The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World

by David W. Anthony

  CHAPTER 16. THE OPENING OF THE EURASIAN STEPPES

  1. For exotic knowledge and power, see Helms 1992.

  2. For Indic terms among the Mitanni, see chapter 3; Thieme 1960; and Burrow 1973.

  3. Elamite was a non–Indo-European language of uncertain affiliations. As Dan Potts stressed, the people of the western Iranian highlands never used this or any other common term as a blanket ethnic designation for themselves. They did not even all speak Elamite. See Potts 1999:2–4. For the appearance of horses, see Oates 2003.

  4. See Weiss 2000; also Perry and Hsu 2000.

  5. At Godin Tepe, onagers were 94% of the equid bones. A cheektooth and a metacarpal from Godin IV, dated about 3000–2800 BCE, might be horse. The first clear and unambiguous horse bones at Godin appeared in period III, dated 2100–1900 BCE; see Gilbert 1991. On horses and mules at Malyan, see Zeder 1986. The bit wear at Malyan is the earliest unambiguous bit wear in the Near East. Copper stains reported on the P2s of asses from Tell Brak, dated 2300–2000 BCE, might have had another cause (perhaps corroded lip rings). See Clutton-Brock 2003.

  6. Owen 1991.

  7. The phrase Fahren und Reiten, or “To drive and to ride,” appeared between 1939 and 1968 in the titles of three influential publications by Joseph Weisner, and the order of terms in this phrase—driving before riding—has become a form of shorthand referring to the historical priority of the chariot over the ridden horse in the Bronze Age civilizations of the Near East. Certainly wheeled vehicles preceded horseback riding in the Near East, and horse-drawn chariots dominated Near Eastern warfare long before cavalry, but this was not because riding was invented after chariotry (see chapter 10). If images of horseback riding can now be dated before 1800 BCE, as seems to be the case, they preceded the appearance of horses with chariots in Near Eastern art. See Weisner 1939, 1968; Drews 2004:33–41, 52; and Oates 2003.

  8. For Zimri-Lim’s adviser’s advice, see Owen 1991; n. 12.

  9. For tin sources, see Muhly 1995:1501–1519; Yener 1995; and Potts 1999:168–171, 186. For Eneolithic Serbian tin-copper alloys, see Glumac and Todd 1991. For the possible mistranslation of the Gudea inscription I am indebted to Chris Thornton, and, through him, to Greg Possehl and Steven Tinney. For the seaborne tin trade in the Arabian Gulf, see Weeks 1999; and for the Bactrian comb at Umm-al-Nar, see Potts 2000:126. For Harappan metals, see Agrawal 1984.

  10. The polymetallic ores of the Zeravshan probably produced the metals of Ilgynly-Depe, near Anau, during the fourth millennium BCE. At Ilgynly, among sixty-two copper artifacts, primarly tanged knives, one object contained traces of tin; see Solovyova et al. 1994. For tin bronzes in early third-millennium Namazga IV, see Salvatori et al. 2002. For Sarazm, see Isakov 1994; for its radiocarbon dates and metals, see Isakov, et al. 1987.

  11. For the tin mines of the Zeravshan, see Boroffka et al. 2002; and Parzinger and Boroffka 2003.

  12. Zaman Baba graves have been seen as a hybrid between Kelteminar and Namazga V/VI-type cultures, see Vinogradov 1960:80–81; and as a hybrid with Catacomb cultures on the supposition that Catacomb-culture people migrated to Central Asia, see Klejn 1984. I support the former. For recent debates over Zaman Baba, see E. Kuzmina 2003:215–216.

  13. Lyonnet (1996) sees Sarazm IV ending during Namazga IV, or during the middle of the third millennium BCE. I see Sarazm ending in late Namazga V/early VI, based on the cooccurrence of Petrovka and late Sarazm pottery at Tugai, and on radiocarbon dates indicating that Sarazm III was occupied in 2400–2000 BCE, so Sarazm IV had to be later.

  14. For skull type affiliations, see Christensen, Hemphill, and Mustafakulov 1996.

  15. For BMAC, see Hiebert 1994, 2002. Salvatori (2000) disagreed with Hiebert, suggesting that BMAC began much earlier than 2100 BCE, and grew from local roots, not from an intrusion from the south, making the growth of BMAC more gradual. For the BMAC graves at Mehrgarh VIII, see Jarrige 1994. For BMAC materials in the Arabian Gulf, see Potts 2000, During Caspers 1998; and Winckelmann 2000.

  16. For tin-bronzes in Bactria and lead-copper alloys in Margiana, see Chernykh 1992:176–182; and Salvatori et al. 2002. For the lead ingot at Sarazm, see Isakov 1994:8. For the Iranian background, see Thornton and Lamberg-Karlovsky 2004.

  17. For horse bones in BMAC, see Salvatori 2003; and Sarianidi 2002. For the BMAC seal with the rider, see Sarianidi 1986. A few horses might have passed through the Caucasus into western Iran before 3000 BCE, indicated by a few probable horse teeth at the site of Qabrestan, west of Teheran; see Mashkour 2003. No definite horse remains have been identified in eastern Iran or the Indian subcontinent dated earlier than 2000 BCE. See Meadow and Patel 1997.

  18. For the steppe sherds in BMAC sites, see Hiebert 2002. For the “Abashevo-like”sherds at Karnab, see Parzinger and Boroffka 2003:72, and Figure 49.

  19. For Tugai, see Hiebert 2002; E. Kuzmina 2003; and the original report, Avanessova 1996. The talc temper in two pots, an indication that they were made in the South Ural steppes, is described in Avanessova 1996:122.

  20. For Zardcha Khalifa, see Bobomulloev 1997; and E. Kuzmina 2001, 2003:224–225.

  21. For the lead wires at Kuisak, see Maliutina and Zdanovich 1995:103. For the lapis bead and the grave at Krasnoe Znamya, see E. Kuzmina 2001:20.

  22. For Srubnaya subsistence, see Bunyatyan 2003; and Ostroshchenko 2003.

  23. For Chenopodium yields, see Smith 1989:1569.

  24. For the Samara Valley Project, see Anthony et al. 2006. The results obtained here were replicated at Kibit, another Srubnaya settlement in Samara Oblast, excavated by L. Popova and D. Peterson, where there was no cultivated grain and many seeds of Chenopodium.

  25. For the enormous Srubnaya mining center at Kargaly, see Chernykh 1997, 2004. For the mining center in Kazakhstan near Atasu, see Kadyrbaev and Kurmankulov 1992.

  26. For stratigraphic relationships between Sintashta and Petrovka, see Vinogradov 2003; and Kuzmina 2001:9. The Petrovka culture was a transitional culture marking the beginning of the LBA. For Petrovka and its stratigraphic relationships to Alakul and Federovo, see Maliutina 1991. I would like to acknowledge the difficulty of keeping all these P-k cultures straight: on the middle Volga the MBA Poltavka culture evolved into final MBA Potapovka and then into early LBA Pokrovka, which was contemporary with early LBA Petrovka in Kazakhstan.

  27. For the north-south movements of nomads in Kazakhstan, see Gorbunova 1993/94.

  28. See Grigoriev 2002:78–84, for Petrovka metals.

  29. For the Rostovka cemetery, see Matiushchenko and Sinitsyna 1988. For general discussions in English, see Chernykh 1992:215–234; and Grigoriev 2002:192–205.

  30. For Seima-Turbino hollow-cast bronze casting and its influence on early China through the Qijia culture of Gansu province, see Mei 2003a, 2003b; and Li 2002. See also Fitzgerald-Huber 1995 and Linduff, Han, and Sun 2000.

  31. See Epimakhov, Hanks, and Renfrew 2005 for dates. Seima-Turbino might possibly have begun west of the Urals and spread eastward. Sintashta fortifications might then be seen as a reaction to the emergence of Seima-Turbino warrior bands in the forest zone, but this is a minority position; see Kuznetsov 2001.

  32. For Alakul and Federovo elements on the same pot, see Maliutina 1984; for the stratigraphic relations between the two, see Maliutina 1991. For radiocarbon dates, see Parzinger and Boroffka 2003:228.

  33. E. Kuzmina 1994:207–208.

  34. For Andronovo mines near Karaganda, see Kadyrbaev and Kurmankulov 1992; for mines near Dzhezkazgan, see Zhauymbaev 1984. For the estimate of copper production, see Chernykh 1992:212

  35. For the Namazga VI pottery at Pavlovka, see Maliutina 1991:151–159.

  36. For Andronovo sites in the Zeravshan, see Boroffka et al. 2002. For Tazabagyab sites on the former Amu-Darya delta, see Tolstov and Kes’ 1960:89–132.

  37. Hiebert 2002.

  38. For the post-BMAC pastoral groups who made coarse incised ware, see Salvatori 2003:13; also Salvatori 2002. For the Vaksh and Bishkent groups, see
Litvinsky and P’yankova 1992.

  39. See Witzel 1995.

  40. Books 2 and 4 of the Rig Veda referred to places in eastern Iran and Afghanistan. Book 6 described two clans who claimed they had come from far away, crossed many rivers, and gone through narrow passages, fighting indigenous people referred to as Dasyus. These details suggest that the Aryans fought their way into the Indian subcontinent from eastern Iran and Afghanistan. Although some new elements such as horses can be seen moving from Central Asia into the Indian subcontinent at this time, and intrusive pottery styles can be identified here or there, no single material culture spread with the Old Indic languages. For discussions, see Parpola 2002; Mallory 1998; and Witzel 1995:315–319.

  41. For Indra and Soma as loan words, see Lubotsky 2001. Indra combined attributes that originally were separate: the mace was Mithra’s; some of his epithets, his martial power, and perhaps his ability to change form were Verethraghna’s; and the slaying of the serpent was the feat of the hero Thrataona, the Third One. The Old Indic poets gave these Indo-Iranian traits to Indra. The most prominent aspect of Indo-Iranian Verethraghna, the god of might/victory, was his shape-shifting ability, especially his form as the Boar. See Malandra 1983:80–81.

  42. V. Sarianidi proposed that the people of the BMAC spoke Iranian. Sarianidi suggested that “white rooms” inside the walled buildings at Togolok 21, Togolok 1, and Gonur were fire temples like those of the Zoroastrians, with vessels containing Ephedra, Cannabis, and poppy seeds, which he equated with Soma (RV) or Haoma (AV). But examinations of the seed and stem impressions from the “white rooms” at Gonur and Togolok 21 by paleobotanists at Helsinki and Leiden Universities proved that the vessels contained no Cannabis or Ephedra. Instead the impressions probably were made by millet seeds and stems (Panicum miliaceum); see Bakels 2003. The BMAC culture makes a poor match with Indo-Iranian. The BMAC people lived in brick-built fortified walled towns, depended on irrigation agriculture, worshiped a female deity who was prominent in their iconography (a goddess with a flounced skirt), had few horses, no chariots, did not build kurgan cemeteries, and did not place carefully cut horse limbs in their graves.

  43. Li 2002; and Mei 2003a.

  CHAPTER 17. WORDS AND DEEDS

  1. See Diamond 1997.

  2. Hobsbawm 1997:5–6: “For history is the raw material for nationalist or ethnic or fundamentalist ideologies, as poppies are the raw material for heroin addiction… . This state of affairs affects us in two ways. We have a responsibility for historical facts in general and for criticizing the politico-ideological abuse of history in particular.”

  3. O’Flaherty 1981:69.

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