Journal of Archaeological Science (1998) 25, 331347

Bit Wear, Horseback Riding and the Botai Site in Kazakstan

Dorcas Brown and David Anthony
Anthropology Department, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY 13820, U.S.A. (Received 18 February 1997, revised manuscript accepted 22 May 1997)
Bit wear is the damage that occurs on the occlusal surfaces of the second premolar teeth when a horse chews the bit. Bit wear can provide evidence of horseback riding and/or horse draught from teeth found in archaeological sites. This article revises our earlier denition of bit wear and describes wear on an expanded study collection of modern bitted and feral horses (72 individuals). An experiment is described in which previously unbitted horses were ridden with organic bits to simulate the wear made by pre-metallic bits. Because the evaluation of bit wear depends partially on the age of the horse, a crown-height/age curve for horse lower second premolars is presented. Finally, horse premolars from the archaeological site of Botai in Kazakstan are evaluated using the new denition of bit wear and are found to provide evidence for horseback riding in northern Kazakstan between 3400 and 2700 .
 1998 Academic Press Limited

Keywords: TRANSPORT, MICRO-WEAR, HORSEBACK RIDING, DENTAL CROWN HEIGHTS, ARCHAEOZOOLOGY, KAZAKSTAN.

Introduction
he study of bit wear on horse teeth is important principally because it can provide a clear answer to a crucial question: were the horses whose teeth are recovered from archaeological sites used as transport animals? Bit wear is the damage that occurs on the occlusal (chewing) surfaces of the second premolar teeth (P2s), particularly the lower second premolars (P2s), when a horse chews the bit. Use of a bit indicates control from behind the horse; therefore, a bitted horse must have been either ridden or driven. Bo ko nyi (1972) was the rst to suggest bit wear as a likely cause for the anomalous bevelling that he recognized on the mesial corner of some Iron Age horse P2s. Clutton-Brock (1974) observed similar wear on the P2s of a horse mandible excavated from the Egyptian fortress of Buhen, dated c. 1675 . Azzaroli (1980: 287) noted the same type of wear on the teeth of Iron Age Venetic and Etruscan horses. However, none of these authorities could be certain that a bit had caused the wear that they noted. Moreover, like most writers on horsemanship then and now, they thought that bit wear could occur only if a horse was bridled with a badly tted bit; otherwise the bit should not come into contact with the teeth. Bit wear was therefore seen as a symptom of poor management that should occur rarely among bitted horses. As we demonstrate below, bit wear is, on the contrary, quite common: over 90% of the frequently bitted modern horses that we have examined exhibited bit wear. Even well-bridled horses apparently chew the
Correspondence to: D. Anthony. E-mail: anthonyd@hartwick.edu.

bit unobtrusively. Their bad habits, however well concealed from their riders and owners, are clearly revealed by a microscopic examination of their teeth. In 1989 and 1991 Anthony & Brown presented a denition of bit wear and described its occurrence on equid P2s recovered from two archaeological sites: Malyan in Iran, dated to 20001900 (Anthony & Brown, 1989); and Dereivka in Ukraine, dated to 42003700 (Anthony & Brown, 1991; Anthony, Telegin & Brown, 1991; Anthony, 1994). The bit wear at Malyan is the earliest unambiguous evidence for the use of the bit in the Near East, although copper stains on donkey teeth from Akkadian Tell Brak (Clutton-Brock & Davies, 1993) might suggest earlier bitting. The bit wear at Dereivka is the earliest evidence for the use of the horse as a transport animal anywhere in the world. Our denition of bit wear was based on a study of natural (occlusal and dietary) wear on the lower premolar teeth of 20 modern feral horses, and of wear from metal bits on the teeth of 10 modern domestic horses. Recently we have gathered information from 42 additional modern domestic horses, bringing the domestic sample size up to 52 individuals. In addition, we have conducted riding experiments on previously unbitted horses with bits made of rope, leather, and bone in an eort to dene the wear made by organic bits. The data from this larger and more diverse collection of horse teeth has persuaded us to revise the denition of bit wear. In this paper we describe how bit wear has been redened; we then apply the revised denition to horse teeth recovered from the archaeological site of Botai in Kazakstan.
331
 1998 Academic Press Limited

03054403/98/040331+17 $25.00/0/as970242

332

D. Brown and D. Anthony

P2

Figure 1. A properly placed bit.

The Modern Comparative Sample

We have examined 97 permanent and deciduous mandibular P2s from 52 modern domestic horses of 10 breeds. We were able to obtain detailed riding and bitting histories (riding frequency, date of last riding episode, type of bit) for 17 of these horses. We assume that most of the other 35 domestic horses were bitted at least occasionally, because most of them were identied in autopsy or institutional reports as having been used in ways that require a bit (racing, harness racing, draught, hunting, dressage, jumping, etc.). Our collection of modern feral horse teeth consists of 37 permanent and deciduous P2s from 20 modern feral horses. Two populations are represented: four individuals were Assateague Island ponies from the Atlantic barrier islands of the Virginia and Maryland coast, and 16 were mustangs from the Nevada Plains. These horses were never ridden or bitted. In addition, we examined the P2s of four live domesticated horses that had never been bitted; these animals were used in a riding experiment with organic bits, described below. When rst examined, their teeth did not dier signicantly from those of the feral horses. Most of the P2s examined in this project were casts, or replicas. Moulds of the original P2s were made

with polyvinyl siloxane, a high-resolution moulding compound. Casts were made from the moulds with Tapox, an epoxy resin. Moulds were easily made on dry teeth from autopsy laboratories and museums. For the live horses at the Cobleskill campus of the State University of New York, the making of moulds required a protocol that overcame the problems raised by head motion, tongue action, and saliva. We worked with lightly sedated horses that were still able to stand. Upper premolars were not studied partly because it proved impossible to make casts of upper teeth on live animals unless they were fully sedated and lying down, which would have been dangerous to their health.

The Denition of Bit Wear

A bit normally rests on a horses tongue and gums in the diastema between the molars and the incisors, a location called the bars of the mouth (Figure 1). When the reins are pulled the bit presses into this sensitive soft tissue on the mandible, causing the horse to turn its head or tuck its chin to alleviate pressure. Horses can use their tongues to lift the bit o their gums and push it back into the grip of their

Bit Wear Damage 333

Buccal side Distal end Lingual side Hypoconulid Entoconid Hypoconid Metastylid (third cusp) Protoconid Metaconid (second cusp) Paraconid (protoconulid) (first cusp) Mesial end (prow)
Figure 2. Plan of occlusal surface of right side P2.

second premolars (P2s), where it can no longer cause discomfort. The position of the bit between the premolar teeth was documented by Clayton & Lee (1984; Clayton, 1985) in uoroscopic X-ray photographs that showed the action of a bit in living horses mouths. They established that both bar bits and jointed or broken bits can be gripped in the P2 teeth. It is dicult for a horse to push a bit back into its teeth because the corners of the lips are positioned forward of the premolars. The bit must be gripped very rmly to prevent the cheek corners from pulling it forward onto the bars of the mouth, and the bit can be held only between the tips of the teeth. Very powerful pressures are loaded onto a small occlusal space on the P2s. Bit wear occurs on the occlusal surfaces of the P2s because the bit slips across these surfaces as the horse grasps and releases the bit. In most cases, bit wear is conned to the rst or paraconid cusp of the P2. Occasionally it extends as far back as the second (metaconid) or even third (metastylid) cusps (Figure 2). Bit wear is indicated by both microscopic and macroscopic traits. Microscopic bit weara wear The occlusal surface of a horse premolar consists of enamel ridges that rise above a softer core of dentine. The enamel ridges, which bear the brunt of all wear, form a series of cusps. The microscopic aspect of bit wear consists of abraded fractures on the occlusal enamel of the paraconid cusp. Under magnication (1215 is sucient) microscopic wear has two characteristics (Figure 3(a) & (b)). First, bit wear causes step-like fractures that reect the underlying linear alignment of the crystal rods composing the enamel. The tops of the rods, normally worn to an even plane by occlusion with the opposing tooth, are broken unevenly by the bit. The sharp edges of the broken rods are then abraded by the action of the bit and by dietary wear, producing a pattern we have called an abraded

step-fracture. Second, fracture features often cluster in the centre of the enamel ridges and propagate longitudinally, creating microscopic linear trenches up to 1 mm deep that run down the centre of the occlusal enamel in a worn area. We have called these features centre-origin spalls. Centre-origin spalls can weaken the enamel suciently so that a large chip may break o laterally. Together, these types of microscopic wear (abraded step fractures and centre-origin spalls) are referred to as a wear in this paper. The a wear caused by a horse chewing the bit generally will not be confused with taphonomic, or post-mortem fractures and abrasions on the tooth surface caused either by nature or by clumsy curators. Taphonomic features are distinctive in three ways: they are not focused exclusively on the paraconid cusp of the P2, the step-fractures are not abraded and there are no centre-origin spalls. A wear does occur sporadically on feral horse teeth, which is potentially a more serious problem. In the wild it is probably caused by irregular occlusal contact or by biting on stones. The a wear that we observed on domesticated horse teeth, however, was much more extensive than that observed on the teeth of feral horses. Quantitative evidence supporting this conclusion came from scanning electron micrographs of the occlusal surface of the paraconid cusps of six feral P2s and 10 domestic P2s. These micrographs were enlarged and placed on a digitizing pad. The occlusal enamel was outlined and its area measured. A wear features were outlined and their total area was measured in the same manner. Among the feral horses, a wear covered an average of 67% of the occlusal enamel on the paraconid cusp, while for the domestic horses, a wear covered an average of 667% of the occlusal enamel on the paraconid cuspit was 10 times more extensive (Table 1). For feral horses, the maximum extent of a wear observed on the paraconid cusp was 30%, and this was observed on only one of the six teeth examined. In contrast, eight of the 10 domestic teeth exhibited a wear over more than 58% of the occlusal enamel of the rst cusp. Finally, most of the a wear in feral horses occurred on the buccal or cheek side of the paraconid cusp. This trait was observed on many of the other feral P2s in our collection. The cheek side of the lower tooth row naturally bears most of the damage associated with occlusion, and this buccal-side contact probably accounts for much of the a wear on mandibular feral horse teeth. Only one feral horse P2 displayed a wear on the lingual side. Among bitted horses, a wear occurred on both the lingual and buccal sides. It is the location and intensity of a wear that is diagnostic of bit wear. If a wear is observed on 50% or more of the occlusal enamel of the paraconid cusp, including the lingual side of the cusp, and similar abrasion does not occur, or occurs only sporadically, on other parts of the tooth, bit wear is indicated. This pattern of wear is called signicant a wear.

334

D. Brown and D. Anthony

(a)

Occlusal surface

1 cm

Lingual profile

1 mm (b)

Occlusal surface

1 cm

Lingual profile

1 mm
Figure 3. (a) Bit worn P2 of 10-year-old race horse. (b) Unworn P2 of mature feral horse.

Macroscopic bit wearbevelling The macroscopic aspect of bit wear is a bevelled wear facet on the mesial (anterior) corner of the occlusal surface of the P2. The facet appears to be caused by the

bit slipping back and forth over the mesial edge, or prow, of the P2. The worn area can take the shape of a real facet, with a well-dened, angular bevel, or it can have a gradual slope, without a sharp change in angle.

Bit Wear Damage 335

Table 1. Digitized analysis of a wear on P2 teeth Specimen number A wear (%) Table 2. Bevel measurement statistics for feral and domestic horses Sample size of horses over 3 years old

Feral horses 4R 0 7R 2 17L 3 18L 0 28L 5 28R 30 Average a wear on feral horse teeth=667% Median a wear is between 2% and 3%. Domestic horses 12R 80 13R 86 14R 69 45R 85 45L 58 50R 95 57R 8 61R 4 63R 100 66L 82 Average a wear on domestic horse teeth=6670% Median a wear is between 80% and 82%.

Average bevel

Range

Median bevel

SD

Feral horses 25 teeth 13 horses 2 populations 078 02 Domestic horses (includes known frequently bitted horses) 73 teeth 47 horses 10 breeds 311 010 All measurements are in mm.

05

066

25

193

The depth of the wear facet is measured by placing a ruler across the top of the 2nd and 3rd lingual cusps so that the ruler forms a right angle with the lingual side of the tooth (Figure 4). The ruler serves as a plane, oriented in one dimension by the crests of the 2nd and 3rd lingual cusps and in the other by a perpendicular angle with the lingual surface of the tooth. Calipers
Placed at 90 angle to lingual side of tooth and

are then used to measure the distance between the bottom of the ruler and the point on the tooth at which the occlusal surface meets the mesial edge. This measurement is rounded to the nearest 05 mm. In our study collection, bevel measurements for mature domestic horses (mean 311 mm) were consistently and signicantly larger than those for mature feral horses (mean 078 mm), and bevel measurements for mature horses that were known to have been bitted almost daily (mean 36 mm) were larger than those for other domestic horses (Table 2 and Figures 5 & 6). The mean bevel measurement for mature domesticated horses (311 mm) exceeded the maximum measurement observed for mature feral horses (2 mm). (Immature
Along the crests of the metaconid and metastylid cusps

Occlusal surface

Metastylid Metaconid

Prow

Bevel measure taken here Mesial edge

Buccal side

Lingual side

Roots

Lingual side
Figure 4. Method of measuring bevel.

336

D. Brown and D. Anthony

N=4 Dereivka N = 19 Botai Domesticated unknown bitting history Known frequently bitted Feral N = 49

suggests that either signicant a wear or a signicant bevel measurement on a horse older than 3 years is diagnostic of bit wear.

Bit Wear on Frequently Ridden Horses

We were able to collect detailed histories about bitting practices and frequency of usage for 17 horses. Of these, 13 animals were bitted and ridden or driven regularly, two to ve times per week, up to the time of death or the day the tooth mould was made. We examined 24 P2s from these 13 horses. All 24 teeth were expected to exhibit bit weara signicant bevel, signicant a wear, or both. Table 3 shows the incidence of bit wear on these 13 animals. Only one horse had no wear on either the right or left side P2. This 13-year-old quarterhorse mare was bitted and ridden several times a week at a riding school. She simply did not chew the bit. Three horses exhibited bit wear on only one side. Altogether, ve teeth (21%) derived from four horses exhibited no bit wear. Bit wear did occur on 79% of all the P2s, and on at least one side in 92% (12 of 13) of the frequently bitted horses. Archaeologists should note that an analysis based on individual teeth will undercount the number of horses that have been bitted, because wear occurs on only one side in some horses. Nevertheless, bit wear is common and expected on horses that are ridden or driven almost every day.

N = 24

N = 25

1 0

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Bevel measurement (mm)

Data Data below 10th 25th Mean 50th 75th 90th above 10th 90th percentile percentile

Figure 5. Box plots of bevel measurementsnote that modern domestic horses are broken into two groups, those of unknown bitting history and those known to have been bitted frequently. Only horses over 3 years are included.

horses, 3 years or younger in age, are discussed separately below.) We have established the threshold for a bit-induced bevel at 3 mm, which is more than three standard deviations greater than the mean bevel measurement for mature feral horses. We refer to this as a signicant bevel.

The Longevity of Bit Wear

Horses have high-crowned teeth that erupt continuously as they are worn away by occlusal and dietary wear. Depending on diet and environmental factors, it may take 2040 years for horses cheek teeth to wear down to the roots. Feral horses in the wild rarely live longer than 2025 years; domestic horses can survive more than 40 years. Newly erupted permanent P2s in our sample (P2s of 3-year-old horses) had a maximum crown height (a measurement of length) of 63 mm. Assuming a P2 life-span of 20 years (which means a horse life-span of 23 years), the average rate of occlusal wear should be 315 mm per year. Other published

The new denition Previously we dened bit wear as the combination of a signicant bevel measurement and signicant a wear. However, after observing more domestic horse teeth, and gathering more detailed information about many of them, we have found this denition to be excessively conservative. Analysis of our new collection

Table 3. Bit wear on 13 horses known to have been bitted frequently No. of teeth No wear Signicant Signicant Signicant Signicant Signicant a wear bevel bevel but not signicant a wear a and bevel a or bevel 5 12 17 7 10 19 % of 24 21 50 71 29 42 79 No. of horses 1 7 11 5 6 12* % of 13 8 54 85 38 46 (old denition) 92 (new denition)

*Only nine horses (69%) had some kind of bit wear on both P2 teeth.

Bit Wear Damage 337

11.0 10.5 10.0 9.5 9.0 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 Bevel measurements (mm) 6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5
2K

4.0 3.5
2K

3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5

2D 2F

2F 2D 2D 3D 2D 2D 2D 2F 2D 2F 2F 2D 3D

0.0 0.5 1.0 0

2F 2F

3F

10 Age (years)

15

20

25

Figure 6. Bevel measurements of domestic, feral and frequently bitted horse teeth plotted against age. , Domestic horse teeth (excluding known frequently bitted teeth) (D), 65 teeth, 34 horses. , feral horse teeth (F), 33 teeth, 20 horses. , known frequently bitted teeth (K), 24 teeth, 13 horses. 2D, F or K, multiple teeth on this point. Area inside arrows excludes feral horse teeth.

estimates of mean annual cheektooth wear rates for grazing equids are slightly higher, between 33 and 42 mm per year (Hulbert, 1982). Estimates of maximum crown height also vary (Klein & Cruz-Uribe, 1984: 54). If occlusal and dietary wear remove 315 mm of occlusal surface per year, most a wear features should disappear within 4 months. If the rate of wear is higher, a wear will disappear more rapidly. A wear does not survive very long. Occlusal and dietary wear probably remove 34 mm of occlusal surface per year on horse P2s, although the rate of wear varies with age and diet. Most a wear abrasions are less than 1 mm deep, so should disappear within 14 months if the horse is not bitted during that period.

Bevelled wear facets are larger features, so they last longer than a wear. We have recorded bevel measurements of up to 10 mm on bitted horses. A bevel facet 10 mm deep might be preserved for more than 3 years after the horse was last bitted. In addition, by our denition, a wear must be observed on more than 50% of the occlusal enamel of the rst cusp if it is to be categorized as signicant. If portions of the paraconid cusp are destroyed by taphonomic processes the tooth might fall short of the minimum surface required to conrm signicant a wear. A bevel measurement, on the other hand, can be taken as long as the critical part of the paraconid cusp is not chipped o. A signicant bevel can survive the eects of occlusal wear longer, and can be observed even

338

D. Brown and D. Anthony

when the tooth is partially damaged by taphonomic processes.

Bevel Measurements and Crown Heights

Are bevel measurements alone a reliable indicator of bit wear? The answer to this question depends on the age of the horse. For horses with permanent teeth that have come fully into wear, our studies suggest that the answer is yes. To support this statement, we should rst look at our statistics on bevel measurements, and then consider methods for eliminating young horses, 3 years of age or younger, from bit wear studies. Among the 13 frequently bitted horses, signicant bevels were observed without signicant a wear on seven of 24 teeth (29%) and in ve of 13 horses (39%). These horses were bitted two to ve times per week and clearly chewed their metal bits, yet did not show signicant a wear. Bit wear apparently is not produced by a continuous process of bit-chewing that occurs each time the horse is bitted; rather it can be caused by episodic bit-chewing events. The a wear from these events is worn away relatively quickly, but the bevelled wear facets survive longer. For these reasons, signicant bevel measurements will be seen without signicant a wear even among horses that are bitted frequently. Bevel measurements alone clearly separate mature bitted horses from mature feral horses. Among the 13 frequently bitted horses, the average bevel measurement was 36 mm, the median was 40 mm, and the range was 17 mm (Table 2 and Figures 5 & 6). Among feral (e.g. unbitted) horses older than 3 years there were no bevels greater than 2 mm. Problems with bevel measurements on young horses One feral horse in our study collection had bevels on both P2s of 3 mm. This animal was less than 3 years old. Unusually high bevel measurements occasionally occur among never-bitted horses aged 3 years or younger. The causes of the anomalous bevels lie in the process of P2 eruption and early wear. Permanent P2s erupt at approximately 25 years in horses. Both deciduous teeth and newly erupted permanent teeth can exhibit irregular occlusal surfaces. Deciduous teeth are shaped dierently from permanent teeth and frequently are worn irregularly because they are not shed simultaneously. An upper might fall out while a deciduous lower tooth is still in use. The wear in this case becomes uneven until the new upper tooth descends to occlude evenly with the lower deciduous tooth. If the deciduous tooth is loose, malocclusion might cause further irregularities. Newly erupted permanent P2s also are irregular and can exhibit anomalously large bevel measurements. This occurs because, prior to eruption, the unworn occlusal surface of the permanent tooth is somewhat

Figure 7. Photograph showing deciduous teeth on top of developing permanent P2 teeth as they grew in the jaw of a 21-month-old horse. White arrows point to the mesial ends of right and left deciduous teeth. This view shows the lingual sides. The natural bevel at the mesial end of the developing permanent teeth can be clearly seen. Photo by Kim Ilowit.

rounded, conforming to the underside of the deciduous tooth that caps it (Figure 7). After the deciduous P2 is shed the occlusal surface of the new permanent tooth is gradually worn at by contact with the opposing tooth. The low, rounded prow is one of the last parts of the new P2 to come into wear. Before it is completely attened, the mesial corner often exhibits a bevel of more than 2 mm. We have observed this temporary phenomenon on two live domesticated horses, never ridden, whose P2 bevels were 30 mm at age 25 years, but declined to 15 mm or less 4 and 5 months later. A signicant bevel was present at age 25 years, but disappeared naturally within months. Clearly, the teeth of horses 3 years old and younger should be eliminated from analyses of bevel measurements. Identifying the teeth of 3-year-olds: crown heights and age In order to eliminate 3-year-olds from bit wear studies, one must be able to identify their teeth in archaeological contexts, where teeth are often found isolated from the jaw. Specialists disagree about the best method for determining the ages of horses based only on isolated horse teeth (Spinage, 1972; Hulbert, 1982; Klein, 1982; Levine, 1982; Burke, 1993; OBrien, 1995). We chose to analyse cheektooth lengths, or crown heights (which decrease as the horse gets older). Levine has previously published mathematical curves which she used to determine horses ages from crown heights in archaeological assemblages (Levine, 1982, 1990). These curves were based largely on indirect measurements (from X-rays) taken from a relatively small sample of modern horses of estimated age. We re-analysed the correlation between crown height and

Bit Wear Damage 339

10

3 RF RF

P2 crown height (cm)

6
2

3 2 2

RF

2 2 2

RF RF 2 2 2

DF DF 2 4 DK DK 4 3 DK DF DF 2 DF DF 2

10 Age (years)

15

20

25

Figure 8. P2 crown heights plotted against age. , Known age (55); , feral (24); DK, deciduous known age (11); DF, deciduous feral (9); RF, roots feral (7) (i.e. permanent teeth with roots incompletely formed).

age based on our collection (Figure 8). For the crown height measurement we used 62 permanent and deciduous P2s from 40 domestic horses of known age, and 33 permanent and deciduous P2s from 18 feral horses. Feral horse ages were estimated on the basis of incisor wear and eruption sequences in articulated mandibles. All of the teeth were removed from the mandibles and measured directly. Measurements of crown height were taken on the buccal side, from the apex of the junction between the roots, to the midpoint of the occlusal surface. Figure 8 demonstrates that it is somewhat problematic to determine the age of a horse solely on the basis of a crown height measurement on an individual P2.

The range of crown heights at each age is very broad. In addition, we found that there can be as much as 5 mm dierence between the crown heights on the right and left P2s from one horse; i.e. crown heights for two teeth that have identical historiesage, diet, genetic traits, and riding historiescan dier by as much as 5 mm. This greatly complicates attempts to distinguish the teeth of 3-year-olds from those of 4, 5, and 6-year-olds on the basis of small dierences in crown heights. Earlier in the project we found that deciduous teeth and very old teeth (which have similar crown heights) can be dierentiated on the basis of occlusal length/width ratios (Figure 9). We used the same

340

D. Brown and D. Anthony

Permanent P 2s CH < 3.0 cm Sample size = 24 Deciduous P 2s Sample size = 20

Range 2 SD

Mean 1.563 1.774 1.905

2.071 2.036 Mean 2.468 2.625 2.783

1 SD 1.644 1.513

2.235 2.310 2.152

2.786

horse younger than 4 years, and should be excluded from bit wear studies. This criterion should be sucient to determine if a loose P2 recovered from archaeological sediments was from an animal suciently mature to evaluate for bit wear. The method also will be generally useful for archaeozoologists attempting to analyse the age structures of slaughtered horse populations in prehistoric sites.

Metal Bit Wear Summary

3.0

1.5

2.0 2.5 Occlusal length/width ratio

Figure 9. Occlusal length/width ratios of permanent P2s with crown heights of less than 3 cm. Results of t-test of deciduous vs. permanent: means of the samples are signicantly dierent.

5/6

Range 1.632 1 SD 2 SD 1.666 1.779

Mean 1.892

2.056 2.005 2.119

By examining four traits on the P2, we can determine if a horse was bitted, and therefore if it was used for riding and/or draught. These traits are: (1) signicant a wear, and/or (2) a signicant bevel measurement, to identify bit wear; and (3) a crown height of less than 5 cm, with (4) an occlusal length/width ratio less than 212, to identify and eliminate horses of 3 years old and younger. The absence of bit wear on any individual horse does not mean that the horse was not bitted. Twenty-one per cent of the P2s from frequently bitted horses exhibited no bit wear. The absence of bit wear in a very large sample of teeth might suggest that bits were not used on that population. However, the presence of a signicant bevel or signicant a wear on the P2 of a mature horse identies it as a bitted horse.

Age (years)

4/
1.681

1.824 1.808

Mean 1.935

2.125 2.062 2.189 Mean 2.120

Organic Bit Wear: The Riding Experiment

Prior to 1992 our descriptions of bit wear were based entirely on observations of the wear made by modern metal bits. Prehistoric bits made of organic materialsbone, rope, or leathermight have caused dierent wear signatures. Some archaeozoologists have speculated in conversation that signicant bit wear might be produced only by a metal bit. The experiments described below have established that signicant bit wear can be caused by organic bits. In 1992 we conducted an experiment to dene the wear caused by organic bits. We acquired four horses that had never been bitted or trained. The horses were trained without a bit so that their teeth would remain clean until the experiment started. We used a training technique called free lunging in which the rider establishes dominance prior to mounting the animal by controlling its space in a series of one-on-one encounters inside a closed pen. After dominance is established, riding is relatively easy. Similar training techniques, which mimic the behaviours used in nature by dominant horses in horse bands, might well have been attempted by the earliest riders. Once trained, the experimental horses were bitted and ridden in a ring by two students. When the horses were not being ridden they were kept together in an outdoor paddock and were pastured or fed hay rather than prepared feeds to simulate primitive dietary wear on their teeth. The experiment lasted 810 months, depending on the

2/3
1.793

1.933 1.956

2.375 2.283 2.447

1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Length/width ratio
Figure 10. Occlusal length/width ratios of permanent P2s of horses ages 5/6, 4, and 2/3 years. Results of t-tests comparing means of samples at the 005 level: 2/3 vs. 5/6 years, signicantly dierent; 2/3 vs. 4 years, signicantly dierent; 4 vs. 5/6 years, not signicantly dierent.

method to separate 3-year-olds from 46-year-olds (Figure 10). The results were less clear, but Students t-tests indicate that the mean lengthwidth ratio for 3-year-olds is signicantly dierent from that of 4, 5, and 6-year-olds. The P2s of 3-year-olds can be identied by correlating crown height with a specic lengthwidth ratio. The precise threshold measurements might change if we examine larger samples, but for the moment, we propose the following rule: if the lengthwidth ratio is 212 or more, and the crown height is 5 cm or more, the tooth is probably from a

Bit Wear Damage 341

Figure 11. Three-year-old horse with leather bit attached to antler tine cheekpieces. (Additional bridling across the nose was used as a back-up safety measure in case the soft bitting arrangement broke.)

horse, but most of the riding was concentrated in the last 3 months. Each horse was ridden for 150 h. One horse was ridden with a leather bit (Figure 11), one with a hemp rope bit (silica-rich vegetable bre), one with a horsehair rope bit (animal bre), and one with a bone bit (a sheep metatarsal). The leather, bone, and hemp rope bits were secured in the horses mouths between antler cheekpieces made with int tools. The horsehair rope was tied with two half-hitches over the tongue and around the lower jaw in the manner of the standard American Indian war bridle. We anaesthetized the horses and made moulds of their P2s at regular intervals. Casts made from the moulds were examined using binocular and scanning electron microscopes. We found that organic bits do cause wear, although three of the four bits did not cause enough wear to qualify as signicant after 150 h of riding time. None of the bits caused a signicant bevel measurement after 150 h of riding, but the bone bitwhich we now categorize as hard, similar to a metal bitdid briey cause signicant a wear, and increased the bevel measurement on the right P2 by 20 mm. An increase of 2 mm in 8 months is remarkable, given that the mean bevel measurement among feral horses was 078 mm and the median was only 05 mm. The materials that we now classify as softleather, hemp rope and horsehair ropeseem to have caused increases in the bevel measurement without producing visible abrasions of the type that we would classify as signicant a wear. The hemp rope in particular was associated with an increase of 15 mm in the bevel measurement on the right P2, but this tooth never displayed more than a few small patches of a wear

on its occlusal surface. Hemp rope is made of the same kind of material that causes most of the dietary wear on horse teeth, so it is perhaps unsurprising that their microwear signatures are indistinguishable. The rope causes more wear than the dietary grasses simply because it makes contact only on the paraconid cusp of the P2, it is tightly bundled, and it resists occlusion more than dietary grasses do. A wear The horse ridden with the bone bit exhibited small patches of a wear on its occlusal enamel throughout the experiment, unlike the horses ridden with soft bits, among whom a wear of any kind was observed only rarely. The a wear on the right P2 of this horse became suciently extensive to constitute signicant a wear (wear covering more than 50% of the occlusal surface of the paraconid cusp, including its lingual side) only once. Visible abrasions began to appear on the lingual side of the paraconid cusp within the rst few hours that the horse was bitted. Lingual a wear is common in bitted horses but is very rare among unbitted horses in our study. After 68 h of riding, a large section of enamel on the lingual side and anterior prow of the paraconid cusp spalled o and the scar was subsequently abraded by dietary and/or bit wear, producing a classic abraded step fracture. A wear covered 53% of the occlusal enamel on the paraconid cusp, an amount that just meets our denition of signicant wear. This area of a wear was later worn down and reduced in size by additional wear, and it remained below the signicant level through the rest of the experiment.

342

D. Brown and D. Anthony

Table 4. Bevel measurement progress in live bit wear experiment Leather (age of horse: 3 years) Hours ridden Right side Left side Horsehair rope (age of horse: 35 years) Hours ridden Right side Left side Hemp rope (age of horse: 5 years) Hours ridden Right side Left side Bone (age of horse: 4 years) Hours ridden Right side Left side

0 15 mm 15 mm

55 10 mm 20 mm

107 15+ mm 25 mm

150 20+ mm 20 mm

Bevel increase 05+ mm 05 mm

0 15 mm 10 mm

62 20 mm 15 mm

111 20 mm 15+ mm

151 20+ mm 20 mm

Bevel increase 05+ mm 10 mm

0 05 mm 10 mm

72 15 mm 15 mm

117 15 mm 15 mm

150 20 mm 20 mm

Bevel increase 15 mm 10 mm

0 05 mm 05 mm

68 20 mm 10 mm

119 25 mm 10 mm

150 25 mm 10 mm

Bevel increase 20 mm 05 mm

Bevel measurement Bevel measurements increase sporadically rather than steadily. The episodic or punctuated equilibrium nature of bit wear is indicated by a comparison between two casts of the right P2 of the bone-bitted horse made 4 weeks apart. The horse had been ridden with the bone bit for just 35 h during the 4-week period. We measured the amount of occlusal enamel that was worn away during this 4-week period by measuring the depth of a chip on the occlusal surface of the paraconid cusp on the right P2 at the beginning and end of the period. The chip was 106 mm deep when rst measured, and only 0374 mm deep 4 weeks later. (Measurements were taken digitally using a screen function available on the Leica 550 scanning electron microscope.) This lingual portion of the paraconid cusp lost 0686 mm of occlusal surface in 4 weeks. Natural occlusal and dietary wear should have removed about 027 mm of the occlusal surface in that time, assuming a rate of natural occlusal wear of 315 mm/year. The additional 040+ mm of wear can be attributed to the bone bit, which was in use for only 35 h. Moreover, the bevel measurement also increased by 05 mm (bevel measurements are rounded to the nearest tenth of a millimetre) during this same 4-week period. This suggests that the rate of wear we measured at the location of the chip also occurred over the rest of the paraconid cusp. This was an impressive episode of wear. One-quarter of all the wear observed on the tooth over 150 h of riding occurred during this 35-h period. Other similar bit-chewing episodes later in the experiment seem to

have produced sporadic, sudden increases in the bevel measurement, rather than a continuous, gradual increase. However, bit-chewing episodes were so infrequent that no horse in the experiment produced more than 2 mm of wear over the course of 150 h of riding. It is unlikely that a signicant bevel measurement (3 mm or more) would be produced in less than 150 h, regardless of the personality of the horse. None of the experimental horses exhibited a signicant bevel measurement by the end of the experiment. The P2s of the horses with the bone, hemp, and horsehair mouthpieces exhibited bevel measurements that consistently increased or remained stable (Table 4). The P2s of the horse with the leather mouthpiece exhibited bevel measurements that decreased during some time intervals. This inconsistency might indicate that the leather bit had no eect on the teeth, or it might have been related to the fact that this was the youngest horse of the four and had teething problems during the experiment. However, after 150 h of riding all four of the horses exhibited increased bevel measurements. The horse ridden with the bone bit, the hardest of the four bits, exhibited the greatest increase in bevel measurement (+20 mm on the right side after 150 h). The horse ridden with the leather bit, the softest of the bits, exhibited the smallest increase. This suggests that the bits were largely responsible for the observed increases. Because bevel measurements increased or remained stable with three of the four bitting materials, the average rate of wear can be measured. Given the episodic nature of bit wear, averages must be

Bit Wear Damage 343

interpreted with caution. Over 150 h of riding with the bone bit, the average rate of increase in the bevel measurement was just 0013 mm/h. To produce a signicant bevel of 3 mm or more, at an average rate of 0013 mm/h, would have required 230 h of riding with a bone bit if the rate of increase in the bevel measurement were constant. The rate of increase cannot be constant, however, both because bit wear is episodic and because as the wear facet enlarges, more time is required to produce an overall increase in the bevel measurement. While the variability in facet shape and size makes a standard correction impossible, it is likely that a bevel measurement of 3 mm would require approximately 300 h of riding with a bone bitthe equivalent of at least 2 or 3 months of constant, daily riding. Softer bits, such as hemp rope or horsehair rope, would require even longer to produce signicant bevel measurements. The average rate of increase in the bevel measurement of the horse bitted with hemp rope was 001 mm/h. At this rate 300 h of riding would have been required to reach a 3 mm bevel measurement if the rate of increase were constant; the actual riding time required might be in the neighborhood of 400 h. Clearly, the amount of time required to produce a signicant bevel measurement indicates a close, long-term relationship between humans and horses; a relationship that implies domestication.

changes in the ages and sexes of the horses slaughtered for food (Levine, 1990). None of these methods has been completely successful at distinguishing the earliest domesticated horses from their wild cousins (Anthony, 1991). It is assumed that the morphological changes revealed by osteometric analyses reect the beginning of controlled breeding, but other explanations for morphological change might also be advanced. Bit wear conclusively documents a long-term investment of human energy in training and exploiting horses for transport. It is important to determine when controlled horsebreeding began, but in most parts of the world this occurred long after the other principal animals were domesticated. The maintenance of horses just for food had little economic or social impact in societies that already possessed domesticated cattle, sheep, and pigs. It was the use of the horse for transport that redirected social evolution in Eurasia.

Bit Wear at Botai

The Botai culture developed from 3500 in the northern steppes of Kazakstan (Zaibert, 1993). Most of the radiocarbon determinations from sites of the Botai culture fall between 3400 and 2700 , although there are earlier and later outliers that probably reect earlier and later (not Botai-culture) occupations. During this period, the steppes of Eurasia supported at least two very dierent cultural traditions: an eastern and a western type. The boundary was around the Ural River. The western steppes in Ukraine and Russia between the Dnieper and the Ural rivers were occupied by the Yamnaya culture1, dated between about 3600/3400 and 2700/2500 (Levine & Kislenko, 1997). Yamnaya developed partly from the earlier Sredni Stog culture. Dereivka, a settlement of the Sredni Stog culture, contains a horse with bit wear dated to between 4200 and 3700 (Telegin, 1986; Anthony & Brown, 1991). The appearance of the Yamnaya culture is thought to represent the beginnings of a steppe-oriented mixed pastoral economy in the western steppes. Yamnaya settlements and graves contain the bones of domestic cattle, sheep, and horses; Yamnaya cemeteries contain the remains of solid-wheeled wagons, which were buried in grave pits beneath kurgans, or earthen burial mounds (248 wagon burials are known); Yamnaya copper and bronze daggers, awls, and ornaments
1 In my [D.A.s] previous publications back to my doctoral dissertation I have used the term Yamna culture, in a desire to use the nominative (the pit-grave culture) rather than the genitive case (Yamnaya, the culture of the pit-grave) for a culture name. My friend N. Shishlina pointed out that the n in this word is not part of the stem, but is inserted for some case endings; the nominative singular is Yama, not Yamna. (On the other hand, the n is part of the stem for the Srubna or Srubnaya culture, known in English as the Timber-Grave culture, which probably provided the model for my original error.) Yama culture doesnt sound right. With apologies to all, here and in future publications I will use the term Yamnaya culture.

The Question of Domestication

The absence of bit wear does not indicate that a horse was not bitted and it certainly does not mean that a horse was not domesticated. A bitted horse might not exhibit bit wear, and many domesticated horses are never bitted. In modern Kazakstan thousands of horses are kept like range cattle, for food. All are domesticated, but only a very small percentage is ever bitted and ridden. On the other hand, the presence of bit wear indicates a substantial human investment of time in training for riding or driving. Does the presence of bit wear imply that horses were domesticated? The most widely accepted denition of animal domestication identies human control of animal breedingintentional or unintentionalas the critical factor (Bo ko nyi, 1969; Davis, 1987: 126; Clutton-Brock, 1989: 7; Meadow, 1989; Crabtree, 1993). Domestication is a process, not an event. There is substantial debate about both the actual and the archaeological denitions of the point at which controlled breeding became suciently systematic to qualify as domestication. Archaeozoological attempts to identify early domesticated horses have examined changes in skull and mandible morphology (Bibikova, 1967); increases in morphological diversity, as reected in the length and robusticity of distal limb bones (Nobis, 1971; Bo ko nyi, 1974: 138; Uerpmann, 1990; Benecke, 1994); and

344

D. Brown and D. Anthony

testify to an active copper and arsenical bronze metallurgy; and dierences in grave size and wealth indicate a weakly hierarchical social order. The eastern tradition, represented by the Botai culture in northern Kazakstan, exhibits no domesticated animals except dogs and (apparently) horses, no evidence of wheeledvehicle use, nor formal cemeteries, and little or no metallurgy. Pre-Botai foragers who lived near the lakes and rivers of northern Kazakstan might have borrowed the idea of horseback riding from the early Yamnaya occupants of the western steppes. Botai settlements consist of clusters of pit-houses. Over 153 pit-houses representing at least four phases of occupation (probably many more) have been mapped at the type site of Botai (Zaibert, 1993; Olsen, 1997). At Botai, horses account for 999% of the 300,000 animal bones recovered (Akhinzhalov, Makarova & Nurumov, 1992: 4053). At other settlements of the Botai culture horse bones represent 9099% of the animal bones recovered. A partial list of the other species represented in the Botai-culture settlement bone middens includes a very large bovid, probably bison, perhaps aurochs; elk; red deer; roe deer; bear; beaver; saiga antelope; and gazelle (Akhinzhalov, Makarova & Nurumov, 1992: 52). Horses, not the easiest prey for people on foot, were selected in preference to these other species. The Botai people made many of their tools from horse bones, relied on horses for almost all of their meat diet and, we will argue, rode and probably herded horses. Botais specialized horse-centred economy was unique in Eurasia during the Holocene. The faunal collection from Botai made available to us in 1992 included 36 intact P2 teeth from a minimum of 20 individuals. Crown height data indicate that, of these 36, only 19 teeth were from horses over 3 years old, mature enough to evaluate for bit wear. The Botai teeth seemed to be longer than most modern horse teeth (the maximal Botai P2 crown height was greater than any modern P2 we examined), so our crown height ageing technique, which is based on tooth length, probably underestimated the average ages of the Botai horses. The teeth we selected for analysis certainly came from mature animals. Five P2s in this group, or 26% of the mature measurable teeth, had signicant bevel measurements (Figure 12). Two had bevels of 3 mm, one of 35 mm, one of 4 mm, and one of 6 mm. These ve teeth exhibit bit wear. The largest bevel measurement observed at Botai (6 mm) probably would have required 600800 h of riding with a hemp rope bit. Most of the teeth were so damaged by taphonomic or curation factors that a wear could not be properly assessed. The evidence for bit wear at Botai has been questioned (Olsen, 1997) on several grounds: that there is no change in microwear on the occlusal surfaces of the P2s from front to back; that the occlusal surfaces of the P2s are quite irregular in the collection as a whole (some curve up at the mesial end, some are bevelled,

CHI

(a)

(b)

1 cm

(c)
Figure 12. Plans and proles of three of the ve P2 teeth from Botai that had signicant bevels. (a) Specimen 37, 6 mm bevel; (b) specimen 2, 4 mm bevel; (c) specimen 21, 3 mm bevel.

some are at); and that no cheekpieces or bits have been identied at Botai. In addition, some feel uncertain that a hemp rope bit could cause signicant wear.

Bit Wear Damage 345

All of the organic bitting materials used in our riding experiment were associated with increases in the bevel measurements of P2s. Hemp rope was associated with the largest increase of the soft materials (+15 mm), and the hemp bit almost certainly caused most of this bevelling. An increase of 15 mm over 8 months would be very unusual in an unbitted horse, given that the mean bevel measurement for mature feral horses in our sample was only 078 mm, and the median was only 05 mm. If a horse is bitted for a long time and has the opportunity to pull the bit between his teeth, wear will be concentrated on the anterior half of the P2, even with a rope bit. As we have indicated, there was no visible dierence in microwear between the front and back cusps on the experimental horse bitted with the hemp rope bit. Nevertheless, a rope bit can cause an increase in the bevel measurement. A description by Firouz (1996: 4) of how Turkoman horses are raised on the open steppe today suggests that horses might be bitted for very long periods indeed:
The colts are lassoed when they are six months old with a pole-rope combination. They are staked out on long ropes and, from then on, are never turned loose. The circumference of the rope is their stable and pasture. The colt is blanketed with felts from the tips of his ears to below the tail. He is immediately bitted and, except when eating, has the reins tied up around his surcingle to prevent nosing the ground.

the region. Instead they produced middens containing 90999% horse bones. The best explanation for the bevel measurements on the Botai teeth is that these animals were bitted regularly, perhaps with rope bits. There is no direct evidence for wheeled vehicles in the Kazak steppes during the era of the Botai culture; therefore the Botai horses with bit wear probably were ridden. Many other horses at Botai, apparently the majority, were used as food. The discovery of bit wear at Botai and Dereivka, approximately 2500 km apart, suggests that horses were bitted and used for transport across much of the Eurasian steppes during the 4th millennium .

Conclusion
Before the development of bit wear analysis there was no way to distinguish clearly the remains of a horse that had been ridden or driven from those of a horse that had merely been eaten or kept for breeding. The appearance of horseback riding in artwork and seal impressions of the Near East dated after 2500 indicates that horses had been domesticated and trained as transport animals in the Near East by that date (Littauer & Crouwel, 1979; Moorey, 1986; Owen, 1991; Molleson & Blondiaux, 1994). The role of horses in earlier human prehistory has been clouded in uncertainty. Some archaeologists and archaeozoologists still insist that horses were not domesticated anywhere before about 2500 (Ha usler, 1994; Uerpmann, 1995), while others debate the possibility of domestication in the Upper Paleolithic (Bahn, 1984 vs. White, 1989) or interpret images painted on south-east European Eneolithic pottery as evidence that horses were ridden there before 4000 (Gheorgiu, 1994). Bit wear provides solid, direct evidence that horses were used as transport animals in the Eurasian steppes early in the 4th millennium , a development that ultimately altered subsistence, warfare, and cultural dynamics across the Eurasian continent. Moreover, bits probably were not the earliest kind of controls used on horses; it seems likely that a simple noseband preceded the bit. Horses probably were ridden for some time before bits were used at Dereivka. Future analyses of bit wear might shed more light on the kinds of bits used and the length of riding/driving time. There has been increasing attention to bit wear in some recent archaeozoological studies (Stead, 1991; Payne, 1995). While much remains to be done, bit wear analysis now rests on a solid methodological footing.

The surcingle would provide tension in the reinsenough to pull the bit into his teeth. The great variation in occlusal surfaces among the Botai P2s might be the result of two factors. In our modern comparative sample, all of the P2s that curved up at the mesial end (a condition we call hooking) were from immature horses. We found no hooking on any P2s from mature horses. Over 50% of the P2s in our Botai collection also were immature, and these exhibited some hooking. However, we also found that even the mature teeth from Botai were more variable in their bevel measurements than modern feral horse teeth. One likely reason for this is that the Botai sample contains many teeth that have been worn by bits. No cheekpieces or bits have been found in Botai sites. The Botai riders might have looped the rope around the lower jaw like the American Indian war bridle. It is also possible that cheekpieces exist in the collections but have not been recognized as such, or they could have been made of sti leather like the plastic discs used on communal farms today in Kazakstan. Finally, we nd it dicult to understand both why the people of Botai would choose to specialize in horse exploitation and how they could be so successful at catching and killing horses if they did not ride them. Surely, if they had been limited to hunting on foot they would have hunted many more of the other animals such as red deer and roe deer that were available in

Acknowledgements
The research reported here was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the American Philosophical Society, and the

346

D. Brown and D. Anthony

S. Zimmer, Eds) Die Indogermanen und das Pferd. Budapest, Archaeolingua, pp. 185197. Anthony, D. W. & Brown, D. (1989). Looking a gift horse in the mouth: identication of the earliest bitted equids and the microscopic analysis of bit wear. In (P. J. Crabtree, D. Campana & K. Ryan, Eds) Early Animal Domestication and its Cultural Context. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology, vol. 6, special supplement. Philadelphia: MASCA, The University Museum, pp. 98116. Anthony, D. W. & Brown, D. (1991). The origins of horseback riding. Antiquity 65, 2238. Anthony, D. W., Telegin, D. & Brown, D. (1991). The origin of horseback riding. Scientic American 265, 94100. Azzaroli, A. (1980). Venetic horses from Iron Age burials at Padova. Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 35, 282308. Bahn, P. (1984). Pre-Neolithic control of animals in Western Europe: the faunal evidence. In (C. Grigson & J. Clutton-Brock, Eds) Animals and Archaeology. Husbandry in Europe. Oxford: BAR International Series 227, pp. 2734. Benecke, N. (1994). Archa ologische Studien zur Entwicklung der Haustierhaltung in Mitteleuropa und Su dskandinavien von Anfa ngen bis zum ausgehenden Mittelalter. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Bibikova, V. I. (1967). K izucheniyu drevneishikh domashnikh loshadei vostochnoi Evropy. Biulleten Moskovskogo Obshchestva Ispytatelei Prirodi, Otdel Biologicheskii 72, 106117. Bo ko nyi, S. (1969). Archaeological problems and methods of recognizing animal domestication. In (P. J. Ucko & G. Dimbleby, Eds) The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. London: Duckworth, pp. 21929. Bo ko nyi, S. (1972). Data on Iron Age Horses of Central and Eastern Europe. Bulletin of the School of Prehistoric Research 25. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Bo ko nyi, S. (1974). History of Domestic Mammals in Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado. Burke, A. (1993). Applied skeletochronology: the horse as human prey during the Pleniglacial in southwestern France. In (G. L. Peterkin, H. Bricker & P. Mellars, Eds) Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia. Washington, DC: American Anthropological Association, pp. 145150. Clayton, H. M. (1985). A uoriscopic study of the position and action of dierent bits in the horses mouth. Equine Veterinary Science 5, 6877. Clayton, H. M. & Lee, R. (1984). A uoriscopic study of the position and action of the jointed snae bit in the horses mouth. Equine Veterinary Science 4, 193196. Clutton-Brock, J. (1974). The Buhen horse. Journal of Archaeological Science 1, 89100. Clutton-Brock, J. (1989). Introduction to domestication. In (J. Clutton-Brock, Ed.) The Walking Larder. Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation. London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 79. Clutton-Brock, J. & Davies, S. (1993). More donkeys from Tell Brak. Iraq 55, 209221. Crabtree, P. J. (1993). Early animal domestication in the Middle East and Europe. Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 5. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, pp. 201245. Davis, S. J. M. (1987). The Archaeology of Animals. New Haven: Yale University Press. Firouz, L. (1996). A look at the Turkoman horse in Iran. Institute for Ancient Equestrian Studies Newsletter 3, 24. Gheorgiu, D. (1994). Horse head sceptresrst images of yoked horses. Journal of Indo-European Studies 22, 221249. Ha usler, A. (1994). Archa ologische Zeugnisse fu r Pferd und Wagen in Ost- und Mitteleuropa. In (B. Ha nsel & S. Zimmer, Eds) Die Indogermanen und das Pferd. Budapest: Archaeolingua, pp. 217258. Hulbert, R. (1982). Population dynamics of the three-toed horse Neohipparion from the late Miocene of Florida. Paleobiology 8, 159167.

Trustees of Hartwick College. Methodological advice and access to collections were provided by Melinda Zeder and Katherine Gordon at the Smithsonian Institution; and by Pat Shipman at Johns Hopkins University. Without their early guidance we could not have proceeded. John Hunt of the Cornell University Materials Science Center helped with Scanning Electron Microscope imaging. The autopsy laboratories associated with the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Medicine Program and the Cornell University Veterinary Medicine Program supplied age, sex, breed and basic usage information for 40 domestic horse specimens. Additional data came from 12 live horses in the Horse Training and Behavior Program of the State University of New York at Cobleskill. Ron Keiper at Pennsylvania State University and the authors collected mandibles of feral horses from Assateague Island. Richard Wheeler of the Winnemucca oce of the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada donated mandibles of feral horses collected in the Nevada Plains. We thank these individuals and institutions for the crucial assistance that they provided. In Kiev, Ukraine, we received generous help and advice from Natalya Belan and Dimitri Telegin. In Samara, Russia, we were granted access to collections and boundless Russian hospitality by Igor Vasiliev, Pavel Kuznetsov, and A. Khokhlov; in Chelyabinsk, by Nikolai Vinogradov; in Petropavlovsk, Kazakstan, by Victor Zaibert and A. Kislenko; and in Budapest, Hungary, by Istvan Takacs and a very generous and thoughtful Sandor Bo ko nyi. The soft bit wear experiment was funded by the National Science Foundation. It was performed at the State University of New York at Cobleskill by students in the Horse Training and Behavior Program. Dr Steve MacKenzie supervised the project. Hemp rope was supplied by Vagn Noeddelund of Randers Ropeworks. The bone bit and antler cheekpieces were fashioned with int tools by Paul Trotta. We are grateful to the State University of New York and to these individuals for the important contributions they made to this project. A succession of Hartwick College undergraduate laboratory assistantsnotably Chris Smith, Maile Rehnburg, and Laura Hallgrenperformed most of the routine laboratory procedures. Sandra Olsen at The Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Mary Littauer have been constant sources of advice and commentary. Sebastian Payne oered many perceptive comments on an earlier draft. In the end, however, any mistakes we have made are our own.

References
Akhinzhanov, S. M., Makarova, L. A. & Nurumov, T. N. (1992). K istorii skotovodstva i okhoty v Kazakstane. Alma-Ata: Gylym. Anthony, D. W. (1991). The domestication of the horse. In (R. Meadow & H. Uerpmann, Eds) Equids in the Ancient World, Vol. II. Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag, pp. 250277. Anthony, D. W. (1994). The earliest horseback riders and IndoEuropean origins: new evidence from the steppes. In (B. Ha nsel &

Bit Wear Damage 347

Klein, R. G. (1982). Patterns of ungulate mortality and ungulate mortality proles from Langebaanweg (Early Pliocene) and Elandsfontein (Middle Pleistocene), southwestern Cape Province, South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 90, 4994. Klein, R. G. & Cruz-Uribe, K. (1984). The Analysis of Animal Bones from Archeological Sites. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Levine, M. (1982). The use of crown height measurements and eruptionwear sequences to age horse teeth. In (B. Wilson, C. Grigson & S. Payne, Eds) Ageing and Sexing Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, B.S. 109, pp. 223250. Levine, M. (1990). Dereivka and the problem of horse domestication. Antiquity 64, 727740. Levine, M. & Kislenko, A. M. (1997). New eneolithic and early bronze age radiocarbon dates for North Kazakhstan and South Siberia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7, 297300. Littauer, M. A. & Crouwel, J. (1979). Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East. Leiden: Brill. Meadow, R. H. (1989). Osteological evidence for the process of animal domestication. In (J. Clutton-Brock, Ed.) The Walking Larder. Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation. London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 8090. Molleson, T. & Blondiaux, J. (1994). Riders bones from Kish, Iraq. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4, 312316. Moorey, P. R. S. (1986). The emergence of the light, horse-drawn chariot in the Near East c. 20001500 B.C. World Archaeology 18, 196215. Nobis, G. (1971). Vom Wildpferd zum Hauspferd. Fundamenta Reihe B. vol. Band 6. Ko ln: Bohlau-Verlag. OBrien, C. J. (1995). Dental increments in East African Burchells zebra: a re-evaluation of bi-annual patterning. Manuscript on le, University of Wisconsin. Olsen, S. (1997). A model for incipient horse domestication based on the Eneolithic Botai culture and modern Kazak pastoralism. Paper delivered at the 62nd Annual Conference of the Society for American Archaeology, Nashville. Owen, D. I. (1991). The First Equestrian: an Ur III Glyptic Scene. Acta Sumerilogica 13, 259273. Payne, S. (1995). The equids from Tumulus KY. In (E. Kohler, Ed.) Gordion Final Excavation Reports, Vol. 2: The Lesser Phrygian Tumuli. Part 1: The Inhumation Burials, Appendix B. Philadelphia: University Museum Monograph 88, pp. 37244. Spinage, C. A. (1972). Age estimation of zebra. East African Wildlife Journal 10, 273277. Stead, I. M. (1991). Iron Age cemeteries in East Yorkshire. English Heritage Archaeological Report 22, 139147. Telegin, D. Y. (1986). Dereivka: A Settlement and Cemetery of Copper Age Horse Keepers on the Middle Dnieper (J. P. Mallory, Ed.). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, I.S. 287, pp. 1126. Uerpmann, H. (1990). Die domestikation des pferdes im Chalkolithikum West- und Mitteleuropas. Madrider Mitteilungen 31, 109153. Uerpmann, H. (1995). Domestication of the horse: when, where, and why? In Le Cheval et les Autres E u quide s: Aspects de lHistoire de leur Insertion dans les Activite s Humaines. Colloques dHistoire des Connaissances Zoologiques (Universite de Lie ` ge) 6, 1529. White, R. H. (1989). Husbandry and herd control in the Upper Paleolithic. Current Anthropology 30, 609632. Zaibert, V. F. (1993). Eneolit Uralo-Irtyshskogo mezhdurechia. Petropavlovsk: Nauka, Kazakhstan.