Understanding horse domestication and horse health care in the ancient world

Abstract

Many of the most important equine health problems – and their solutions – relate to the role of horses as a domestic animal, especially in riding and other kinds of transport. Recently, new discoveries from the archaeological sciences have rewritten our understanding of early horse domestication, suggesting that the first ancestors of domestic horses emerged in the Black Sea Steppes of western Eurasia at the turn of the second millennium BCE. This new chronology places horse domestication within a wider trajectory of early animal transport, including cattle and donkey, across western Asia and northern Africa beginning in the fourth millennium BCE. Archaeological data suggest that some health problems including musculoskeletal issues linked with transport, dental challenges, and disease emerged alongside horse transport, and that some of these issues solicited early veterinary care. Collaboration between archaeozoology and equine science has the potential to reveal much more about early human-horse dynamics, but doing so requires overcoming important obstacles, including contrasting methodology and incentives for those working in each discipline.