4 ms·

First Evidence for Horsemanship

3 points by WaitWaitWha 4y ago

motohagiography 4y ago
> Yamnaya-related individuals show a generally much more robust morphology of cranium and postcranium and a higher mean body height. Dental wear and workload-related joint degeneration correlated to age appear comparatively lower, while muscle attachment marks are more pronounced. Signs of interpersonal violence are very rare. The muscles required for riding, especailly without saddles or stirrups, are all small muscle groups used for balance, and it would be interesting to see if the "robust morphology" of craniums may be related to the necessary brain usage that comes from having to use your brain to pilot a whole second body as though it were your own. Usefully it has a brain of its own for the last mile connections, but the human brain needs to be able to transmit a full complement of directional motions with speed and direction to all four limbs, with start, stop, change, stand, move, wait, ignore predators, risk, and instincts - all through your body and the body of the animal as though it were your own. The other aspect is there are some intrinsic beliefs you need about humane treatment of other beings to earn the trust of a prey animal, and you also need to be able to pass them down, so there is necessarily some complex higher moral reasoning happening in these brains. If you encountered a tribe of riders who rode around on horses like they were extensions of their bodies, with an obedience that could almost seem like a biomechanical extension, you'd likely describe them as being half-horse, and the description would be passed down in literal form. The centaur who raised Achilles (Chiron) was apparently from "the East," and the Greek myths and the moral lessons in them seem more coherent when you remove that requirement to suspend disbelief, where the centaurs weren't fantasy, they were just people from the steppes with a highly evolved culture and intelligence that was the result of their relationship with horses. This is my Ancient Aliens level take on this great paper, but riding horses is one of the oldest things our species does and I can say with some experience that the essentials can't really have changed.

3 points by WaitWaitWha 4y ago

> Yamnaya-related individuals show a generally much more robust morphology of cranium and postcranium and a higher mean body height. Dental wear and workload-related joint degeneration correlated to age appear comparatively lower, while muscle attachment marks are more pronounced. Signs of interpersonal violence are very rare. The muscles required for riding, especailly without saddles or stirrups, are all small muscle groups used for balance, and it would be interesting to see if the "robust morphology" of craniums may be related to the necessary brain usage that comes from having to use your brain to pilot a whole second body as though it were your own. Usefully it has a brain of its own for the last mile connections, but the human brain needs to be able to transmit a full complement of directional motions with speed and direction to all four limbs, with start, stop, change, stand, move, wait, ignore predators, risk, and instincts - all through your body and the body of the animal as though it were your own. The other aspect is there are some intrinsic beliefs you need about humane treatment of other beings to earn the trust of a prey animal, and you also need to be able to pass them down, so there is necessarily some complex higher moral reasoning happening in these brains. If you encountered a tribe of riders who rode around on horses like they were extensions of their bodies, with an obedience that could almost seem like a biomechanical extension, you'd likely describe them as being half-horse, and the description would be passed down in literal form. The centaur who raised Achilles (Chiron) was apparently from "the East," and the Greek myths and the moral lessons in them seem more coherent when you remove that requirement to suspend disbelief, where the centaurs weren't fantasy, they were just people from the steppes with a highly evolved culture and intelligence that was the result of their relationship with horses. This is my Ancient Aliens level take on this great paper, but riding horses is one of the oldest things our species does and I can say with some experience that the essentials can't really have changed.