From Bit Wear to Ancient DNA: Steppe-ing Out

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Wheels, Horses, Babies and Bathwaters: Celebrating the Impact of David W. Anthony on the Study of Prehistory" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We found our first entry into steppe archaeology in 1989-1992 through a study of microwear caused by bits on horse teeth, which we hoped would identify bitted, and therefore ridden or driven, horses. From then through to the publication of the Samara Valley Project (2016) we attempted to understand the evolution of steppe pastoralism, while we watched the number of engaged western archaeologists increase around us. Today we celebrate the maturity of Eurasian steppe archaeology, and look ahead to being the petri dish within which the new methods of ancient DNA, calculus analysis, and isotope studies can reveal relationships that previously were debated or unknowable.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Wheels, Horses, Babies and Bathwaters: Celebrating the Impact of David W. Anthony on the Study of Prehistory

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24498