Well, in general, there is no evidence of using a horse as a transport before Sintashta. Before that, Indo-Europeans used castrated bulls harnessed to the wagon. Probably originally horse was the food and may be pack animal. It is unlikely that they ride on horses...
No
there is no evidence.
There is a ton of evidence.
It's a hotly disputed topic that people like to dismiss because it supports the crucial role of the domestic horse in IE expansions. I'm pretty sold on it for these reasons:
- They had domestic horses, which were definitely used as a meat source.
- There are antler cheek pieces with holes to fix a bit, so we have to conclude that they were putting bridles on their horses. There's only one reason to bridle a horse and that's to steer it.
- The role of the horse is central in these cultures. It's everywhere in their art and ritual. Horse headed sceptors and horse figurines are all over the place as are horse sacrifices.
- Sredny Stog and Khvalynsk were predominantly stock breeders, which included horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. There are wheat grinders and other tools associated with grain processing but there's far more evidence for stock breeding. It would be very difficult to control herds of horses and cattle without riding horses. Most would actually say that it would be impossible with only Eneolithic technology to aid you otherwise. Knowing how useful horse riders would be in such a culture while knowing that they had domestic horses that were definitely being bridled, it's hard not to conclude that they were riding horses.
One thing that's sort of strange is that the copper items found in Sredny Stog and Khvalynsk come from the Balkans, and yet we see no EEF in Khvalynsk, which is why I'm expecting to see it in Sredny Stog. Based on proximity mostly and material culture.
About Mesolithic.
It was very little studied in archeology previously time. Now the situation is changing.
In the Mesolithic Veret'e-Popovo there is already a burial of a child of 7-9 years with two dogs. Such burials with two dogs then found in the Corded Ware. Probably this is the birth of the Indo-European funeral cult and the myth about two dogs (now called "Hellhound") - guides and friends in the afterlife. Later transformed into:
-Two-headed Cerberus in Greek mythology (this variant oldest and more visually represented)
-Two dogs of Indian God of the dead Yama - Sarvara and Udumbala.
-Two dogs in the Avesta, guarding the Chinwad Bridge in the world of the dead.
-etc.
Also noteworthy is the funeral of Patroclus in the Iliad. Achiless killed two dogs, and threw them into the funeral pyre to Patroclus.
It is astoundingly, that the roots of this apparently from North Mesolithic.
This is very interesting. Dogs are also known to Sredny Stog and Khvalynsk.
People forget how deliberate burial arrangements are. Two dogs are probably not coincidental.
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