Investigation of Krasnyi Yar, Kazakhstan: A Possible Locus for Early Horse Domestication

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Sandra Olsen博士和她的同事将在位于哈萨克斯坦科克谢陶市附近的Krasnyi亚尔考古遗址进行三个季节的挖掘。这项研究的目的是追踪马驯化的起源。这是欧亚史前史中最不为人所知的方面之一，但这一创新的影响极大地改变了世界。迄今为止，史前史学家并不知道马的驯化起源于何时何地。乌拉尔山脉以东的森林草原和草原地带在最后一次冰川消退结束后成为野马的主要栖息地，而野马在俄罗斯西西伯利亚平原和北方哈萨克斯坦的任何其他大型猎物中的适应性成功导致当地文化严重依赖马作为狩猎食物的来源。在公元前4000年的新石器时代，考古遗址中40%至90%的动物群由马组成。这种密集的狩猎可能为马的驯化奠定了基础，为土著文化提供了接触大量野生牛群的机会，并有机会获得对马行为的深入了解。克拉斯尼亚尔的大型新石器时代遗址几乎完好无损，由100多个木尖屋住宅组成。这类遗址有丰富的保存完好的动物遗迹以及石器和骨器。在三个野外季节里，奥尔森博士和她的同事们将挖掘其中三座房屋，并对外围地区进行测试。分析将侧重于动物遗骸，包括深入的计量研究、人口概况分析、确定死亡季节和详细研究屠宰做法。驯化的证据将主要在仔细重建畜群人口统计学和评估骨骼元素的分布中寻找。对该遗址其他特征的分析将着眼于重建生存、流动和与更遥远群体的联系。马的驯化问题具有深远的历史和人类学意义。驯化和随后使用马匹运输使人们能够开发比以往任何时候都更广泛的领土。它们既运送人又运送物，使草原居民成为一股强大的移动的力量，其影响远远超出了中央草原的边界，为资源、制成品和文化传统跨越遥远的距离进入西亚和欧洲提供了新的载体。这项研究将为这一过程的起源提供新的线索。

With National Science Foundation support Dr. Sandra Olsen and her colleagues will conduct three seasons of excavation at the archaeological site of Krasnyi Yar located near the city of Kokshetau in Kazakhstan. The goal of the research is to trace the origins of horse domestication. This is one of the least understood aspects of Eurasian prehistory and yet the impact of that innovation changed the world enormously. To date, prehistorians do not know with any precision when or where incipient horse domestication arose. The forest-steppe and steppe zones East of the Ural mountains were prime habitat for wild horses after the end of the last ice retreat and the adaptive success of wild horses over any other large game in the West Siberian Plain of Russia and northern Kazakhstan led to heavy dependence on horses as a source of hunted food by local cultures. During the Neolithic period in the fourth millennium B.C. between 40% and 90% of faunal assemblages at archaeological sites consist of horse. This intensive hunting may have set the stage for horse domestication by providing indigenous cultures with access to plentiful wild herds and the opportunity to gain an intimate knowledge of equine behavior. The large Neolithic site of Krasnyi Yar is virtually intact and consists of over a hundred pithouse dwellings. Sites of this type are rich in well preserved faunal remains as well as stone and bone artifacts. Over the course of three field seasons Dr. Olsen and her colleagues will excavate three of these houses and test outlying areas. The analysis will focus on the faunal remains and include an intensive metric study, demographic profiling, determination of season of death and a detailed study of butchery practices. Evidence of domestication will be sought primarily in the careful reconstruction of herd demography and in assessment of the distribution of skeletal elements. Analysis of other features at the site will be directed toward reconstructing subsistence, mobility and connections with more distant groups. The question of horse domestication is of far reaching historical and anthropological significance. Domestication and subsequent use of horses for transport enabled people to exploit much broader territories than ever before possible. Their use for carrying both people and objects transformed steppe dwellers into a powerful mobile force who had an impact far beyond the boundaries of the central steppe and provided new vectors for the movement of resources, finished goods and cultural traditions across vast distances into western Asia and Europe. This research will shed new light into the origins of this process.