Thanks for watching! Please hit "like" and share the video around - it helps me out enormously. And if you enjoy my videos please consider supporting the channel: Patreon ➜ www.patreon.com/dandavisauthor My books ➜ amzn.to/3xngwz5
Truth is Dan, in spite of Skillshares advice to hook your viewers in the first ten seconds of your videos, we were hooked before you uploaded it. Fabulous work mate 👍
@@polka23dot70 and not because artifacts are hard to find? And not because without some written language it's much harder to document? And not because it's a large area to search? And not because it doesn't really matter who rode horses first?
A far distant mother would urinate a puddle on a bowled rock. A stag or reindeer type creature came to drink it for its minerals. She tamed and milked and bred this deer. Hello Bambi
Thank you, Dan Davis for your marvellous documentaries. If a German or a Swede were to have made such documentaries, they would have been chased out of town by the leftist woke thugs.
Man, it blows my mind just how routine it was for the entire Old World to get flipped like a pancake whenever some new player finished researching Animal Husbandry, Archery, and the Wheel, and built a Horse paddock on a Steppe/Grassland tile.
The replacement of essentially all of the previously domesticated horses by the Sintashta breed is such an interesting historic phenomenon. While clearly a dominant military force, the Sintashta must have also wielded significant economic power due to the widespread demand for their superior horse breed. It’s definitely a topic I need to do some reading on! Really interesting Dan.
Yes! And he goes on to say that superior breed and other advantages allowed those people to expand southwards, into the land that would eventually become the Persian Empire. I've always known that Arabians are the oldest horse breed, I just didn't realize ~how~ old that was!
If the horse is not troubled by back pain (gene GSDMC) and which will not startle too easily (gene ZFPM1) that makes it useful as a domestic animal. Spread across Europe using the stallion from this horse, meaning there are a multiplicity of Y genes. Some of them became feral. Like the mustangs.
@@deanfirnatine7814 huh? there were no horses in north america......there were some ancient ones millions of years ago before humans.....but otherwise all of the horses came from europe in north america
Afghans. Etymology Avestan The Sanskrit word ashva, Avestan aspa, and Prakrit assa mean "horse", while ashvaka (Prakrit assaka) means "horseman", "horse people", "land of horses", as well as "horse breeders" Pre-Christian times knew the people of the Hindu Kush region as Ashvakan, which literally means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "cavalrymen", since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen
Cattle drivers? Do you mean Drovers? At least that is what they are/were called on the plains and Western mountains of the US. That is what they are still called in the county records, out here. Not sure what they are called elsewhere. I was one for some of my misspent youth, on the High Colombia Plateau.
Yeah he said they were effective with there tactics. Britons had upgraded their chariots with iron wheels, or at least iron spokes, and they had massive shields, because they would mount and dismount there chariot to fight on foot. Leaving there chariots just behind them so if the fighting turned ugly, they could mount there chariot and gallop off. I believe in the contested naval landing initially near Dover, the Romans took significant casualties.
I wouldn't say panicked. The Romans were irritated. The Britons used chariots similar to how the US used Helicopters in Vietnam. Briton warriors, transported on their chariots, would be dropped off, the warriors then fought on foot. As soon as things became disadvantageous, these warriors would be picked up by their chariots and escape with ease. They were an incredibly slippery foe. Ceasar had a very hard time pinning them down...and so he decided to switch tactics and attack their supply forts instead of trying to pin this slippery foe down in a pitched battle.
I agree. It was a long time ago when I read Caesar. If I remember correctly nearly as soon as they arrived there was enemy contact and the charioteers got involved straight off.
Just look at what Cortés did with 16 horses. Only six of them had names. (The last bit is a joke, but with so few would it have killed him to give the names on the other ten?)
equestrianism and the concept of chivalry are deeply intertwined. many people associate chivalry with the middle ages, but it has existed long before like a thread stretching from the indoeuropean invasions through to the medieval period. the horse and it’s significance to human history is fascinating.
Load of horse shit. Chivalry did not exist before the Middle Ages, unless you argue conscripted Roman legionaries practicing army/unit traditions are considered “chivalry”. Chivalry is the product of feudal societies not horses. Another note, many German warriors and warbands, who would become the knights of European states when they took over pieces of the empire, fought mostly on foot.
@@dabo5078 Chivalry is not just the orderly army type, it can even be more disordered and less regulated and stardadised and if you think we've had to wait until the middle ages for that sort of thing, you'll sorely be disappointed.
@@mattia1026 The very foundation of Chivalry is the empahsize of your duty and loyalty to your lord. You would be hard told to argue chivalry exists in Roman legions when they assasinated and replaced emperors on a whim.
@@dunruden9720 Before Christ. Alternatively, historians also use the terms B.C.E (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). In either case 3,000 B.C or 3,000 B.C.E. happened about 5,000 years ago.
This is one of my favourite short quotes about chariot fighters: "... by daily training and practice they attain such proficiency that even on a steep incline they are able to control the horses at full gallop, and to check and turn them in a moment. They can run along the chariot pole, stand on the yoke, and get back into the chariot as quick as lightning" (Gallic War, IV.33). It must have been a sight to see
Thank you for this. I've begun to re-research an old manuscript to improve it and to re-write it. I've decided to put my Masters' Degrees to good use through storytelling. Lots of fertile, untold stories throughout the entirety of human history.
We must preserve the old tales , they are a part of us and very important if one wants to understand him / her self and our ancestors . The realisation of how much knowledge and history was lost and forgotten saddens me greatly , we must save as much as possible ! Thank you both for your efforts 🐺
I was unfamiliar with a lot of the dates for the adoption of horses for combat, therefore I was genuinely surprised at how late in history mounted cavalry were used by the Chinese for instance. Same with the Greek Dark Age - I had always thought that the Greeks had adopted cavalry not too long after the Bronze Age collapse, but it appears centuries after the fall of Mycenaean civilisation for cavalry to become widespread. A very informative and thought provoking video.
@@Kenshiroit yes I’ve heard that Theory also. It’s interesting that there is no evidence of this possible initial misunderstanding being modified as rumoured further encounters with these fantastic creatures clarified the situation. One possible explanation is that the equestrians mostly avoided the non horse herding populations …perhaps to preserve their advantage in knowing how to domesticate horses and ‘ exploit’ their unique potential. Dec third from Canada 🇨🇦
Yeah, well think about how hard it would be to transport large quantities of horses of Phoenician era ships. So for island city states the widespread adoption of Calvary would be slow.
The thing with the Eurasian Steppe is that the more western you get, the better the climate and weather is (from arid to semi-arid/temperate). E.g. Ukraine has mild winter and tolerable summer, but Kazakhstan has harsh winter and insufferable summer. Also, famous Ukrainian chernozems gave the best grass for the pastoral herds. Every sane person wants to have a better life, steppe nomads weren't an exception. Hence, we have this unending chain Yamna-Cimmerians-Scythians-Sarmatians-Alans. As soon as you get into Ukrainian part of the Steppe, you have two options: to stay or to try going even more western (Pannonian plain), but in order to get there you need to pass the Carpathian mountains. Living a good life in the western most part of the Steppe and contacting with civilizations like Greeks and Romans made nomads more civilized and hence soft and weak and then new pretenders, more feral and desperate, immediately took their place. After IE nomads there were Turkic and Mongolic tribes like Hunns, Bulgars, Avars, Pechenegs, Cumans and finally Tatar-Mongols who brought the nomadic war tactics and way of life to the extreme. Also, Madjars (Finno-Ugric) who managed to preserve their language and culture (Hungary), although their genetics is almost indistinguishable for the surrounding nations. But all this nomadic dominance have ended when the Europeans invented rifles :)
"Hence, we have this unending chain Yamna-Cimmerians-Scythians-Sarmatians-Alans. As soon as you get into Ukrainian part of the Steppe, you have two options: to stay or to try going even more western (Pannonian plain), but in order to get there you need to pass the Carpathian mountains." They were not Mongol-type nomads. All these peoples were seasonal pastoralists cattle breeding. And there is also evidence of the genetic and cultural continuity of generations from the early nomads to the modern Tatars.
Fun fact... Bulgars are still call the same way as they did thousands of years ago. The modern day Dunabe Bulgaria , established after Great Volga Bulgar(modern day Ukr and Rus) in South Eastern Europe kept the name of the ancestors and exist almost for 14 centuries. Very few in Europe survived the same ancient name they had in past.
How interesting. Horses helped humans progress more than we realize. Horses should forever be honored and cared for as they carried us throughout history.
It’s so interesting that it takes a novelist to arrange all these pieces in a credible way. I wish the BBC would get you to present a series on this prehistory. Maybe you could talk to a group that makes good quality documentaries?
Sadly the BBC quality is not remotely what it used to be. The BBC is more concerned with making woke indoctrination TV series than they are with making wonderful educational historical documentaries like they used to do, after all history is "problematic".
The origin and expansion of equestrianism! One of my favourite topics! BTW, Dan, I'm a recent Patreon supporter who asked recently for a recommendation of one of your books. Thanks again for the amazing content!
@@tonymaurice4157oh they’re Scythians, but they’re also the Hyksos and Hittites and Phrygians and Luwians and Mycenaeans. They’re R1A1 and it’s offshoots and related Haplogroups. Once they get access to that Lebanese cedar they also become incredible sea farers and the lineage branches into two distinct groups- Scythian and Phoenician (not to be confused with Carthaginian or Punic, which is strictly a merchant class with no warriors of their own, heavily reliant on mercenaries from other parts of the Phoenician “confederation.”) which later lead to the Northern sea farers of the Viking age, with some steps in between. The Hittites gain control over present day Lebanon in 1274 bc. They clear out of Anatoli in 1190 bc, which is right when the Sea People event happens. Anatolia had become a war zone with the approaching Assyrians and so the Hittites cleaned out their valuables and fled by boats out of Canaan to everywhere else in the Mediterranean. My thesis is that the Scythians resettled them in other lands under their control, which also included places they didn’t control like Britain and Spain. Haha.
This is the best video made by Dan Davis! I knew the basics before I watched this video and I could not find any mistakes in the video. I would mention Akhal-Teke cremello horses - they have blonde hair and blue eyes, so they look like the Caucasoids who domesticated them. I am surprised that Dan Davis mentioned Amazon myth, but did not mention centaur myth.
Thank you, delighted to hear that. Yes the centaurs were in the first draft but it was such a long video I had to cut lots out. I will make more videos about these peoples in future. Cheers.
@@DanDavisHistory the variety of film clips and stills is fantastic and seems very well integrated with your script. Skills talent dedication and focus!!
So happy to see such well researched and obscure topics getting a voice on youtube. I found your videos yesterday, and I have watched them all at this point. Thankful to be along for your journey. Thanks again!
Oh the Parthian Shot, from which we derive the term Parting Shot. Funny how a form of practical marksmanship utilized for centuries around the world by equestrian warriors, prior and after, can be named for a single group of practitioners. Hell, even the Plains Indians utilized it, and they were separated by two oceans from where it originated, and ain't a chance in hell they picked it up from someone else.
It is a well known phenomena that similar ideas and innovations are developped around the world often at the same or different times. There is some logic to it. Eventually we will all end up at the ssame conclusions. Interesting also of we apply it to all of life! Grin.
Fascinating stuff! I've always assumed that the earliest domesticated horses were very small - too small to take the weight of a rider, but could be used to pull a chariot where the rider's weight is carried on the wheels. Eventually they'd be bred bigger and able to take the load of a rider.
Interesting topic for a new video: a 2019 paper linked Bronze Age Luwian hieroglyphics with symbols on Gobekli Tepe - specifically the hieroglyphs for God and Gate, with the symbol shapes relatively unchanged for several millenai. While it’s pretty unfounded to say the Gobekli Tepe builders language was some proto-PIE or cousin related language and invented writing. The builders were likely one part of the genetic ancestral block for Luwian speakers, and it does show a symbol continuity in Anatolia, with at least two pictographs maintaining a rough meaning for a good 10,000 years before being adopted for formal hieroglyphic writing
To learn about Scythians ancestry, read the scientific study "Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe". There was very significant Siberian ancestry in the famous Karasuk, Pazyryk and Okunev Scythian cultures. Even in their material culture, the Siberian influences are evident. The archeologists call these the Scytho-Siberian archaeological horizon. The Pazyryk culture carried nearly 50% Nganasan type ancestry. It is a huge misrepresentation to display Scythian culture as an entirely Indo-European phenomenon.
One of the best historical documentaries I've seen. You having a storytelling background makes it extremely watchable. Do you ever plan working together with STJ on a documentary? It could combine genetics, archeology and cultural reconstruction.
One thing I find interesting is that as the styles of horseback warfare changed, the technology used by the horse warriors changed as well. Like take mounted archery for example. When it started out as chariot archery, the style of bow used was the Angular Bow, which had a very triangle-like shape. But by the time full-on mounted archery was on the scene, the Angular Bow is completely gone, and it's been replaced by the more iconic Recurve/Reflex Bow.
This is a marvelous synthesis of a huge amount of information from very disparate sources, well done! I'm amazed that you were able to incorporate the two Nature articles that were only published a month before, that help reinforce the "steppe hypothesis" of the origin of Indoeuropean languages, but from a totally different angle - horses!
Utterly fascinating. Your videos are some of the best on all of TH-cam, covering ancient and obscure topics, but with an incredibly entertaining and informative narration. Can't wait for more. Just wondering, what were the major advantages of horse riding over chariots, that causes the latter to fall out of use so quickly?
Thank you. Yes cavalry has more tactical flexibility ultimately you can get more warriors and more firepower. Chariots would also need experts to make repairs and so on.
I find myself coming back to your videos all the time, it almost feels like puzzle pieces fitting together the way we can learn so much about human culture across the planet through these videos
Bravo! Well done. I honestly can't think of anything I can complain about. Love this topic. And, you made it understandable. Really like how you pointed out the need for evolution of both people and horses. A very good example of logical analysis.
This is a great topic, it shows linear progression of cultural and technological developmen of Indo-Europeans in Eurasian continent. I think Indo-Iranian topic was very important to cover since not all people have clear understanding of connection between Indo-European and Indo-Iranian cultures....and how all this migration process was happening....back and forth... Also, I believe so Assyrian Stella's show battle between Assyrian troops and Cimmerians. Cimmerians were basically bronze age Skythians....before they developed into distinct Skythian culture of early iron age.....
@@DanDavisHistory Yes I believe so it does show battle of Urartu. Reason I'm including Cimmerians in this is because of one of the Stella's( one with chariot chasing mounted archers , while those archers shoot partisan shot) in your video which in often used in blogs sites and internet encyclopedias as well as books including in Ukrainian ones as a good example of cimmerian cavalry. Thing is that Urartian and Cimmerian cavalry looked incredibly similar at those times. Both used bits for their horses. Only difference that I know is that Urartitian cavalry used more bronze helmets while cimmerians used more hats that were very similar to hats later used by Cossacks... I wonder if those might have been combined troops of Urartian and Cimmerian cavalry? Also, this stella portrays use of "parthian shot"...which was used by Cimmerians....but if Urartian cavalry looked similar to Cimmerian than both most likely used same tactics....I wonder if both were allies at that time or even though of themselves as same people? 🤔
Hello Dan! Awesome video as usual. After watching it, I went on searching informations on related topics, and I found a table compiling archery related data (culture, structure, related items, date estimations...) based on archeology, and I realised that the first composite bows seem to emerge from archeological founds at both the same time and in the same areas/cultures than the first horse warriors came from. I was quite amazed that the first composite (using combination of different materials) and/or laminated bows (using combination of different essence/parts of the same material) are dated from 3000 BC, some possibly even before that. One thumb ring dated 2500-2000 BC has even been found from the Catacomb culture (pontic steppe/modern Ukraine/Russia), implying not only advanced the use ofcomposite bows but also the thumb ring technology and all what it means! I personally thought that this was more of an early iron age thing! Anyways, I thought that this would be an incredibly rich idea for a future video almost directly related to the first horse warriors.
It's nice to know that these videos are here. Thank you. Mummies were discovered in China sometime in the 1990s. Probably around 1997 and they bore a resemblance to Europeans.
Just got my alert 📢 Dan Davis dropping a half hour of Magical history, hit the pause, now for the science bit , hit the kettle for the cup of LYONS tea then cut a nice piece of Oxford lunch 👍 grab my ear phones and sit back and drift away through time. Thanks Dan I love the channel. Peace 🇮🇪
@@DanDavisHistory brilliant, I'm going to watch it again for the different tribes I really enjoy when you talk about and describe the different people's, I find it just fascinating can't get enough. Truly great content, great work. Loved it.
Fantastic. Really liked how you noted (however briefly) the successive waves of Eurasian horsemen. Also nice you did a compare/contrast on various bridles/bits. Thanks
Love the video and you should keep the theme going with a episode on the Sami people and there transition from hunting the reindeer to riding them 🙂 keep up the good work
Should be noted that the late chariots of the insular celts (Britons and Hibernians) were not the antiquated chariots of the bronze age that were abandoned by most of the world, rather they were an updated form that were much lighter and easier to manoeuvre. Still, it was on the decline as standard cavalry was more effective, and probably only remained as symbol of prestige
The oldest recorded battle in human history occurred at Meggido in modern day Israel in 1457 BC. The battle was between Egypt and a coalition of Cannaite city states. It is estimated 1,000 chariots were involved in the battle. Meggido is the root for Armageddon. I saw the area a few years ago and I tried to imagine the chariots rumbling through the valley.
A tour de force of academic rigor... among the best on TH-cam by far, and entertaining narration. Tks so much. It’s really an amazing talent you have for story telling
Another very interesting …and informative video! I have years of experience with horses and it’s amazing to think what these ancients could do using them. I’ve had a horse run off while I was driving a two wheel cart, very scary, I can imagine how easy it would be for a charioteer to be injured or killed For these people ride like that with out the use of stirrups is amazing I think
My grandmother lives in a rural region where young people ride horses with no equipment. No saddle, bit or stirrups. Just naked horses with very small half naked people riding them. There was always something ancient about the sight of seeing them ride a horse like that, so effortlessly.
The early and late adoption proponents can argue. The earliest Indo-European expansions were not dependent upon individual horseback riders. They could have done it with four-wheeled carts.
Just dropping a comment of appreciation for the algorithm. As usual, a great video. I'm always impressed by the quality of the information presented and the well reasoned approach you take.
This was a really interesting video to me mate. Thanks for clarifying feral v wild horses. It's amazing how bent out of shape people get over those two words if they are used incorrectly. On the war wagons I was imagining that 50/50 scenario: they might catch up to me as I'm fleeing. Bugger it, i'll take off on foot and hopefully they'll be distracted by or consider my war wagon as a fair trade. Women warriors 💃😎♥️
Thank you! So glad you liked it. Yeah I'm sure you'd feel quite secure in a war wagon until it came time to run away. I'd love to have a go in one. In a chariot on the other hand I think it's likely I would be killed or maimed on day 1.
Your channel is amazingly valuable. I became fascinated in the Bronze Age through my reading of the Bronze Age Collapse and your channel is so exciting for me. Now all you need to do is make connections between Minoa and the Byzantine Empire and my TH-cam journey is complete
I wouldn't worry as much about the first ten seconds unless you are aiming for some sort of pop culture niche or a tutorial. Your present 10-90 second intros that either set a scene or pose a question is well on par with other podcast/documentary/history/science channels and is absolutely appropriate to the audience searching out this sort of content.
I once learnt in an agricultural course that oxen plow is much more ineffective than horse plow. Since then I have much more respect towards the history of the human - horse relationship. It is so interesting and vital, old knowledge.
Hmmm.....oxen are better at 'breaking' new ground covered in dense turf and thick root masses. They are stronger and more non-plussed by unforseen events. Also can consume lower quality forage. However, they are slower and but require chunks of time to ruminate during the day. Horses are faster, more nimble when plowing prior cropland and can work longer in the day. Also quicker to learn a routine. Oxen are for initial clearing of land but horses are for exploiting great expanses of cleared land.
@@willbass2869 Never wanted to say a bad word against oxen. Am a big supporter for the old style farm with several different animals on it. Just pointed out one criteria, that can be used wisely if one knows it. The teaditional animal that "breaks open the soil" is the pig. They did that to break open soil even in woodland. The horses that I meant are rarely used for riding, they are big and have a very even temperament, they are still used by smart wood owners to work in the forest. If one compares a well balanced oxen team versus a well balanced horse team at plowing the horses "win", because the work is done quicker. If one uses the traditional cold blood horse breeds they are not much "weaker" than oxen they are really powerful. Horses react better on verbal commands than oxen. With oxen one needs to be besides them, the horses are able to do the work with the human behind them. The turning is much more precise with the horses. The hooves of the horse gives more traction. I am sure that oxen are good enough at plowing, it seems that once one has experienced a horse team they went for the horses to plow with. One can watch videos on this topic and in the Middle Ages there apparently happened a kind of "horse plowing revolution" in Europe. Both animals are very precious for human survival. Personally I love cattle a lot. I think a milk cow is one of the loveliest animals, when I milked them I liked to put my head on the cows side and feel her warmth and hear the gargling noises of her stomachs.
I have never done any animal work but I have watched a bit of a show called Rural Heritage that shows a lot of traditional American animal, usually horse drawn farm work. Big draft horses are very good at not only farm work but pulling all sorts of carts and even some riding. But big draft horses are fairly recent developments in the past couple hundred years. And the type of soil and the corresponding plow is a big factor too. Lighter and sandy soils are easier to plow and even small donkeys are sufficient. While thick heavy soils especially with thick sod need very powerful animals and strong iron or steel plows. So from my admittedly limited knowledge it is very location specific. And linked to culture as in Africa even to this day they use oxen quite heavily. But other places have their own cultural taboos about using specific animals be it oxen, horses, donkeys or mules. To say nothing of different sizes and breeds.
@@80krauser You are right. It is definitively a question of the circumstances. 👍🏼 I was talking about Middle Europe and there are several "revolutions" that were Important concerning this topic for example they found out about the "Kummet", I believe in English the horse collar, which improved the traction of horses immensely around 1000 AD. Donkeys, mules, oxen and horses were used for plowing and all have their pros and cons in their individual situation.
@@80krauser In Afrika hands down I believe in a certain climate an oxen team is better for the farmer especially concerning the feed. Oxen can eat many things that noone in his right mind would dare to offer a horse. Oxen can even digest leaves from trees try to do that to a horse and the average modern horse would probably die due to a colic.
Fun. Thanks for the archeological and genetic information! My personal theory is horses were taught to be pack animals, someone put a tired kid atop a gentle horse with a cushy pack, and the horses realized they could carry a human and kids realized they could ride the horses. To this day, the steppes have kid races on horses, and in this country when I was a kid, trainers would have brave kids able to follow instructions help train young horses to ride (I was one of those idiots on a very limited scale). I am sure that before this, horses were used to pull small wagons before the chariot showed up. I am hoping for archeological evidence of this someday.
Another phrase that nobody uses, but could help us understand their success, is “Cowboy Culture”, at the time, real wealth in terms of equity for trade, was represented at the highest value by Cattle. The ability to drive cattle herds long distances and make them larger but still controllable, was facilitated by horse riding. This would have secured great literal wealth for the riders and they could have traded for anything they wanted, and use their war skills on horse back to enforce their claims and demands.
Fantastic video. Man's relationship with the horse rivals that of the dog. It's amazing to think that calvary was s dominant part of warfare for 2500-3000 years. I also wondered as I watched if Tolkien should have had the Rohirrim in chariots.
Thank you very much. Tolkien's Rohan are based on the Anglo-Saxons aren't they, so the horse riding is appropriate for them. The horse was extremely important to them.
I really enjoyed reading Barry Cunliffe's book about the Scythians, I am still looking for more titles about the Indo-Iranian Steppe peoples, I haven't found much on the Saka or Massagetae yet, if you could recommend anything it'd be greatly appreciated :)
Me too just one small point Saka and Massegetae were north eastern iranian which is a branch of iranian. While the andronovo and sinashta were indo iranian.
Excellent. Learnt something, reaffirmed stuff I know and covered it all in great visuals and atmosphere. A constant 10 out 10 performance means you must be the Michael Jordan or Ronaldo of You Tubes Historians. Impressive.
Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns, Mongols... that is a pretty slim list for warrior cultures who were prominent in the history of steppe horse archery. Even if you just look from an European perspective, there are the Avars, the Bulgarians, the Hungarians, and numerious Turkic people like Cumans, Seljuk and so on at the very least.
Fascinating! This is a very informative video well worth watching. I am grateful. I am also currently practising horse archery, so this video is timely.
Great content. I read somewhere that the Horse breeders were the descendants of woolly Mammoth hunters, so being a 'warrior' was a derivative of hunting. Rounding up people as a resource and taking their goods and chattel. Slaves were one of the most lucrative commodities in the ancient world. For labour and breeding purposes. And of course 'protectionism'. 'Pay us and we will defend you... from us.'
There is a great documentary on Amazon about a little old lady who raises appolussa horses in new Zealand, no one really knows where that bread came from so they just assumed it was from Spain yet this little old lady saw a horse on a TV show that was in one of the stepe counties that looked like a appolussa, she contacted the man from the TV show and he went with her back to the Asian stepe to get DNA testing done and concluded that the appolussa was from the Asian stepe yet they have no idea how they came to the American west where the nez Peirce indians breed them in there thousands back in the day. If you like horse debates you should check it out lol
I think the first person to ride a horse was an adolescents boy. It probably started out as a game with the boys jumping onto the horse's back. Predatory animals will typically jump onto the back of a prey animal, like a horse and try to strangle it or slit it's throat from that position. The animal's natural reaction to this is to buck like hell until it either dislodges the predator or the predator succeeds in killing it. The boys would likely get into trouble if they killed the horses so they probably didn't intend to hurt the animal, just to hold on as long as possible. Eventually one of the boys would hold on long enough that the horse would realize the boy wasn't trying to kill it and would stop bucking. From this point the horse would let the boy ride it. And this was the first person to ride a horse.
When I was in school, world history was my favorite subject, but at the time so little of this was taught. My textbooks said the Scythians were mythic people at most, unimportant barbarians at best. Just imagining a civilization you describe sets my imagination ablaze!
You're channell is my favorite of the last few years. I just got done reading your Godborn books, master pieces my friend. Thank you for the content and history lessons.
Great video on a very fascinating topic. So, around 1000 BC horse riding became common on the steppe. I wonder what the driving force for this was? Was it horse breeding, or the invention of some critical riding tech, or maybe some herder just got tired of walking? Anyway, good job!!
Thank you. It's possible that climatic changes led to reduced rainfall meaning the river valleys and marshy landscapes where these towns were built could no longer support large populations year round. It might also have been that more widespread adoption of military riding meant that horse and cattle herds became even more vulnerable to surprise raiding and so adoption of nomadism was a response to that. Like many things in history - it was probably many things at once.
What is surprising is how late the stirrup came into use. One would think that at some point early in the mastery of riding horses that somebody would have said, I sure wish I had something to put my feet in...
Yeah it does seem surprising in retrospect but I suppose many great ideas are like that. Either way people did extremely well for a long time without them.
@@DanDavisHistory Like the wheel. Obvious after the fact. And...I am in book six of your Vampire Knight series and dude, it is freaking wonderful. I hope you have more in the mix.
I wonder how much autonomy the elite daughter warriors would have in their marriage and if them immersing themselves in warfare could be some form of husband shopping, since their sons would also be expected to be warriors.
Seems that fierce warrior cultures have examples of more sex equality. Spartan women could own property, spoke in public venues, conducted business and ventured outside the home. Athenians were aghast at behavior of Spartan women.
Just found your channel and I'm loving it. Studied history at university so it's so refreshing to find a channel that goes deep into historical debates and competing theories as well going into the different methods and schools of historical study and showing the more scientific side of historical studies.
![[FULL EP.73] เปิดบ้าน 70 ล้าน "แป้ง Zbing" ยกมาทั้งญี่ปุ่น l เคหสถานบานปลาย l One Playground](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YBnJhTt07Pg/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for watching! Please hit "like" and share the video around - it helps me out enormously.
And if you enjoy my videos please consider supporting the channel:
Patreon ➜ www.patreon.com/dandavisauthor
My books ➜ amzn.to/3xngwz5
Thanks for creating, awesome work as usual
Nice one, cheers. And thank you for watching!
Truth is Dan, in spite of Skillshares advice to hook your viewers in the first ten seconds of your videos, we were hooked before you uploaded it.
Fabulous work mate 👍
Do you have any idea if the Geats from Sweden are the same or related to the Getae from Dacia ? the names are way to similar to be just a coincidence
Excellent, thank you
*Guy mounts horse*
Horse: "Wh- what are you doing, steppe bro"
😂
That's enough internet for a day
Epic😂
...
I think that's enough of living for one day, I'll see you tomorrow, bye.
Next thing the horse does? Throw off the ‚bro‘.
Somebody develops lactose tolerance -> domestication of the horse -> series of dominoes -> I am wearing pants four thousand years later
I killed a deer a few days ago with a recurve bow as well lol
These people were smart and creative, but they cannot be mentioned in textbooks because they do not fit into politically correct education curriculum.
@@polka23dot70 and not because artifacts are hard to find? And not because without some written language it's much harder to document? And not because it's a large area to search? And not because it doesn't really matter who rode horses first?
@@phredphlintstone6455 no, it’s because they were white
A far distant mother would urinate a puddle on a bowled rock. A stag or reindeer type creature came to drink it for its minerals. She tamed and milked and bred this deer. Hello Bambi
Man there is something to the Horse warrior than never fails to stirr the heart. The Freedom under the endless sky? Great video.
Thank you.
That is why we romanticize the Cowboy so much
The endless sky was the God of the Eurasian steppes horse warriors.
TENGRI
The Eternal Blue Sky
Möngke Kök Tenger
PEACE.
It is within you
@@robertomassa731 dyus pater
Love this channel. A British novelist comes out of nowhere to drop fire Indo-European content. Well done, man.
Thank you.
Thank you, Dan Davis for your marvellous documentaries. If a German or a Swede were to have made such documentaries, they would have been chased out of town by the leftist woke thugs.
@@vijaykumarnadaraja531 There’s a Norwegian fellow that has good videos on similar topics though typically not as ancient history as Dan's stuff
@@alexanderren1097 Where's this Norwegian fellow you speak of?
Indo European is not the correct historical term......🤔🤔
Man, it blows my mind just how routine it was for the entire Old World to get flipped like a pancake whenever some new player finished researching Animal Husbandry, Archery, and the Wheel, and built a Horse paddock on a Steppe/Grassland tile.
The replacement of essentially all of the previously domesticated horses by the Sintashta breed is such an interesting historic phenomenon.
While clearly a dominant military force, the Sintashta must have also wielded significant economic power due to the widespread demand for their superior horse breed.
It’s definitely a topic I need to do some reading on! Really interesting Dan.
The New World version being the Nez Pierce with their Appaloosa breed named after the rolling hills of the Palouse Prairie
Yes! And he goes on to say that superior breed and other advantages allowed those people to expand southwards, into the land that would eventually become the Persian Empire.
I've always known that Arabians are the oldest horse breed, I just didn't realize ~how~ old that was!
If the horse is not troubled by back pain (gene GSDMC) and which will not startle too easily (gene ZFPM1) that makes it useful as a domestic animal.
Spread across Europe using the stallion from this horse, meaning there are a multiplicity of Y genes.
Some of them became feral. Like the mustangs.
@@deanfirnatine7814 huh? there were no horses in north america......there were some ancient ones millions of years ago before humans.....but otherwise all of the horses came from europe in north america
Cernunos in the vanguard
At the revival of
The nerd herd.
First time I clicked this fast, people hadn't even domesticated horses for riding yet. Thanks again, Dan!
lol you were right in there bro. I hope you enjoy the video.
@@DanDavisHistory more on indo aryans in india please
Fascinating stuff as always
Thanks mate!
Love seeing my favorites overlap 🥰🥰 appreciate you guys!!
Vaqueros, Cossacks, Gaúchos, Hussars, Cowboys, Cattle Drivers, all came to existence thanks to those peoples and their technology. Amazing
Afghans. Etymology Avestan The Sanskrit word ashva, Avestan aspa, and Prakrit assa mean "horse", while ashvaka (Prakrit assaka) means "horseman", "horse people", "land of horses", as well as "horse breeders" Pre-Christian times knew the people of the Hindu Kush region as Ashvakan, which literally means "horsemen", "horse breeders", or "cavalrymen", since they raised a fine breed of horses and had a reputation for providing expert cavalrymen
Cattle drivers? Do you mean Drovers? At least that is what they are/were called on the plains and Western mountains of the US. That is what they are still called in the county records, out here. Not sure what they are called elsewhere. I was one for some of my misspent youth, on the High Colombia Plateau.
Also samurai were originally horse archers.
And Knights?
Let's not forget Mr.Hands! R.I.P in peace brave horse lord 🤠
I believe in Caesar's Gallic Conquest he wrote about the charioteers causing quite a bit of panic for the Romans in Britain. Great content.
Yeah he said they were effective with there tactics. Britons had upgraded their chariots with iron wheels, or at least iron spokes, and they had massive shields, because they would mount and dismount there chariot to fight on foot. Leaving there chariots just behind them so if the fighting turned ugly, they could mount there chariot and gallop off.
I believe in the contested naval landing initially near Dover, the Romans took significant casualties.
I wouldn't say panicked. The Romans were irritated. The Britons used chariots similar to how the US used Helicopters in Vietnam.
Briton warriors, transported on their chariots, would be dropped off, the warriors then fought on foot. As soon as things became disadvantageous, these warriors would be picked up by their chariots and escape with ease.
They were an incredibly slippery foe. Ceasar had a very hard time pinning them down...and so he decided to switch tactics and attack their supply forts instead of trying to pin this slippery foe down in a pitched battle.
I agree. It was a long time ago when I read Caesar. If I remember correctly nearly as soon as they arrived there was enemy contact and the charioteers got involved straight off.
Just look at what Cortés did with 16 horses. Only six of them had names. (The last bit is a joke, but with so few would it have killed him to give the names on the other ten?)
But the Romans won
equestrianism and the concept of chivalry are deeply intertwined. many people associate chivalry with the middle ages, but it has existed long before like a thread stretching from the indoeuropean invasions through to the medieval period. the horse and it’s significance to human history is fascinating.
Horse milk and the Indo-Europeans linked with ability to tolerate lactose unlike many races?
The story of the camel is much the same
Load of horse shit. Chivalry did not exist before the Middle Ages, unless you argue conscripted Roman legionaries practicing army/unit traditions are considered “chivalry”. Chivalry is the product of feudal societies not horses. Another note, many German warriors and warbands, who would become the knights of European states when they took over pieces of the empire, fought mostly on foot.
@@dabo5078 Chivalry is not just the orderly army type, it can even be more disordered and less regulated and stardadised and if you think we've had to wait until the middle ages for that sort of thing, you'll sorely be disappointed.
@@mattia1026 The very foundation of Chivalry is the empahsize of your duty and loyalty to your lord. You would be hard told to argue chivalry exists in Roman legions when they assasinated and replaced emperors on a whim.
Thank you for showing traditional Mongolian life style exclusively in your video. Cheers from Mongolia
Greetings from descendant of Sintasha culture. Pamir, Tajikistan, Central Asia, Turan, Eastern Iranian
Somewhere in Central Asia, ~3000 BC
“Guys, if it worked on horses, why wouldn’t it work on tigers?!”
Milking or riding tigers? 🐅🐯
What's B.C?
@@dunruden9720 Before Christ. Alternatively, historians also use the terms B.C.E (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). In either case 3,000 B.C or 3,000 B.C.E. happened about 5,000 years ago.
You've never owned cats, have you? All felines are independent. If anything they bend us to their will.
@@dunruden9720 before christ
This is one of my favourite short quotes about chariot fighters:
"... by daily training and practice they attain such proficiency that even on a steep incline they are able to control the horses at full gallop, and to check and turn them in a moment. They can run along the chariot pole, stand on the yoke, and get back into the chariot as quick as lightning" (Gallic War, IV.33).
It must have been a sight to see
Thank you for this. I've begun to re-research an old manuscript to improve it and to re-write it. I've decided to put my Masters' Degrees to good use through storytelling. Lots of fertile, untold stories throughout the entirety of human history.
Indeed!
We must preserve the old tales , they are a part of us and very important if one wants to understand him / her self and our ancestors .
The realisation of how much knowledge and history was lost and forgotten saddens me greatly , we must save as much as possible !
Thank you both for your efforts 🐺
I was unfamiliar with a lot of the dates for the adoption of horses for combat, therefore I was genuinely surprised at how late in history mounted cavalry were used by the Chinese for instance. Same with the Greek Dark Age - I had always thought that the Greeks had adopted cavalry not too long after the Bronze Age collapse, but it appears centuries after the fall of Mycenaean civilisation for cavalry to become widespread. A very informative and thought provoking video.
Thank you.
I was not aware either. Great film, very enlightening.
Also I appreciate the rare effort to gather high quality footage/resources. Thank you. 🤝
I read somewhere that the myth of the centaur, half man half horse is a ancestral memory of the early encounter of locals with these steppe raiders.
@@Kenshiroit yes I’ve heard that Theory also.
It’s interesting that there is no evidence of this
possible initial misunderstanding being modified as rumoured further encounters
with these fantastic creatures clarified the situation.
One possible explanation is that the equestrians mostly avoided the non horse herding populations …perhaps to preserve their advantage in knowing how to domesticate horses and ‘ exploit’ their unique potential.
Dec third from Canada 🇨🇦
Yeah, well think about how hard it would be to transport large quantities of horses of Phoenician era ships. So for island city states the widespread adoption of Calvary would be slow.
It would be interesting to see more content on the Sintashta culture, very fascinating stuff.
Thank you yes they deserve a dedicated video for sure.
The thing with the Eurasian Steppe is that the more western you get, the better the climate and weather is (from arid to semi-arid/temperate). E.g. Ukraine has mild winter and tolerable summer, but Kazakhstan has harsh winter and insufferable summer. Also, famous Ukrainian chernozems gave the best grass for the pastoral herds. Every sane person wants to have a better life, steppe nomads weren't an exception. Hence, we have this unending chain Yamna-Cimmerians-Scythians-Sarmatians-Alans. As soon as you get into Ukrainian part of the Steppe, you have two options: to stay or to try going even more western (Pannonian plain), but in order to get there you need to pass the Carpathian mountains.
Living a good life in the western most part of the Steppe and contacting with civilizations like Greeks and Romans made nomads more civilized and hence soft and weak and then new pretenders, more feral and desperate, immediately took their place. After IE nomads there were Turkic and Mongolic tribes like Hunns, Bulgars, Avars, Pechenegs, Cumans and finally Tatar-Mongols who brought the nomadic war tactics and way of life to the extreme. Also, Madjars (Finno-Ugric) who managed to preserve their language and culture (Hungary), although their genetics is almost indistinguishable for the surrounding nations.
But all this nomadic dominance have ended when the Europeans invented rifles :)
"Hence, we have this unending chain Yamna-Cimmerians-Scythians-Sarmatians-Alans. As soon as you get into Ukrainian part of the Steppe, you have two options: to stay or to try going even more western (Pannonian plain), but in order to get there you need to pass the Carpathian mountains."
They were not Mongol-type nomads. All these peoples were seasonal pastoralists cattle breeding. And there is also evidence of the genetic and cultural continuity of generations from the early nomads to the modern Tatars.
Like a funnel channeling barbarians deep into the womb of Europe to impregnate her with their strength ... I'm such a pervert lol couldn't help myself
Fun fact... Bulgars are still call the same way as they did thousands of years ago. The modern day Dunabe Bulgaria , established after Great Volga Bulgar(modern day Ukr and Rus) in South Eastern Europe kept the name of the ancestors and exist almost for 14 centuries. Very few in Europe survived the same ancient name they had in past.
Rifle is not European invention, as a matter of fact.
@@torobayWho was the inventor than??
How interesting. Horses helped humans progress more than we realize. Horses should forever be honored and cared for as they carried us throughout history.
Great video. It's unbelievable how far we've come now with archaeogenetics. The prehistoric past is richer then most could ever imagine. Ty
Thank you. Yes it has already been revolutionary and it is still ongoing - we've barely scratched the surface really. Very exciting.
It’s so interesting that it takes a novelist to arrange all these pieces in a credible way. I wish the BBC would get you to present a series on this prehistory. Maybe you could talk to a group that makes good quality documentaries?
Sadly the BBC quality is not remotely what it used to be. The BBC is more concerned with making woke indoctrination TV series than they are with making wonderful educational historical documentaries like they used to do, after all history is "problematic".
The origin and expansion of equestrianism! One of my favourite topics! BTW, Dan, I'm a recent Patreon supporter who asked recently for a recommendation of one of your books. Thanks again for the amazing content!
Wonderful, thank you very much. I hope you enjoy this one too. See you on Patreon.
@@DanDavisHistory im pretty sure it's Scythian... No, K
@@tonymaurice4157oh they’re Scythians, but they’re also the Hyksos and Hittites and Phrygians and Luwians and Mycenaeans.
They’re R1A1 and it’s offshoots and related Haplogroups.
Once they get access to that Lebanese cedar they also become incredible sea farers and the lineage branches into two distinct groups- Scythian and Phoenician (not to be confused with Carthaginian or Punic, which is strictly a merchant class with no warriors of their own, heavily reliant on mercenaries from other parts of the Phoenician “confederation.”) which later lead to the Northern sea farers of the Viking age, with some steps in between.
The Hittites gain control over present day Lebanon in 1274 bc. They clear out of Anatoli in 1190 bc, which is right when the Sea People event happens. Anatolia had become a war zone with the approaching Assyrians and so the Hittites cleaned out their valuables and fled by boats out of Canaan to everywhere else in the Mediterranean.
My thesis is that the Scythians resettled them in other lands under their control, which also included places they didn’t control like Britain and Spain. Haha.
This is the best video made by Dan Davis! I knew the basics before I watched this video and I could not find any mistakes in the video. I would mention Akhal-Teke cremello horses - they have blonde hair and blue eyes, so they look like the Caucasoids who domesticated them. I am surprised that Dan Davis mentioned Amazon myth, but did not mention centaur myth.
Thank you, delighted to hear that. Yes the centaurs were in the first draft but it was such a long video I had to cut lots out. I will make more videos about these peoples in future. Cheers.
@@DanDavisHistory I would not mind if your videos were even longer. Just take the time you need to tell what you feel is relevant :)
Thank you.
@@DanDavisHistory the variety of film clips and stills is fantastic and seems very well integrated with your script. Skills talent dedication and focus!!
So happy to see such well researched and obscure topics getting a voice on youtube. I found your videos yesterday, and I have watched them all at this point. Thankful to be along for your journey. Thanks again!
Thanks very much, welcome to the channel I'm very glad you found it. Cheers!
Oh the Parthian Shot, from which we derive the term Parting Shot. Funny how a form of practical marksmanship utilized for centuries around the world by equestrian warriors, prior and after, can be named for a single group of practitioners. Hell, even the Plains Indians utilized it, and they were separated by two oceans from where it originated, and ain't a chance in hell they picked it up from someone else.
It is a well known phenomena that similar ideas and innovations are developped around the world often at the same or different times. There is some logic to it. Eventually we will all end up at the ssame conclusions. Interesting also of we apply it to all of life! Grin.
Fascinating stuff! I've always assumed that the earliest domesticated horses were very small - too small to take the weight of a rider, but could be used to pull a chariot where the rider's weight is carried on the wheels. Eventually they'd be bred bigger and able to take the load of a rider.
An awesome analysis of ancient hose riding cultures. A summarized overview of evolution of steppe warriors.
Interesting topic for a new video: a 2019 paper linked Bronze Age Luwian hieroglyphics with symbols on Gobekli Tepe - specifically the hieroglyphs for God and Gate, with the symbol shapes relatively unchanged for several millenai.
While it’s pretty unfounded to say the Gobekli Tepe builders language was some proto-PIE or cousin related language and invented writing. The builders were likely one part of the genetic ancestral block for Luwian speakers, and it does show a symbol continuity in Anatolia, with at least two pictographs maintaining a rough meaning for a good 10,000 years before being adopted for formal hieroglyphic writing
Considered it all being nothing but nationalistic nonsense?
To learn about Scythians ancestry, read the scientific study "Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe". There was very significant Siberian ancestry in the famous Karasuk, Pazyryk and Okunev Scythian cultures. Even in their material culture, the Siberian influences are evident. The archeologists call these the Scytho-Siberian archaeological horizon. The Pazyryk culture carried nearly 50% Nganasan type ancestry. It is a huge misrepresentation to display Scythian culture as an entirely Indo-European phenomenon.
One of the best historical documentaries I've seen. You having a storytelling background makes it extremely watchable. Do you ever plan working together with STJ on a documentary? It could combine genetics, archeology and cultural reconstruction.
One thing I find interesting is that as the styles of horseback warfare changed, the technology used by the horse warriors changed as well. Like take mounted archery for example. When it started out as chariot archery, the style of bow used was the Angular Bow, which had a very triangle-like shape. But by the time full-on mounted archery was on the scene, the Angular Bow is completely gone, and it's been replaced by the more iconic Recurve/Reflex Bow.
This is a marvelous synthesis of a huge amount of information from very disparate sources, well done! I'm amazed that you were able to incorporate the two Nature articles that were only published a month before, that help reinforce the "steppe hypothesis" of the origin of Indoeuropean languages, but from a totally different angle - horses!
Thank you
Utterly fascinating.
Your videos are some of the best on all of TH-cam, covering ancient and obscure topics, but with an incredibly entertaining and informative narration.
Can't wait for more.
Just wondering, what were the major advantages of horse riding over chariots, that causes the latter to fall out of use so quickly?
Thank you. Yes cavalry has more tactical flexibility ultimately you can get more warriors and more firepower. Chariots would also need experts to make repairs and so on.
I find myself coming back to your videos all the time, it almost feels like puzzle pieces fitting together the way we can learn so much about human culture across the planet through these videos
Bravo! Well done. I honestly can't think of anything I can complain about. Love this topic. And, you made it understandable. Really like how you pointed out the need for evolution of both people and horses. A very good example of logical analysis.
Thank you.
This is a great topic, it shows linear progression of cultural and technological developmen of Indo-Europeans in Eurasian continent. I think Indo-Iranian topic was very important to cover since not all people have clear understanding of connection between Indo-European and Indo-Iranian cultures....and how all this migration process was happening....back and forth... Also, I believe so Assyrian Stella's show battle between Assyrian troops and Cimmerians. Cimmerians were basically bronze age Skythians....before they developed into distinct Skythian culture of early iron age.....
Yes this topic deserves more discussion, I will have to do more myself. The Assyrian cavalry reliefs are very likely showing battles with Urartu.
@@DanDavisHistory Yes I believe so it does show battle of Urartu. Reason I'm including Cimmerians in this is because of one of the Stella's( one with chariot chasing mounted archers , while those archers shoot partisan shot) in your video which in often used in blogs sites and internet encyclopedias as well as books including in Ukrainian ones as a good example of cimmerian cavalry. Thing is that Urartian and Cimmerian cavalry looked incredibly similar at those times. Both used bits for their horses. Only difference that I know is that Urartitian cavalry used more bronze helmets while cimmerians used more hats that were very similar to hats later used by Cossacks... I wonder if those might have been combined troops of Urartian and Cimmerian cavalry? Also, this stella portrays use of "parthian shot"...which was used by Cimmerians....but if Urartian cavalry looked similar to Cimmerian than both most likely used same tactics....I wonder if both were allies at that time or even though of themselves as same people? 🤔
Hello Dan! Awesome video as usual. After watching it, I went on searching informations on related topics, and I found a table compiling archery related data (culture, structure, related items, date estimations...) based on archeology, and I realised that the first composite bows seem to emerge from archeological founds at both the same time and in the same areas/cultures than the first horse warriors came from. I was quite amazed that the first composite (using combination of different materials) and/or laminated bows (using combination of different essence/parts of the same material) are dated from 3000 BC, some possibly even before that. One thumb ring dated 2500-2000 BC has even been found from the Catacomb culture (pontic steppe/modern Ukraine/Russia), implying not only advanced the use ofcomposite bows but also the thumb ring technology and all what it means! I personally thought that this was more of an early iron age thing!
Anyways, I thought that this would be an incredibly rich idea for a future video almost directly related to the first horse warriors.
This is amazing Dan , never heard of the Sintashta. They are going to be my next 3D characters in Civ 4. Cheers
It's nice to know that these videos are here. Thank you. Mummies were discovered in China sometime in the 1990s. Probably around 1997 and they bore a resemblance to Europeans.
Just got my alert 📢 Dan Davis dropping a half hour of Magical history, hit the pause, now for the science bit , hit the kettle for the cup of LYONS tea then cut a nice piece of Oxford lunch 👍 grab my ear phones and sit back and drift away through time. Thanks Dan I love the channel. Peace 🇮🇪
Awesome Sean, I appreciate your support as always. I hope you like the video.
@@DanDavisHistory brilliant, I'm going to watch it again for the different tribes I really enjoy when you talk about and describe the different people's, I find it just fascinating can't get enough. Truly great content, great work. Loved it.
Thank you!
Fantastic. Really liked how you noted (however briefly) the successive waves of Eurasian horsemen.
Also nice you did a compare/contrast on various bridles/bits.
Thanks
More more more!
I could watch a topic like this all day! So we’ll done👍
Thank you.
Amazing video Dan. Proud to be partly descended from Sintashta and Andronovo horse warriors.
Love the video and you should keep the theme going with a episode on the Sami people and there transition from hunting the reindeer to riding them 🙂 keep up the good work
Agreed
The Sami people are just awesome. I'd love to hear more of them. 💜
Reindeer most certainly isn't ridden on, they might be used occasionally pulling sledges!
Where did you get that nonsense?
Should be noted that the late chariots of the insular celts (Britons and Hibernians) were not the antiquated chariots of the bronze age that were abandoned by most of the world, rather they were an updated form that were much lighter and easier to manoeuvre. Still, it was on the decline as standard cavalry was more effective, and probably only remained as symbol of prestige
I like your choice of fillies in the clips. The horses look cool too.
Happy Days are here again.......................a Dan Davis video.
The oldest recorded battle in human history occurred at Meggido in modern day Israel in 1457 BC. The battle was between Egypt and a coalition of Cannaite city states. It is estimated 1,000 chariots were involved in the battle. Meggido is the root for Armageddon.
I saw the area a few years ago and I tried to imagine the chariots rumbling through the valley.
Actually, it's now (earliest battle) the Tollense valley.
A tour de force of academic rigor... among the best on TH-cam by far, and entertaining narration. Tks so much. It’s really an amazing talent you have for story telling
Thank you!
Great video.
The Sintashta seem so pivotal and so interesting. Is there more you can do about them?
Thank you. Yes, you're right. Maybe I should do a video just about them. Yeah, I'll do that.
The best channel on TH-cam for this type of content!
Nice one, thank you.
Another very interesting …and informative video!
I have years of experience with horses and it’s amazing to think what these ancients could do using them. I’ve had a horse run off while I was driving a two wheel cart, very scary, I can imagine how easy it would be for a charioteer to be injured or killed
For these people ride like that with out the use of stirrups is amazing I think
My grandmother lives in a rural region where young people ride horses with no equipment. No saddle, bit or stirrups.
Just naked horses with very small half naked people riding them.
There was always something ancient about the sight of seeing them ride a horse like that, so effortlessly.
I learnt riding without anything artificial.. Even today the most comfortable saddles feels unnatural.
The early and late adoption proponents can argue. The earliest Indo-European expansions were not dependent upon individual horseback riders. They could have done it with four-wheeled carts.
Just dropping a comment of appreciation for the algorithm. As usual, a great video. I'm always impressed by the quality of the information presented and the well reasoned approach you take.
A really interesting, and also vital subject in the study of our history, top quality as always!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
This was a really interesting video to me mate. Thanks for clarifying feral v wild horses. It's amazing how bent out of shape people get over those two words if they are used incorrectly. On the war wagons I was imagining that 50/50 scenario: they might catch up to me as I'm fleeing. Bugger it, i'll take off on foot and hopefully they'll be distracted by or consider my war wagon as a fair trade. Women warriors 💃😎♥️
Thank you! So glad you liked it. Yeah I'm sure you'd feel quite secure in a war wagon until it came time to run away. I'd love to have a go in one. In a chariot on the other hand I think it's likely I would be killed or maimed on day 1.
@@DanDavisHistory 😂😂😂😂
It's like gun people getting all uptight about using clip vs. Magazine lol
Your channel is amazingly valuable. I became fascinated in the Bronze Age through my reading of the Bronze Age Collapse and your channel is so exciting for me. Now all you need to do is make connections between Minoa and the Byzantine Empire and my TH-cam journey is complete
I've been waiting to get around to this all day with bated breath. Great video as always, Mr. Davis. Cheers!
I wouldn't worry as much about the first ten seconds unless you are aiming for some sort of pop culture niche or a tutorial.
Your present 10-90 second intros that either set a scene or pose a question is well on par with other podcast/documentary/history/science channels and is absolutely appropriate to the audience searching out this sort of content.
Yes thinking in terms of audience is definitely important, thank you.
@@DanDavisHistory you are welcome, and I'll keep listening either way!
I once learnt in an agricultural course that oxen plow is much more ineffective than horse plow. Since then I have much more respect towards the history of the human - horse relationship. It is so interesting and vital, old knowledge.
Hmmm.....oxen are better at 'breaking' new ground covered in dense turf and thick root masses. They are stronger and more non-plussed by unforseen events. Also can consume lower quality forage. However, they are slower and but require chunks of time to ruminate during the day.
Horses are faster, more nimble when plowing prior cropland and can work longer in the day. Also quicker to learn a routine.
Oxen are for initial clearing of land but horses are for exploiting great expanses of cleared land.
@@willbass2869 Never wanted to say a bad word against oxen. Am a big supporter for the old style farm with several different animals on it.
Just pointed out one criteria, that can be used wisely if one knows it.
The teaditional animal that "breaks open the soil" is the pig. They did that to break open soil even in woodland.
The horses that I meant are rarely used for riding, they are big and have a very even temperament, they are still used by smart wood owners to work in the forest.
If one compares a well balanced oxen team versus a well balanced horse team at plowing the horses "win", because the work is done quicker. If one uses the traditional cold blood horse breeds they are not much "weaker" than oxen they are really powerful.
Horses react better on verbal commands than oxen. With oxen one needs to be besides them, the horses are able to do the work with the human behind them. The turning is much more precise with the horses. The hooves of the horse gives more traction. I am sure that oxen are good enough at plowing, it seems that once one has experienced a horse team they went for the horses to plow with. One can watch videos on this topic and in the Middle Ages there apparently happened a kind of "horse plowing revolution" in Europe.
Both animals are very precious for human survival. Personally I love cattle a lot. I think a milk cow is one of the loveliest animals, when I milked them I liked to put my head on the cows side and feel her warmth and hear the gargling noises of her stomachs.
I have never done any animal work but I have watched a bit of a show called Rural Heritage that shows a lot of traditional American animal, usually horse drawn farm work. Big draft horses are very good at not only farm work but pulling all sorts of carts and even some riding. But big draft horses are fairly recent developments in the past couple hundred years.
And the type of soil and the corresponding plow is a big factor too. Lighter and sandy soils are easier to plow and even small donkeys are sufficient. While thick heavy soils especially with thick sod need very powerful animals and strong iron or steel plows.
So from my admittedly limited knowledge it is very location specific. And linked to culture as in Africa even to this day they use oxen quite heavily. But other places have their own cultural taboos about using specific animals be it oxen, horses, donkeys or mules. To say nothing of different sizes and breeds.
@@80krauser You are right. It is definitively a question of the circumstances. 👍🏼
I was talking about Middle Europe and there are several "revolutions" that were Important concerning this topic for example they found out about the "Kummet", I believe in English the horse collar, which improved the traction of horses immensely around 1000 AD.
Donkeys, mules, oxen and horses were used for plowing and all have their pros and cons in their individual situation.
@@80krauser In Afrika hands down I believe in a certain climate an oxen team is better for the farmer especially concerning the feed. Oxen can eat many things that noone in his right mind would dare to offer a horse. Oxen can even digest leaves from trees try to do that to a horse and the average modern horse would probably die due to a colic.
Fun. Thanks for the archeological and genetic information!
My personal theory is horses were taught to be pack animals, someone put a tired kid atop a gentle horse with a cushy pack, and the horses realized they could carry a human and kids realized they could ride the horses. To this day, the steppes have kid races on horses, and in this country when I was a kid, trainers would have brave kids able to follow instructions help train young horses to ride (I was one of those idiots on a very limited scale). I am sure that before this, horses were used to pull small wagons before the chariot showed up. I am hoping for archeological evidence of this someday.
I appreciate this - Don Cossacks on my father's side here.
Another phrase that nobody uses, but could help us understand their success, is “Cowboy Culture”, at the time, real wealth in terms of equity for trade, was represented at the highest value by Cattle. The ability to drive cattle herds long distances and make them larger but still controllable, was facilitated by horse riding. This would have secured great literal wealth for the riders and they could have traded for anything they wanted, and use their war skills on horse back to enforce their claims and demands.
Fantastic video. Man's relationship with the horse rivals that of the dog. It's amazing to think that calvary was s dominant part of warfare for 2500-3000 years.
I also wondered as I watched if Tolkien should have had the Rohirrim in chariots.
Thank you very much. Tolkien's Rohan are based on the Anglo-Saxons aren't they, so the horse riding is appropriate for them. The horse was extremely important to them.
This will be a great source of inspiration for my d&d campaign, hope you don't mind!
I really enjoyed reading Barry Cunliffe's book about the Scythians, I am still looking for more titles about the Indo-Iranian Steppe peoples, I haven't found much on the Saka or Massagetae yet, if you could recommend anything it'd be greatly appreciated :)
Me too just one small point Saka and Massegetae were north eastern iranian which is a branch of iranian. While the andronovo and sinashta were indo iranian.
Thank you for your hard Work! You are a master of history and a expert story writer!
Fantastic vid Dan.
Will have to tell my Hungarian mate who's just bought a horse about it. He'll be stoked.
Thanks
Thank you.
Present day hungarians aint same as old
Reed the news about dna researches
Excellent. Learnt something, reaffirmed stuff I know and covered it all in great visuals and atmosphere. A constant 10 out 10 performance means you must be the Michael Jordan or Ronaldo of You Tubes Historians. Impressive.
lol thank you! That's awesome.
Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns, Mongols... that is a pretty slim list for warrior cultures who were prominent in the history of steppe horse archery.
Even if you just look from an European perspective, there are the Avars, the Bulgarians, the Hungarians, and numerious Turkic people like Cumans, Seljuk and so on at the very least.
They moved west
Thanks excellent video. Argentinean’s gauchos and their history and connection to the horses is pretty amazing ….
Fascinating! This is a very informative video well worth watching. I am grateful. I am also currently practising horse archery, so this video is timely.
Great content. I read somewhere that the Horse breeders were the descendants of woolly Mammoth hunters, so being a 'warrior' was a derivative of hunting. Rounding up people as a resource and taking their goods and chattel. Slaves were one of the most lucrative commodities in the ancient world. For labour and breeding purposes. And of course 'protectionism'. 'Pay us and we will defend you... from us.'
I wont be surprised if most humans are descendents of elephant/mammoth hunters
@@DieNibelungenliad Nope, there are people who do not dwell in right regions, like coastal dwellers. Caucasian and Mongolic people maybe.
Hahaaa!! I've been waiting for this one since the fierce comment debate I got into over this very topic on your last horse video!! Woohoo!!!
Ha, nice one Sean. I hope you like this one. These debates will continue to rage on I'm sure.
There is a great documentary on Amazon about a little old lady who raises appolussa horses in new Zealand, no one really knows where that bread came from so they just assumed it was from Spain yet this little old lady saw a horse on a TV show that was in one of the stepe counties that looked like a appolussa, she contacted the man from the TV show and he went with her back to the Asian stepe to get DNA testing done and concluded that the appolussa was from the Asian stepe yet they have no idea how they came to the American west where the nez Peirce indians breed them in there thousands back in the day. If you like horse debates you should check it out lol
@@missourimongoose7643 that does in fact sound fascinating :o Thanks for the tip!!
I think the first person to ride a horse was an adolescents boy. It probably started out as a game with the boys jumping onto the horse's back.
Predatory animals will typically jump onto the back of a prey animal, like a horse and try to strangle it or slit it's throat from that position.
The animal's natural reaction to this is to buck like hell until it either dislodges the predator or the predator succeeds in killing it.
The boys would likely get into trouble if they killed the horses so they probably didn't intend to hurt the animal, just to hold on as long as possible.
Eventually one of the boys would hold on long enough that the horse would realize the boy wasn't trying to kill it and would stop bucking. From this point the horse would let the boy ride it. And this was the first person to ride a horse.
When I was in school, world history was my favorite subject, but at the time so little of this was taught. My textbooks said the Scythians were mythic people at most, unimportant barbarians at best. Just imagining a civilization you describe sets my imagination ablaze!
I am scythian
Scythians weren't mythical
I've liked this Channel. This gentleman's english is so clear that I have no problems to understand.
Wonderful! Makes me want to travel to the areas mentioned and see the museums and archeolgical sites.
Me too! There are museums / visitor centres at Sintashta and Arkaim.
I always listen to your stuff while working, love the content mate.
Thank you!
Horses, galloping in the country side. I wish that I had one to ride. - Blippi
Congratulations on your fantastic channel.
I sacrifice a comment for the algorithm and like before watching. I’m sure I’ll enjoy this, thank you.
Thank you.
This is one of the best on a channel of great videos. Fantastic work!
Thank you Ben.
Excellent video!
Thank you.
These videos are amazing, you should write a book!
Love the videos! Excited to read your work! Keep it all coming Dan.
Thanks very much, I appreciate it.
@@DanDavisHistory who invented the composite bow? That seems to be the greatest mystery!! When did we go from longbow to Short sinew backed bows??
Thank you for another very interesting video. I discovered your channel a few months ago and I have been very happily binging on your back catalogue.
Thank you very much.
That’s what I’ve been doing too. His work is really good.
Bulgarians were mentioned in the Rig Veda as masters of the golden chariot , interestingly also mastered the horse back composite bow shooting ...
still excellent. do you have anything on doggerland lined up? cheers
I'm not sure about a Doggerland video but quite a few people have asked about it so maybe I should.
You're channell is my favorite of the last few years. I just got done reading your Godborn books, master pieces my friend. Thank you for the content and history lessons.
Thank you very much!
Thanks! It was my first time, to visit your channel... Very interesting!
Maybe next video, about domestication and warfare on camels?
Thanks, welcome to the channel. I hope you enjoy the other videos too. That's a good suggestion, I'll add it to the list.
I really love your videos,you have a gift my friend.love it
Great video on a very fascinating topic. So, around 1000 BC horse riding became common on the steppe. I wonder what the driving force for this was? Was it horse breeding, or the invention of some critical riding tech, or maybe some herder just got tired of walking? Anyway, good job!!
Thank you. It's possible that climatic changes led to reduced rainfall meaning the river valleys and marshy landscapes where these towns were built could no longer support large populations year round. It might also have been that more widespread adoption of military riding meant that horse and cattle herds became even more vulnerable to surprise raiding and so adoption of nomadism was a response to that. Like many things in history - it was probably many things at once.
Fantastic documentaries!
Viewing your pieces is downright addicting!
What is surprising is how late the stirrup came into use. One would think that at some point early in the mastery of riding horses that somebody would have said, I sure wish I had something to put my feet in...
Yeah it does seem surprising in retrospect but I suppose many great ideas are like that. Either way people did extremely well for a long time without them.
@@DanDavisHistory Like the wheel. Obvious after the fact. And...I am in book six of your Vampire Knight series and dude, it is freaking wonderful. I hope you have more in the mix.
That's awesome, Don. Yes I have more planned for sure.
@@DanDavisHistory Wonderful! You just made my day :)
Yesss!! You tube algorithm is a legend. Great video
Thank you very much.
I wonder how much autonomy the elite daughter warriors would have in their marriage and if them immersing themselves in warfare could be some form of husband shopping, since their sons would also be expected to be warriors.
Seems that fierce warrior cultures have examples of more sex equality.
Spartan women could own property, spoke in public venues, conducted business and ventured outside the home. Athenians were aghast at behavior of Spartan women.
@@willbass2869 similarly, the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) were fairly matriarchal, in that the clan mother held great power in decision making.
Just found your channel and I'm loving it. Studied history at university so it's so refreshing to find a channel that goes deep into historical debates and competing theories as well going into the different methods and schools of historical study and showing the more scientific side of historical studies.