Recent excavations of the Botai Culture sites of Krasnyi Yar and Vasilkovka in northern Kazakhstan have unearthed an ancient corral for keeping horses. Now, the fact that Kazakhs have a long-standing equine tradition is not news per se, but evidence suggests that the ancient inhabitants of what is today Kazakhstan were among the first to domesticate horses as early as 3700-3100 BC. Archeologists of the University of Exeter say how difficult it is to establish who came first:

The identification of early domesticated horses is extremely difficult. With some domestic species there is a single clear criterion to work from, but with horses there is no immediately obvious morphological or size change. The identification of early domesticated horses is only likely to be possible through detailed and multifaceted study of sites like Krasnyi Yar and Vasilkovka.

The trophy is, however, likely to go to the Ukraine or Russia:

“The very first horse domestication was probably a bit earlier in the Ukraine or western Russia,” Olsen said. “Then some horse-herders migrated east to Kazakhstan.”

BBC Radio 4 has a lovely story on the excavation, including audio, text and photos. A very interesting and informed discussion unfolded on Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog.

The images above are 3D models of a Botai village and the facial reconstruction of a Botai man made by students of the Carnegie Mellon University (via Quetzalcoatl, where the findings have also been discussed). Botai built large villages with as many as hundreds of homes. They did not subsist on agriculture, however. The Botai were a “horse economy”.