Archaeological Institute of America

Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare1. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling2–4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc3. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia5 and Anatolia6, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 bc, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association7 between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 bc8,9 driving the spread of Indo-European languages10. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium bc Sintashta culture11,12.

As the popularity of heritage tourism and archaeotourism grows, archaeologists and site managers have to consider the behavior and needs of tourists and tour operators when making decisions about how a site should be preserved and presented. As tourism and archaeology draw closer together, several issues need to be considered. These include assessing how tourism will impact the archaeological site and affect research decisions, determining who controls the development of the site for tourism and who will benefit from the results, and, of critical importance, the issue of how local communities will be engaged with the process. The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) has been involved with this issue on several fronts. In 2009, the AIA in collaboration with the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) created a set of guidelines both for people interested in organizing tours to archaeological sites and for those interested in visiting sites. The ATTA, a membership organization for companies in the travel trade industry, makes the guidelines available to its more than 1000 members, and the AIA requires all participants in AIA tours to receive a copy of the guidelines. In addition to creating the guidelines, the AIA through its Site Preservation Program works with organizations and projects around the world that are considering opening archaeological sites to tourism, training local community members as site stewards and tour guides, and providing education and outreach to both local communities and visitors. In this chapter, the authors discuss the issues and ideas that have emerged from these efforts and present a series of models and practices that are being employed at archaeological sites around the world.

Next article FreeFront MatterPDF Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 26, Number 3July–September 1922 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/AJS497935 Copyright © 1922 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved. Crossref reports no articles citing this article.