Early Evidence for Mounted Horseback Riding in Northwest China
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Early evidence for mounted horseback riding in northwest China Yue Lia,b,1, Chengrui Zhangc,1, William Timothy Treal Taylord,e,1, Liang Chena,b, Rowan K. Fladc, Nicole Boivine, Huan Liuf, Yue Youg, Jianxin Wanga,b, Meng Rena,b, Tongyuan Xia,b, Yifu Hana,b, Rui Wena,b, and Jian Maa,b,2 aSchool of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, 710069 Xi’an, China; bMinistry of Education Key Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Studies and Conservation, Northwest University, 710069 Xi’an, China; cDepartment of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138; dMuseum of Natural History, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309; eDepartment of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany; fSchool of Resource, Environment, and Historical Culture, Xianyang Normal University, 712000 Xianyang, China; and gSchool of History, Capital Normal University, 100048 Beijing, China Edited by Melinda Zeder, National Museum of Natural History, Santa Fe, NM, and approved September 4, 2020 (received for review March 15, 2020) Horseback riding was a transformative force in the ancient world, empire and the consolidation of trans-Eurasian trade. Neverthe- prompting radical shifts in human mobility, warfare, trade, and less, despite some fragmentary historic records pointing to a pre- interaction. In China, domestic horses laid the foundation for Silk Road emergence of horseback riding (13) and some material trade, communication, and state infrastructure along the ancient culture such as bridle artifacts and trousers linked with riding Silk Road, while also stimulating key military, social, and political (15–18), direct evidence of when and where equestrianism was changes in Chinese society. Nonetheless, the emergence and first adopted in China is still lacking. adoption of mounted horseback riding in China is still poorly Osteological analysis of equine skeletal remains provides one understood, particularly due to a lack of direct archaeological data. of the strongest direct lines of evidence for identifying horseback Here we present a detailed osteological study of eight horse riding in the archaeological record (3, 19–22), but few attempts skeletons dated to ca. 350 BCE from the sites of Shirenzigou and have been made to investigate this issue in China (23, 24). We Xigou in Xinjiang, northwest China, prior to the formalization of analyzed an assemblage of eight horse skeletons, directly dated Silk Road trade across this key region. Our analyses reveal char- to ca. 350 BCE, from the sites of Shirenzigou and Xigou in acteristic osteological changes associated with equestrian prac- ANTHROPOLOGY eastern Xinjiang of China. These horses provide a dataset to tices on all specimens. Alongside other relevant archaeological directly evaluate the presence of equestrianism in China’s fron- evidence, these data provide direct evidence for mounted horse- tier prior to the emergence of the Silk Road. We explore the back riding, horse equipment, and mounted archery in northwest implications of these data for understanding trans-Eurasian China by the late first millennium BCE. Most importantly, our ’ results suggest that this region may have played a crucial role in trade, nomadic steppe tribes, and early state polities in China s the spread of equestrian technologies from the Eurasian interior to hinterland. the settled civilizations of early China, where horses facilitated the The Sites of Shirenzigou and Xigou rise of the first united Chinese empires and the emergence of transcontinental trade networks. Located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, a critical link on the ancient Silk Road (Fig. 1), Shirenzigou and horseback riding | zooarchaeology | early Iron Age | Xinjiang | China Xigou are two adjacent sites of the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age in present-day Balikun County. Situated on the he use of domestic horses for traction and riding stimulated northern slopes of the eastern Tianshan Mountain range, Tremarkable changes to the social, political, and economic landscape of ancient Eurasia (1–5). Mounted horseback riding, in Significance particular, accelerated human migrations and cultural interactions across the continents. It also transformed military practice and This study provides insights into the emergence and adoption of strategy, facilitating the expansion of such early equestrian em- equestrian technologies in China. Analysis of ancient horse pires as the Achaemenid and Xiongnu, which posted far-reaching bones from Shirenzigou and Xigou in eastern Xinjiang demon- ’ consequences for socio-politics across a vast area of Eurasia (4). strates that pastoralists along China s northwest frontier prac- In China, the earliest date for the clear practice of horseback ticed horseback riding and mounted archery by the fourth riding, documented in historical texts, was 307 BCE, when King century BCE. This region may have played a key role in the initial spread of equestrian technologies from the Altai region into the Wuling of the Zhao State adopted horseback archery in response ’ to incursions of neighboring mounted pastoralists (6, 7). Other heartland of China s early settled states, where they eventually facilitated the rise of the first united empires in China and trig- contemporaneous agricultural states also developed mounted gered extensive social, political, and economic exchanges be- cavalry, with some maintaining over 10,000 cavalrymen, a trans- tween China and its neighbors on the Eurasian Steppes. formation that altered tactical battlefield strategies in ancient – China (4, 8 10). Military horsepower was also crucial to the rise of Author contributions: Y.L., C.Z., and J.M. designed research; Y.L., C.Z., W.T.T.T., L.C., and the first united Chinese empires of Qin and Han (221 BCE to 220 J.M. performed research; Y.L., C.Z., W.T.T.T., L.C., R.K.F., N.B., H.L., Y.Y., J.W., M.R., T.X., CE), playing a significant role in political disputes and socioeco- Y.H., R.W., and J.M. analyzed data; and Y.L., C.Z., and W.T.T.T. wrote the paper. nomic developments (11). These shifts in the importance of the The authors declare no competing interest. horse drove an increasing demand for quality riding horses that This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. ultimately played a key role in the formalization of Silk Road Published under the PNAS license. trade through northwest China by the end of the second century 1Y.L., C.Z., and W.T.T.T. contributed equally to this work. BCE (12, 13), initiating a long process of significant cultural and 2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: [email protected]. economic exchange across the Eurasian Steppes (14). Accordingly, This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/ understanding when and where horseback riding emerged in doi:10.1073/pnas.2004360117/-/DCSupplemental. China’s frontier is crucial to understanding both the emergence of www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2004360117 PNAS Latest Articles | 1of8 Downloaded by guest on September 26, 2021 Fig. 1. Map showing the location of major archaeological sites mentioned in this study. Shirenzigou sits on moraine hills and alluvial fans at an elevation with the first millennium BCE pastoral communities make this of 2,000 to 2,200 m above sea level (25) (SI Appendix, Fig. S1). pair of sites particularly significant in terms of understanding Since 2005, archaeological field surveys and excavations at economic, cultural, and social interactions between the East and Shirenzigou have revealed a large number of stone platforms, the West. houses, burials, and rock paintings (26, 27). Rescue excavations in 2012 revealed one elite burial at Xigou, similar in structure Horse Assemblages from Shirenzigou and Xigou and mortuary rituals to the early Iron Age burials at Shirenzigou We examined eight horses from burials (designated as “M”) and (28, 29). Wang et al. (26, 27) have suggested that Shirenzigou affiliated sacrificial pits (designated as “K”) at Shirenzigou (n = might be associated with the royal court of elite pastoral com- 6) and Xigou (n = 2) (Fig. 2). These horses were all excavated so munities. Mortuary rituals and animal motifs on artifacts also far. Five primary burials contained a central pit, a chamber dug indicated their relationship with the Pazyryk culture in the Altai into the pit, and a stone mound above the ground. We recovered Mountains (28, 29). The location of Shirenzigou and Xigou on horses from within the central pit (M001, M002, M011, and the eastern side of the Tianshan corridor and their association M012 at Shirenzigou) or on the second-tier platform above the Fig. 2. Horse skeletons from M012K2 at Shirenzigou (Top Left), M011 at Shirenzigou (Top Right), M1K1 at Xigou (Bottom Left), and M1 at Xigou (Bottom Right). 2of8 | www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2004360117 Li et al. Downloaded by guest on September 26, 2021 chamber (M1 at Xigou). Three sacrificial features shared a lumbar vertebrae 5 to 6 (Fig. 5, 6). Transverse horizontal frac- similar structure with these burials, and horses were recovered tures of the epiphysis occurred mainly on the lower back (tho- from central pits in these features. racic vertebrae 13 to 18). The irregular, undulating fractures did Although the skull of one horse from Xigou (horse 8) and half not penetrate into the spinal body. The average length of these of the maxilla of one horse from Shirenzigou (horse 6) were not fractures was 22.8 mm, with a maximum width of 0.61 mm present in the excavation, the skeletons of the other six horses (Fig. 5, 3 and 4). We also identified overriding/joining of dorsal were fairly complete, with excellent levels of bone preservation, spinous processes (the interpressing or impinging of neighboring enabling detailed osteological study. We estimated the age for spinous processes) across the same region (thoracic vertebra 12 each horse using epiphyseal fusion (30), dental eruption (30), in- to lumbar vertebra 5) on several archaeological specimens, of cisor morphology (31), and crown-height measurements of pre- which thoracic vertebrae 13 to 18 were most commonly affected molars and molars (32).