Abstract:
Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and
warfare1
. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest
domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking
and corralling2–4
at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc3
. Other longstanding candidate
regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia5
and Anatolia6
, have also recently been
challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic
horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes,
especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses.
Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from
273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately
replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia
from about 2000 bc, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including
Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We fnd that equestrianism involved strong
selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1
genes. Our results reject the commonly held association7
between horseback riding
and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000
bc8,9
driving the spread of Indo-European languages10. This contrasts with the scenario
in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following
the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture
