Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Horses and camels are central to life in Mongolia today, and dominate
much of its history. But it is striking that such an obvious opportunity
for domestication was not seized on by early peoples in other parts of the
world. In Europe, the pre-Neanderthals, Neanderthals, and later early mod-
ern inhabitants simply slaughtered the horses that they found there, though
the early modern humans did at least draw pictures of them on cave walls.
And the fi rst peoples who migrated into North and South America 13,000
years ago are likely to have driven the native American horses and camels to
extinction, just as they did the native American mastodons.
In contrast, when horses were reintroduced to the Americas by the
Conquistadors in the early 1500s, their fate was quite dif erent. They were
spread to the north from Mexico by the Europeans and some Indian tribes.
Some were eventually stolen and used for hunting and warfare by the plains
Indians. Within a generation or two, the Comanches and other tribes had
seamlessly merged horses and fi rearms into a superb cavalry that often won
pitched battles against the Europeans.
Why did the fi rst Asian migrants to the Americas, coming directly from
a culture that had already tamed wolves, not tame the horses they found on
the new continents? We know nothing about the behavior of
Equus scotti
, the
native American horses that the early migrants from Asia found living on the
that the horses brought by the Europeans to the Americas were the result of
thousands of years of selection. They could be approached more easily than
truly wild animals such as zebras. Their appearance and behaviors may have
called out to the plains Indians: “Hey! I'll bet you too can ride me!”
Horses and the human gene pool
The day before the eclipse, we took part in a festival that the people of the
nearby town of Khovd had put together to celebrate the event. Wrestlers
strained in mock combat and a group of elegantly costumed women danced
to the music of a Chinese lute, while a fl ock of steppe buzzards dipped and
swooped above the enthusiastic crowd.
