Professor William Taylor's upcoming book, 鈥楬oof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History,鈥櫶�featured in A&S Magazine.听听In the book, Professor Taylor writes that today鈥檚 world has been molded by humans鈥� relationship to horses.听听
Nearly a million years ago in what is now southern England, human ancestors called听Homo heidelbergensis听were creating tools from horse bones. Fast forward to about 30,000 years ago, and humans across Europe and northern Eurasia were regularly painting horses on cave walls and carving their likenesses from bone and ivory.
鈥淭he connection between people and horses is among the most ancient connections that we have with the animal world,鈥� says听William Taylor, an assistant professor of anthropology at the 澳门开奖结果2023开奖记录 and curator of archaeology for the 澳门开奖结果2023开奖记录 Museum of Natural History.
But Taylor says it鈥檚 what happened about 4,000 years ago that really changed things. That鈥檚 when people living in the grasslands near the Black Sea first domesticated horses.
And when that happened, Taylor says the effect on the world and the centuries that followed was not a gradual development 鈥渂ut a sudden jolt, a shock to the system鈥� that influenced nearly every aspect of human life鈥時evolutionizing things like transportation, agriculture and warfare.
鈥淎fter domestication, horses spread like wildfire, stampeding into new societies, creating new partnerships with people that shook up the structure of the ancient world almost听everywhere they went,鈥� he explains.听
Learn more about Professor听Taylor's research and book in听A&S Magazine
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