# Earliest horse domestication: Botai Culture or Sredny Stog culture **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2016, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horse-domestication-botai-culture-or-sredny-stog-culture/747818 "2016-03-03T10:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horse-domestication-botai-culture-or-sredny-stog-culture/747818/1 "2016-03-03T10:14:02Z")
Hi I’ve read many articles claiming that Kazhakstan’s Akmola Province was the site of the earliest domestication of the horse by the Botai people/culture. I just finished reading Jared Diamond’s “The Third Chimpanzee” (1992)p. 268 " The first evidence of horse domestication is for the Sredny Stog culture around 4000 BC, in the stepped just north of the Black Sea…".Are there still competing theories for the first horse domestication or has the issue been settled? I look forward to your feedback. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horse-domestication-botai-culture-or-sredny-stog-culture/747818/2 "2016-03-03T13:52:34Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Hi > > I’ve read many articles claiming that > Kazhakstan’s Akmola Province was the site of the earliest domestication of the horse by the Botai people/culture. I just finished reading Jared Diamond’s “The Third Chimpanzee” (1992)p. 268 " The first evidence of horse domestication is for the Sredny Stog culture around 4000 BC, in the stepped just north of the Black Sea…".Are there still competing theories for the first horse domestication or has the issue been settled? > I look forward to your feedback. I wouldn’t say “settled”, but the [latest](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/323/5919/1332.abstract?sid=d021eb55-bcbd-4ebd-9eca-145ce25969b0) evidence, does seem to support the Botai having domesticated them, and not just liking eating horses a whole lot, which was the standard objection. The [corral geochemical analysis](http://www.carnegiemnh.org/science/default.aspx?id=16611#2)is particularly convincing. Having said that - Diamond _was_ going by the best available consensus at the time (and that book was published a quarter-century ago) - most of the published work I’ve found favouring the Botai hypothesis is post-2000 (e.g. the corral investiagtion is 2008), and the big investigation into horses specifically started in 1993. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horse-domestication-botai-culture-or-sredny-stog-culture/747818/3 "2016-03-03T13:58:32Z")
The other thing is that the major evidence for horse domestication by the Sredny Stog culture was the cheek pieces from one burial, but t[hat was shown to be a much later intrusion i](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dereivka)n 1997 (so, post-_Third Chimpanzee_) This[Google book excerpt](https://books.google.co.za/books?id=xeJMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA17&lpg=RA1-PA17&dq=Dereivka+cheek+pieces+radiocarbon&source=bl&ots=3CiUf_zr8i&sig=zlrcdXh7butUw8IMPbmsB5NYtf4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjphNnQ1qTLAhVIPhQKHfYCC88Q6AEIIDAB#v=onepage&q=Dereivka%20cheek%20pieces%20radiocarbon&f=false) goes into some more detail as well. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horse-domestication-botai-culture-or-sredny-stog-culture/747818/4 "2016-03-03T20:14:42Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I wouldn’t say “settled”, but the [latest](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/323/5919/1332.abstract?sid=d021eb55-bcbd-4ebd-9eca-145ce25969b0) evidence, does seem to support the Botai having domesticated them, and not just liking eating horses a whole lot, which was the standard objection. The [corral geochemical analysis](http://www.carnegiemnh.org/science/default.aspx?id=16611#2)is particularly convincing. > > Having said that - Diamond _was_ going by the best available consensus at the time (and that book was published a quarter-century ago) - most of the published work I’ve found favouring the Botai hypothesis is post-2000 (e.g. the corral investiagtion is 2008), and the big investigation into horses specifically started in 1993. Thanks MrDibble. Very helpful.