Images of the Horse ANd HORSEmAn in Studies

JURGITA ŽUKAUSKAITĖ Images of theHorseman Horse inandCulture Studies Corded Ware Abstract

This article presents an overview of the representations of the horse and horseman in Corded Ware Culture studies. A survey of the literature is proposed, discussing assumptions of the role of the horse in the communities of this culture.

JURGITA JURGITA ŽUKAUSKAITĖ Key words: Corded Ware Culture, mobility, horse, horseman, East Baltic.

Introduction for an alternative approach based on the theory of au- tochthonous development see Malmer 1962 and Kris- The visibility threshold always is a challenge in ar- tiansen 1989), the fast and extensive spread of Corded chaeological research, especially when one talks about Ware Culture bearers could be explained by the no- groups of people who are used to being described madic and warlike nature of the community, where the as mobile or nomadic. Since pastoral nomads are so mounted warrior played the essential role. This con- ephemeral and enigmatic, they always fascinate ar- cept dominated for many decades and served to form chaeologists, but their representation often tends to be an image of the Corded Ware Culture man as a warlike oversimplified. While the Late Corded Ware rider on horseback (Fig. 1). Other assumptions made Culture generally has been identified with mobile were that boat-shaped battle axes – the characteristic groups of people within its rich history of research, it artefact of the Corded Ware Culture – were weapons still remains quite a mysterious phenomenon. Despite used only by the riders, as these axes were not suitable various opinions about Corded Ware Culture commu- for unmounted struggles (Rimantienė 1989, p.54), and nities, the majority of researchers have long agreed that broken battle axes found in settlements pointed to upon a particular model of subsistence for the Corded the not always peaceful character of the infiltration of Ware Culture people: the basis of their economy was the newcomers (Loze 1996, p.67). pastoral stock-breeding. The determination of Corded In the East Baltic region, similar ideas concerning the Ware Culture bearers as warlike groups who moved mode of economy of the people were elaborated. East over long distances has provoked speculations regard- Baltic Corded Ware Culture people were regarded not ing their mode of transport. Naturally, questions con- only as “at least mobile” (Kriiska 2000, p.74), or as cerning the role of the domesticated horse have arisen. pastoralists (Loze 1996, p.70; Rimantienė 1996, p.221; The aim of this paper is to analyse the spectrum of Brazaitis 2005, p.237), but also as some kind of war- viewpoints that deal with the horse and horseman in like prospectors or individual traders, who provided the this culture. so-called local communities with cattle, grain, or some kind of raw material (Girininkas 2002, p.87; 2005, Mobility and warfare p.174). It must be noted, however, that the concept of the East Baltic Corded Ware Culture bearers as mobile Migration based explanations of Corded Ware Cul- communities was based more on the absence of data ture bearers with an emphasized role of the horse as rather than the evidence. The essential implication con- a riding animal primarily originated in the works of cerns the lack of one thing or other: of settlements with Gustaff Kossinna (Kossinna 1902) and Gordon Childe a thick cultural layer, of buildings, or of big cemeteries (Childe 1926). The widely accepted “ theory” – i.e., of any feature which could allude to permanent put forth by Marija Gimbutas (Gimbutas 1980, pp.273- settlement. The invisibility of these features provokes 317) defined communities of the Corded Ware Culture the perplexing question regarding the mission and ac- as extremely mobile groups of horse riders and cat- tivity of the Corded Ware Culture people, whosoever tle breeders. According to this well-known construct, they might have been. which was more or less adopted by other researchers Along with the relatively recent growing criticism re- (Kruk 1980; Mallory 1991; Anthony 2007 and others; garding the concept of global migrations (e.g. Härke 32 As stated above, the traditional

explanation of the invisibility of 11 Corded Ware Culture settlements was based on the assumption of

their nomadic, pastoral subsistence T IC A strategy. The absence of settlement features in the Corded Ware Cul- ture period in Central and Eastern B A L Europe has been puzzling since the 19th century, but only recently has the view of Corded Ware Culture bearers as fully nomadic, pastoral communities been rejected. This rejection is based on environmental A RC HAEO L O GI data (Sládek et al. 2006, p.470ff). Czech research emphasises the pe- culiarity of the relief, namely, that a predominance of hilly terrain in Central Europe is not suitable for a highly mobile way of life, as I

known, for example, on the Central From Horse Asian steppes (Rulf, 1981, p.123ff; Domestica- tion to Turek, 1995, p.91ff, cited in Sládek Images of the et al. 2006, pp.470-482). Actually, Horse and Fig. 1. Common image of “the Corded Ware Culture warrior” Horsemen (after Probst 1999, p.401). supporters of migrations who spoke of Corded Ware Culture expansion to the East did not explain the mechanism of mobility 1998, pp.19-45), the practise of new analytical meth- in the forest zone (e.g. Anthony 2007, p. 375ff). ods adopted from the natural sciences have become more and more important, which has led to a recon- Yet another aspect may be connected with the peculi- sideration of old views. In the case of the Corded Ware arities of the forest zone during the Late Neolithic. Pal- Culture’s mobility aspect, one strike against the view aeoecological research reveals a gradual conversion of that communities traditionally characterized as pasto- deciduous to coniferous forests during the period when ral are “always on the move” is an instance of recent the Corded Ware Culture began to spread. This envi- biomechanical analysis of Corded Ware Culture osteo- ronmental change strongly worsened foraging condi- logical material (a cross-sectional analysis of ‘femoral tions of herbivorous fauna, wild or domestic (Seibutis midshafts’ was made in order to test mobility directly 2002, p.37ff). Even if one supposes that the routes of from the human skeletal record) which did not support the Corded Ware Culture traders extended along the the hypothesis about different mobility patterns in the rivers, where forest density was comparatively minor, Late Eneolithic and Early (Sládek et al. and that the traders were appearing episodically in the 2006, p.470ff). Thus, further research may reveal more East Baltic (Girininkas 2002, p.85ff), such a scarce intriguing facts about Corded Ware Culture organiza- type of forest would have been quite problematic in tion. terms of finding feed for the horses, to say nothing of riding. The challenges of the landscape The horse as a food resource One question that has arisen concerning the view of Corded Ware Culture bearers as keepers of riding There are no doubts that Corded Ware Culture bear- horses and herders of cattle is precisely how the de- ers were familiar with farming. Evidence comes both termination is made that they were steppe nomads or from data of numerous finds of domesticated animal forest nomads. What chances would a pastoral subsist- bones in settlements and burials as well as from stable ence have of surviving in the forest zone, where dense isotopes analyses of human individuals, which actually woods thrived? suggest “Neolithic” dietary practises (Eriksson et al.

33 2003, p.17). The initial spread of domestic horses in horsemen appeared in the steppes not in the fourth mil- temperate Europe often is considered to coincide with lennium BC, but at the end of the second millennium an increasing opening-up of the east / west corridor BC (Kuzmina 2000, p.122). supported of the North European Plain. In the following Corded this date (Renfrew 1990, p.137ff). In his newest book, Ware and Beaker Culture periods, the opening served Robert Drews rejected the model he endorsed earlier to transmit important innovations to other areas of Eu- that riding horses apparently were a common phenom- rope. By 2000 BC, horses occurred regularly in Central enon on the open steppe by the end of the third mil- European Bronze Age sites that have definite evidence lennium. In his more recent work, he states that there

Images of theHorseman Horse inandCulture Studies Corded Ware of domestication and horses probably were available is no evidence of regular horse riding on the steppe to a larger part of the population there (Sherratt 1983, in the third nor the second millennium BC, and that p.92ff). While it is known that Funnel Beaker Culture the great majority of horses were raised there as food sites have yielded considerable amounts of horse bone, animals: the female horses – for breeding and for milk- and that in Denmark, many Battle-Axe (Single Grave) ing, and the male horses – for slaughtering and eating JURGITA JURGITA ŽUKAUSKAITĖ Culture burials and settlement sites have been found to as soon as they reached adulthood (Drews 2004, p.55). contain bones of domestic horses (Barker, 1985), still Drews reminds his readers that in Marija Gimbutas’s there is no clear evidence regarding the role of the horse early works, she also considered the horse of the early and the purpose of keeping them in these communities Kurgan people not a riding animal, but one that “was as such. The only bits of evidence which suggest horse used for milk and meat and as a sacrificial animal like riding in Europe before 2000 BC are the bridle bit sheep and cattle” (Gimbutas 1963, p.834, cited in cheek-pieces made of decorated bone found in Hun- Drews 2004, p.169). His implication is that riding in gary and Slovakia, although researchers still agree, that Neolithic and must be taken on there are little or no data that indicate horses actually faith since the earliest direct evidence is much later. were ridden at this stage (Harding 2000, p.170; Ren- Furthermore, even if, for the sake of the argument, frew 1990, pp.137ff). one concedes that the riding of horses on the steppe might have been more accomplished than it was in the Osteological research of the Late Neolithic East Baltic “civilized world,” neither on the steppe nor anywhere material is not very helpful for envisioning the horse- else could men in the fourth, third, or even second mil- man. Bones of such animals as sheep, goat, and pig are leniun BC have attained the level of riding expertise found in Corded Ware Culture monuments, especially needed for mounted combat. The significant change in in Estonia (Ianits 1952, p.53ff), but horse bones are ab- the material record between the second and the first sent. Some horse bones found in the Nida settlement millenia BC makes it quite clear that in the steppe, as are believed to be domesticated (Rimantienė 1989, elsewhere, serious riding began after the Bronze Age p.54ff), but they are the only evidence and their domes- ended (p. 44-56). While David Anthony maintained ticated nature is dubious. The earliest remains of the his point of view concerning the beginning of riding domestic horse in Latvia comes from the Ķivutkalns in the first half of the fourth millennium BC, he also graves, dated to the middle of the second millennium acknowledged the main purpose of the domestication BC (Vasks et al. 1999, p.291ff). Recent interdiscipli- of the steppe horse as a cheap source of winter meat nary research in Estonia confirmed that there have been (Anthony 1990, pp.200 and 906). no horse bones found in Estonian Corded Ware Culture sites. The older material (Mesolithic, Early Neolithic) contains bones of the , and only in the Late Concluding remark Bronze Age material does the domestic horse consti- tute a significant part of the zooarchaeological mate- The image of the Corded Ware Culture horseman in rial. Researchers had to acknowledge that this study general is a theoretical construct and primarily is a re- did not shed any new light on the early history of the sult of the “migrational” viewpoint in which the horse domestic horse in the East Baltic region. (Lõugas et al. was associated with transport and military purposes. 2007, p.28). Research concerning the origins of horseback riding as well as aspects of migrations suggests that treating the Moreover, recent research made a heavy impact on the horse as a mode of transport along with its assumed de- traditional perception of the history of horse riding in gree of mobility could be overestimated when talking general, shifting the beginning of horseback riding to about Corded Ware Culture bearers. Nor does recent much later times than earlier thought. Elena Kuzmina research support the traditional perception of the no- emphasized that the mastery that was required to con- madic pastoral community and its image of horsemen. trol the horse while riding developed among nomads While some instances of domesticated horse bones because of their need to control as well as to protect have been discovered in Central Europe during the their herds; she came to the conclusion that warrior- 34 same period, they appear to be absent in the East Bal- ball, E. M. Murphy, L. Koryakova and L. T. Ya- blonsKy, eds. , Ritual Sites, and Settlements: tic Corded Ware Culture. Solitary instances of horse 11 bones in East Baltic Corded Ware Culture sites may Eurasian Bronze and . BAR International Series 890. Oxford: Archeopress, 118-125. point to the use of the horse as a food resource. LOZE, I., 1996. Some Remarks about the Indo-Europeani-

zation of Northern Europe (the Case of the Eastern Baltic T IC A Region). In: K. Jones-Bley and M. E. Hul, eds. The Translated by author, Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe. The Journal of English edited by Indrė Antanaitis-Jacobs Indo-European Studies, Monograph, 17, 59-77. B A L LÕUGAS, L., KRIISKA, A. and MALDRE, L., 2007. New dates for the Late Neolithic Corded Ware Culture burials References and early husbandry in the East Baltic region. Archaeo- fauna, 16, 21-31. ANTHONY, D.W., 1990. Migration in Archeology: The MALLORY, J.P, 1991. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Baby and the Bathwater. In: American Anthropologist, Language, and Myth. London: Thames and Hudson. New Series 92: 4, 895-914. A RC HAEO L O GI ANTHONY, D.W., 2007. The horse, the wheel, and lan- MALMER, M.P., 1962. Jungneolitische Studien. Acta Ar- guage: how Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes chaeologica Lundensia, Series 8 /2. Lund. shaped the modern world. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton PROBST, E., 1999. Deutschland in der Steinzeit: Jäger, Fi- University Press. scher und Bauern zwischen Nordseeküste und Alpenraum. BARKER, G., 1985. Prehistoric farming in Europe. Cam- München: Orbis. bridge: Cambridge University Press. RENFREW, C., 1990. Archaeology and Language. The Puz- BRAZAITIS, D., 2005. Agrarinis neolitas. In: A. GIRININ- zle of Indo-European Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge KAS, ed., Lietuvos istorija, 1. Akmens ir ankstyvasis meta- University Press. I Rimantienė, R., 1989. Nida: senųjų baltų gyvenvietė. lų laikotarpis. : Baltos lankos, 197-250. From Horse CHILDE, V.G., 1926. The : a study of Indo-European Vilnius: Mokslas. Domestica- origins. London: Kegan Paul. Rimantienė, R., 1996. Akmens amžius Lietuvoje. Vilnius: tion to Žiburys. Images of the DREWS, R., 2004. Early Riders – The Beginnings of Horse and Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe. London–: RULF, J., 1981. Poznámky k zemědělství středoevropského Horsemen Routledge. neolitu a eneolitu. In: Archeologické Rozhledy, 33, 123- ERIKSSON, G., Lõugas, L. AND Zagorska, I., 2003. 132. Stone Age hunter–fisher–gatherers at Zvejnieki, northern SEIBUTIS, A., 2002. Etninės paleogeografijos pradmenys. Latvia: radiocarbon, stable isotope and archaeozoology Vilnius: Vilniaus pedagoginis universitetas. data. In: Before Farming, 1(2), 1-25. Sherratt, A., 1983. The secondary exploitation of animals Gimbutas, M., 1963. The Indo-Europeans: Archaeologi- in the Old World. World Archaeology, 15/1, Transhumance cal Problems. American Anthropologis, 65, 815-836. and Pastoralism, 90-104. Gimbutas, M., 1980. The Kurgan Wave 2 3400-3200 B.C. Sládek, V., Berner, M. AND Sailer, R., 1996. Mobi- into Europe and the Following transformation of Culture. lity in Central European Late Eneolithic and Early Bronze The Journal of Indo-European Studies, 8/3, 273-317. Age: tibial cross-sectional geometry. Journal of Archaeo- GIRININKAS, A., 2002. Migraciniai procesai Rytų Pabal- logical Science, 33/ 4, 470-482. tijyje vėlyvajame neolite. Virvelinės keramikos kultūra. TUREK, J., 1995. Sídlištní nálezy kultury se šňůrovou ke- Lietuvos archeologija, 23, 73-92. ramikou v Čechách. Otázka charakteru hospodářství v GIRININKAS, A., 2005. Miškų neolitas. In: A. GIRININ- závěru eneolitu.: Archeologické Rozhledy, 47, 91-101. KAS, ed., Lietuvos istorija. 1. Akmens ir ankstyvasis VASKS, A., KALNINA, L. AND RITUMS, R. 1999. The In- metalų laikotarpis. Vilnius: Baltos lankos, 117-196. troduction and Pre-Chriatian History of Farming in Latvia. HARDING, A., F., 2000. European Societies in the Bronze In: U. Miller, T. Hackens, V. Lang, A. Raukas Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. AND S. Hicks, eds. Environmental and Cultural History Härke, H., 1998. Archaeologists and migrations: A prob- of the Eastern Baltic Region. PACT, 57, 291-304. lem of attitude? Current Anthropology, 39(1), 19-45. IANITS, L. Iu., 1952. Pozdneneoliticheskie mogilniki v Es- tonskoi SSR. In: Kratkie soobshcheniia instituta istorii Received: 28 February 2009; Revised 24 April 2009; material’noi kul’tury, 42, 53-65. Accepted: 12 June 2009 KOSSINNA, G., 1902. Die Indogermanische Frage archäolo- gisch beantwortet. Zeitschrift für Ethnologi, 34, 161-222. Jurgita Žukauskaitė KRIISKA, A., 2000. Corded Ware Culture Sites in Northe- Klaipėda University astern Estonia. De temporibus antiquissimis ad honorem Institute of Baltic Sea Region Lembit Jaanits. Muinasaja teadus, 8, 59–79. History and Archaeology KRISTIANSEN, K., 1989. Prehistoric Migrations – the Case Herkaus Manto street 84, of Single Grave and Corded Ware Cultures. Journal of LT-92294 Klaipėda Danish Archaeology, 8, 211-225. E-mail: [email protected] KRUK, J., 1980. Gospodarka w Polsce południowo-ws- chodniej w V-III tysiącleciu p.n.e. Wrocław: Wydawn. Polskiej Akademii Nauk. KUZMINA, E., 2000. The Eurasian Steppes. The Transition from Early Urbanism to Nomadism. In: J. Davis-Kim- 35 ŽIRGO IR RAITELIO ĮVAIZDŽIAI VIRVELINĖS KERAMIKOS KULTŪROS TYRINĖJIMUOSE

Jurgita Žukauskaitė

Images of theHorseman Horse inandCulture Studies Corded Ware Santrauka

Ilgamečių virvelinės keramikos kultūros tyrinėjimų metu jos bendruomenės dažniausiai buvo apibrėžiamos kaip mobilios ir karingos gyvulių augintojų grupės. JURGITA JURGITA ŽUKAUSKAITĖ Gustavo Kosinos bei Gordono Čaildo iškeltos karių / raitelių ekspansijos idėjos ir Marijos Gimbutienės su- konstruota „Kurganų teorija“ leido įsigalėti virvelinės keramikos kultūros karingo raitelio įvaizdžiui (1 pav.). Auganti migracijų teorijų kritika, duomenų apie joja- mąjį žirgą III tūkstantmetyje pr. Kr. trūkumas, euro- pinio kraštovaizdžio netinkamumas keliauti raitomis skatina ieškoti alternatyvių arklio vaidmens reikšmių virvelinės keramikos kultūroje. Nuodugnūs raitinin- kystės ištakų tyrinėjimai rodo, kad jojimo pradžia rei- kėtų laikyti ne ankstesnį kaip II tūkstantmečio pr. Kr. laikotarpį, o pirminė arklio prijaukinimo funkcija buvo aprūpinti bendruomenę mėsos atsargomis žiemą, todėl tiek arklio, kaip transporto priemonės, naudojimas, tiek virvelinės keramikos kultūros grupių mobilumo mastas greičiausiai yra pervertinti. Pavieniai prijaukinto arklio kaulų radiniai virvelinės keramikos kultūros paplitimo areale galėtų byloti apie šių bendruomenių arklio nau- dojimą maistui. Virvelininko, kaip raitelio, vaizdinys iš esmės yra teorinė konstrukcija, kuriai įtakos turėjo didelio masto migracijomis grįstos hipotezės, arklį / žirgą pirmiausia siejančios su transportu ir karyba.

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