writer's suggestion that horse domestication began about the same time seems reasonable, first for meat, then for pulling carts or possibly riding. But the DNA evidence seems to say domestication of the horse was much earlier than shown for Krasnyi Yar, so work continues.

I've always wondered at the IE expansion; this provides a bit of evidence about the local conditions, IMHO. (Most of the archeological research I've read involves sites from a few thousand years later ... strictly Slavic-related stuff.)

[eppur_se_muova]

4. One term used is 'protohistoric', for cultures that left non-literary evide...

of their existence. I think more than anything it recognizes the fact that 'prehistoric' and 'historic' are not sharply divided, but blur into one another. Many cultures which left no written records of their own appear in the records of more literate societies. What was iron age for one society might still be stone age for a contemporaneous society, as well, further blurring the definitions and boundaries.

That's kind of the limit of what I know about it, so happy Googling! :hi:

[htuttle]

6. Before writing, most cultures get catagorized by their technology level

Stone Age, Cooper Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc...

As someone pointed out above, this would probably be a Copper Age culture.

[lvx35]

5. That's amazing.

It is incredibly fascinating to think about life back then. I remember reading parts of the vedas, which are believed to be part of an oral tradition going back to about 4,000 years ago, written down about 3500 ago. I'm not sure how well it translates, but its just amazing to get a glimpse into the minds of back then. Its also amazing to see the commonalities to the Old Testament, which indicates to me they may be descended from an older tradition going back a long time.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. "neolithic"

It's used for people that had domesticated animals and rudimentary structures.

"Pre-classical" is also used.

[Poll_Blind]

8. Thanks for the replies...I didn't get much of a chance to revisit this...

..thread until a little while ago and the information you've provided has helped me to open up an entirely-new area to search on/in.

Thanks!

PB