The ride continues
Rain and Steppe Empires
Scholarly debate rages over the role played by climatic factors in shaping steppe empires.
The Domestication Debate
Tennis anyone? Scientific debates, whether over nutrition, or drug research, advanced physics, or evolution, often resemble tennis volleys between Wimbledon champions. We follow the ball back and forth as the players return their opponents' arguments with their own. So it is with the origin of the domestic horse. The players here are two teams of scholars, on the one side #PabloLibrado (Librado, Orlando, Taylor et al.) and on the other side, #DavidAnthony (Anthony, Trautman, Heyd).
The Year of the Horse
As the Chinese lunar Year of the Horse arrives, the qualities of vitality, strength, and agility that the horse symbolizes have long been deeply integrated into the spiritual core of Eastern civilization, becoming a cultural icon that transcends eras and regions. In the view of American scholar David Chaffetz, the significance of the horse extends far beyond this – it is an invisible link connecting the millennia-old civilizations across the Eurasian continent, a key force in shaping power structures, economic landscapes, and cultural forms. His book, The Horse and the Making of Civilization, reconstructs historical narratives from a unique "equine perspective," breaking down the traditional boundaries of civilization studies.
Early Riders, again
I struggled with the story of early horse domestication in Raiders. The research, going for about a decade, resembled a volley between Alcaraz and Sinner. My head spun following the back and forth between proponents and opponents of Botai in Kazakhstan as the site of the first domesticated horses. Moreover the arguments for earlier domestication made plausible the idea that the steppe people whom archeologists refer to as Yamnaya (from a site in Russia), invaded Europe with horses in the 4th millennium BCE. I never liked this story, which underlines a lot of ideologically heavy views of European history (e.g., Gimbutas). In recent years scholars working with aDNA (ancient DNA) have significantly clarified the chronology of horse domestication. Based on this work, I am trying to pull trying to pull together a simple narrative, even though we can no longer speak about domestication, but domestications.
The Orlov Trotter
For centuries Russia and Ukraine were famous for their vast herds of small, hardy horses, raised in the steppe by either Tatars or Cossacks. As European fashions traveled east, riders sought bigger, more elegant horses, with smoother paces. Stud farms replaced open grazing, and aristocratic breeders adopted what they considered to be more scientific methods. Glory, patriotism and sporting prizes motivated these enthusiasts. Often money was no object. Count Orlov, a favorite of Catherine the Great, spent 60,000 rubles – a multi-million dollar equivalent in modern terms – to purchase an Arabian stallion, Smetanka, so called for his cream-colored coat. Before dying from overexertion or homesickness, Smetanka sired four colts and one filly with a harem of big-boned German horses, and the Orlov Trotter was off to the races.
Tumultuous Trade and the Heavenly Horses
The USA’s current embrace of opportunistic trade deals underscores the reality that international trade has since been, for 2,000 years, a messy affair where competition, conflict and outright warfare coexist…..
Weather and Steppe Invasions
“Our geldings are fat”, the Mongol warriors pointedly told Genghis Khan. They were asking their chief, indirectly, when they would ride to war. The Mongols typically launched their campaigns in late summer, when their horses had had their fill of grasses, could survive long marches, and gallop quickly in and out of combat. The more grass grew on the steppe, the more geldings the Mongols could ride to war. A succession of good springs and summers would swell the herd with horses.
The Land of Good Horses
The first thing we learn about Iran, is that it is a land of good horses. In his monumental cuneiform inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam, King Darius I (550-486) writes, “This country, Persia, which Ahuramazda gave to me is a good country, full of good horses.”
Horses for the Emperor of China
The immense crowd of warriors, mandarins, eunuchs and servants pack the courtyards and terraces of the newly built Forbidden City, straining to get a view of the emperor. His dais rises so high above the ceremonial bridge he seems to be floating in the sky with the apsaras. He is pronouncing criminal sentences on a common prisoners, heads drooping down by the weight of wooden cangues locked around their necks. Some he orders flogged, some maimed, very unlucky ones decapitated. A handful are pardoned. Sentences are carried out on the spot by impassive, muscled executioners. Gore quickly pools on the granite paving stones of the courtyard of justice. Normally honored guests, ambassadors from far away Samarkand, are being forced to watch the proceedings, with an increasing sense of foreboding.
Deconstructing Nomad Empires
In the Bible Adam and Eve get to name everything. That was the last recorded instance of people agreeing what names should be given to what. Confucius argued that misnaming things would lead to societal chaos. History writing requires naming the protagonists, and defining their relationships. Not coincidentally modern history writing emerged more or less at the same time as the science of numismatics, since ancient coins proved to be a sure method for identifying the names of ancient rulers and their dynastic connections to one another.