Publications by authors named "Natalia Y Berezina"
The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies. Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies. Here we present new genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000 years.
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- - Horses transformed human mobility, but the timeline of their domestication and integration as transport is debated, with new genetic data being used to clarify this history.
- - Analysis of 475 ancient horse genomes indicates that modern domestic horses were shaped by human intervention around 2200 BCE, after a domestication bottleneck began around 2700 BCE, leading to a significant expansion across Eurasia.
- - Evidence also suggests that there was early horse husbandry in central Asia at Botai around 3500 BCE, prior to the establishment of contemporary horse bloodlines, challenging the notion of large herds being linked to migrations around 3000 BCE.
Article Synopsis
- The domestication of horses significantly changed mobility and warfare, but modern breeds do not trace back to the earliest domestic horses found in Central Asia around 3500 BC.
- Research reestablishes the Western Eurasian steppes, particularly the lower Volga-Don area, as the origin of modern domestic horses, based on genetic analysis from 273 ancient horse genomes.
- The study finds that the spread of modern domestic horses around 2000 BC coincided with the emergence of equestrian cultures, refuting the idea that horseback riding was linked to the expansion of Yamnaya pastoralists in Europe.