Humans were riding horses 1,000 years earlier than previously thought

"The bond between horses and humans goes back a long way: the animals have played a central role in our species' expansion around the globe, as well as their long and storied use in warfare even as recently as the Second World War. It was previously thought that the earliest wild horses were tamed and domesticated was around 4,000 years ago, around 2200 to 2100 BCE, but new research has now pushed our relationship with horses back by over a thousand years."

""Horses were being ridden, worked, and traded long before anyone thought it possible," said researchers at the University of Helsinki, writing in the journal Science Advances. The research team used DNA, archaeological and bone records to examine the timeline of human use of horses through the centuries. Populations' migration east into Asia and west into Europe around 5,000 years ago may have been driven by advances in human relationships with horses and associated technology, such as carts and wagons (Getty Images)."

""Taming and domestication were not single events," they said. Instead, it was "a slow, stop-start""

The Independent describes its reporting mission across political and global issues, emphasizing fact-checking and on-the-ground journalism without paywalls. It also states that donations support sending journalists to speak to multiple sides and that its reporting is trusted across the political spectrum. Separately, new research using DNA, archaeological, and bone records examines the timeline of human use of horses. The findings push the start of riding, working, and trading horses back by more than a thousand years compared with earlier estimates. Migration of horse populations east into Asia and west into Europe around 5,000 years ago may have been linked to advances in human-horse relationships and related technology such as carts and wagons. Domestication is presented as a gradual, non-single event process.

Read at www.independent.co.uk