Widespread horse-based mobility arose around 2200 BCE in Eurasia

Horses revolutionized human history with fast mobility. However, the timeline between their domestication and their widespread integration as a means of transport remains contentious2,4. Here we assemble a collection of 475 ancient horse genomes to assess the period when these animals were first reshaped by human agency in Eurasia. We find that reproductive control of the modern domestic lineage emerged around 2200 BCE, through close-kin mating and shortened generation times. Reproductive control emerged following a severe domestication bottleneck starting no earlier than approximately 2700 BCE, and coincided with a sudden expansion across Eurasia that ultimately resulted in the replacement of nearly every local horse lineage. This expansion marked the rise of widespread horse-based mobility in human history, which refutes the commonly held narrative of large horse herds accompanying the massive migration of steppe peoples across Europe around 3000 BCE and earlier5. Finally, we detect significantly shortened generation times at Botai around 3500 BCE, a settlement from central Asia associated with corrals and a subsistence economy centred on horses6,7. This supports local horse husbandry before the rise of modern domestic bloodlines.

Pablo Librado, Gaetan Tressières, Lorelei Chauvey, Antoine Fages, Naveed Khan, Stéphanie Schiavinato, Laure Calvière-Tonasso, Mariya A. Kusliy, Charleen Gaunitz, Xuexue Liu, Stefanie Wagner, Clio Der Sarkissian, Andaine Seguin-Orlando, Aude Perdereau, Jean-Marc Aury, John Southon, Beth Shapiro, Olivier Bouchez, Cécile Donnadieu, Yvette Running Horse Collin, Kristian M. Gregersen, Mads Dengsø Jessen, Kirsten Christensen, Lone Claudi-Hansen, Mélanie Pruvost, Erich Pucher, Hrvoje Vulic, Mario Novak, Andrea Rimpf, Peter Turk, Simone Reiter, Gottfried Brem, Christoph Schwall, Éric Barrey, Céline Robert, Christophe Degueurce, Liora Kolska Horwitz, Lutz Klassen, Uffe Rasmussen, Jacob Kveiborg, Niels Nørkjær Johannsen, Daniel Makowiecki, Przemysław Makarowicz, Marcin Szeliga, Vasyl Ilchyshyn, Vitalii Rud, Jan Romaniszyn, Victoria E. Mullin, Marta Verdugo, Daniel G. Bradley, João L. Cardoso, Maria J. Valente, Miguel Telles Antunes, Carly Ameen, Richard Thomas, Arne Ludwig, Matilde Marzullo, Ornella Prato, Giovanna Bagnasco Gianni, Umberto Tecchiati, José Granado, Angela Schlumbaum, Sabine Deschler-Erb, Monika Schernig Mráz, Nicolas Boulbes, Armelle Gardeisen, Christian Mayer, Hans-Jürgen Döhle, Magdolna Vicze, Pavel A. Kosintsev, René Kyselý, Lubomír Peške, Terry O'Connor, Elina Ananyevskaya, Irina Shevnina, Andrey Logvin, Alexey A. Kovalev, Tumur-Ochir Iderkhangai, Mikhail V. Sablin, Petr K. Dashkovskiy, Alexander S. Graphodatsky, Ilia Merts, Viktor Merts, Aleksei K. Kasparov, Vladimir V. Pitulko, Vedat Onar, Aliye Öztan, Benjamin S. Arbuckle, Hugh McColl, Gabriel Renaud, Ruslan Khaskhanov, Sergey Demidenko, Anna Kadieva, Biyaslan Atabiev, Marie Sundqvist, Gabriella Lindgren, F. Javier López-Cachero, Silvia Albizuri, Tajana Trbojević Vukičević, Anita Rapan Papeša, Marcel Burić, Petra Rajić Šikanjić, Jaco Weinstock, David Asensio Vilaró, Ferran Codina, Cristina Garcia Dalmau, Jordi Morer de Llorens, Josep Pou, Gabriel de Prado, Joan Sanmart, Nabil Kallala, Joan Ramon Torres, Bouthéina Maraoui-Telmini, Maria-Carme Belarte Franco, Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas, Antoine Zazzo, Sébastien Lepetz, Sylvie Duchesne, Anatoly Alexeev, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Jean-Luc Houle, Noost Bayarkhuu, Tsagaan Turbat, Éric Crubézy, Irina Shingiray, Marjan Mashkour, Alexey Kalmykov, Natalia Ya. Berezina, Dmitriy S. Korobov, Andrey Belinskiy, Alexey Kalmykov, Jean-Paul Demoule, Sabine Reinhold, Svend Hansen, Barbara Wallner, Natalia Roslyakova, Pavel F. Kuznetsov, Alexey A. Tishkin, Patrick Wincker, Katherine Kanne, Alan Outram, Ludovic Orlando