Every new discovery in science adds to the body of knowledge we've built up about our world. But science as a philosophy must also be open to the possibility that we've been reading the clues wrong, and be ready to change gears when needed. In the field of archaeozoology, ancient horses have been unearthed to tell the story of when and where horses were first domesticated. That act enabled people to travel long distances, which led to exploration, trade, war, and conquest. Our history would have been quite different without the the use of the horse.
The prevailing theory for the last few decades has been that horses were first domesticated in Kazakhstan by the Botai culture in the fourth millennium BC. The bones of horses from that era and area seem to show evidence of using a bit in their teeth, and the horses may have been milked for human consumption. But you can't stop studying a question just because you think you know the answer. More recent research, using DNA, has thrown a bit of cold water on the theory. As of now, it seems more likely that horses were actually domesticated a couple of thousand years later, although still somewhere on the steppes of central Asia. Read what the evidence shows and how scientists have had to reconsider their conclusions at the Conversation.
(Image credit: Togzhan Ibrayeva)
Commenting on Neatorama will earn you NeatoPoints!