This article was originally published in Historical Research, Vol. 6, 2017, "The Introduction and Localization of Domestic Horses in Northern China". Author unknown. Reprinted by Shinchido. Abridged for ease of reading. Here is the first part.
1. Archaeological evidence of the introduction of domestic horses into northern China in the late Shang dynasty
Since the Late Shang period, domestic horses have appeared in a large number of archaeological sites in northern China, so the Late Shang period has become a time node generally recognized by the academic community for the origin of domestic horses. For example, through a comprehensive combing of archaeological data, Yuan Jing believes that "domestic horses originated in the late Shang Dynasty in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River", and further speculated that given that horses in the Neolithic Age had little to do with humans, "in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the late Shang Dynasty, a large number of domestic horses suddenly appeared, which may be related to the spread of foreign cultures."
However, from another perspective, the above situation reveals that there were indeed a few horses in the northern region from the late Neolithic period to the late Shang period, and it also reveals that the northern region was not the main activity area of wild horses. The main reason for this phenomenon is that horses are social animals that can be found in herds in areas suitable for their own survival, and in the northern regions since the late Neolithic period, the production of hunting livelihoods has been an important source of livelihood. Assuming that the northern region was suitable for wild horses at that time, then people would have caught wild horses in large quantities. Because, as early as the Paleolithic period, people in the northern regions had the ability to catch wild horses.
A large number of wild horse bones have been excavated from the Shiyu site in northern Shanxi, but the number of horse bones in each site is negligible compared to the total number of animal bones excavated from most of the archaeological sites listed in Tables 1 and 2. The explanation for this phenomenon is that the northern region was not the main activity area of wild horses from the Late Neolithic to the Late Shang period.
The results of climatic archaeology can also prove that from the late Neolithic period to the late Shang period, the northern region was not the main activity area of wild horses. The development of Neolithic culture is closely related to the advent of the Holocene Warm Period in climatic history, and Shi Yafeng et al. inferred that the Holocene Warm Period in China occurred at 8.5-3 ka BP and lasted for 5.5 ka based on "Holocene pollen and other ancient plants, ancient animals, ancient soils, ancient lakes, ice cores, archaeology, coastal zone changes and other research data" Although there were many violent climate fluctuations and cold events during this period, in general, the northern region was in a state of warm and humid climate, with a significant increase in precipitation and relatively lush vegetation.
Wild horses, on the other hand, prefer to live in the dry and cold grassland environment, so it is unlikely that there will be a large number of wild horses in the northern region from the late Neolithic to the late Shang period. Even in the northern, relatively north-westerly zone, the remains of horse bones excavated are very small, as shown in Table 2. In short, from the late Neolithic period to the late Shang period, northern China was not the main activity area of wild horses, which greatly reduced the possibility of the ancestors domesticating wild horses as domestic horses.
Therefore, since the northern region was not the main activity area of wild horses from the late Neolithic period to the late Shang period, it is unlikely that the data excavated in the northern region during this period that clearly identified them as domestic horses originated from local domestication, but from extraterritorial introduction.
Judging from the archaeological data currently available, from the late Neolithic to the late Shang Dynasty, wild horses lived in large numbers in the Eurasian steppe area, and the human behavior of domesticating wild horses as domestic horses also showed obvious signs in the Eurasian steppe. In the 3500-3000 BC Baitai ruins, more than 300,000 animal bones were unearthed, of which horse bones accounted for 80%, Dorcas Brown and others believe that the ancestors of Baitai mainly used horses for food, burial, sacrifice and riding, and at least some of the large number of horse bones are domestic horses. This shows the signs and sequences of the evolution of horses from wild to domesticated.
In the sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture, considered the predecessor of the Andronovo culture between 2000 and 1750 BC, "some of the tombs in the cemetery have tombs with tomb structures, some have multiple burial chambers, and there are burials of horses and chariots, as well as sacrifices of horses, dogs, cattle and sheep. The tomb was rich in burial goods, including pottery, stone and bronze ornaments, weapons and tools". Although the attributes of the horse bones from the site of Baitai are still debated, it can be confirmed that there were domesticated domestic horses in the Sintashta-Petrovka culture.
By the 17th and 13th centuries B.C., the Andronovo culture gradually emerged in the Eurasian steppe and expanded eastward, with "developed metallurgy, light chariots and the application of a large number of domesticated horses" as its cultural characteristics, and sporadically entered the Xinjiang region, and finally entered the western part of Xinjiang in the 12th-9th centuries B.C., but was blocked by two cultural factors from the Ganqing region and the local Xinjiang region. This reveals that there was contact between northern China and the Eurasian steppe zone from the 12th to the 9th centuries BC, but the sporadic exchanges between them may have preceded this period. Since 3500 B.C., there has been a human behavior of domesticating wild horses into domestic horses in the Eurasian steppe zone, and it is very likely that domestic horses will enter northern China with the flow of people. Therefore, there is reason to believe that domestic horses in northern China may be the result of their introduction from the Eurasian steppes.
Combining the materials listed in Tables 1 and 2 with the previous discussions, this paper argues that the domestic horses that appear in the sites of Shenmu Shiqiao in Shaanxi, Dashanqian of Karaqin Banner in Inner Mongolia and Dahezhuang in Yongjing in Gansu Province are the result of foreign introduction in the process of cultural exchange. It is almost certain that in northern China before the Late Shang period, there were scattered domestic horses introduced from outside the territory.
According to the remains of horse bones in northern China and the steppe region of Central Asia, combined with the biological characteristics of horses themselves and the relevant research results of climatic archaeology, it can be judged that domestic horses introduced from outside China existed before the late Shang period in northern China. However, horse bones account for a negligible fraction of the total number of animal bones unearthed in the sites, revealing that from the Neolithic period to the late Shang period, northern China was generally not suitable for horses.
The existing research results on the climate of the Shang Dynasty show that the late Shang Dynasty has entered the final stage of the Holocene Great Warm Period, and the climate has begun to change to dry and cold.
Wang Hui et al. concluded that "the climate of the late Shang Dynasty was arid", which led to a series of social changes such as the eastward migration of the Zhou people, the southward development of the merchants, and the warping of King Wu.
Based on the adaptation of the climate to the dry and cold climate, northern China has become a suitable breeding area for horses, and domestic horses have begun to appear in large numbers, which also provides the prerequisites for the localization process of domestic horses since the late Shang Dynasty. "Zhuangzi Qiushui": "The four-legged cow and horse are the heavens, and the head of the horse and the nose of the ox are the people." "There are two different paths for the localization of domestic horses: one is the path in the Central Plains with chariots and horses as a typical representative, and the other is the path in the northern region with riding as a typical representative.