First bioanthropological evidence for Yamnaya horsemanship

The origins of horseback riding remain elusive. Scientific studies show that horses were kept for their milk ~3500 to 3000 BCE, widely accepted as indicating domestication. However, this does not confirm them to be ridden. Equipment used by early riders is rarely preserved, and the reliability of equine dental and mandibular pathologies remains contested. However, horsemanship has two interacting components: the horse as mount and the human as rider. Alterations associated with riding in human skeletons therefore possibly provide the best source of information. Here, we report five Yamnaya individuals well-dated to 3021 to 2501 calibrated BCE from kurgans in Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, displaying changes in bone morphology and distinct pathologies associated with horseback riding. These are the oldest humans identified as riders so far

Turanici la Dunărea Inferioară – complexe cercetate recent în nordul Munteniei / Turanians at the Lower Danube – recently investigated contexts in the northern Wallachia

The aim of this paper is to present a series of discoveries attributed to the Turkic nomadic populations (11th– 12th centuries), resulting from archaeological research conducted in 2018 and 2019 in several burial mounds placed in the localities of Târgșoru Nou and Inotești from Prahova County, as well as Lunca from Buzău county. It includes descriptions of the investigated archaeological features, the results of the anthropological and archaeozoological determinations as well as those of the physico-chemical investigations of some metal artefacts, and absolute chronology dates. Given that artefacts were part of the archaeological features investigated, we briefly present information regarding their analogies and occurrence. These discoveries highlight a time period which is otherwise scarcely known in this region and at the same time add weight to other materials already published during past years.Articolul prezintă o serie de descoperiri atribuite populațiilor turanice (sec. XI– XII), provenind din cercetări realizate în anii 2018 și 2019 în tumuli dispuși în localitățile Târgșoru Nou, Inotești din județul Prahova, respectiv Lunca în județul Buzău. Sunt descrise complexele arheologice cercetate, sunt redate rezultatele analizelor antropologice, arheozoologice, ale investigațiilor fizico-chimice asupra unor piese din metal ; totodată sunt prezentate date de cronologie absolută. Având în vedere că au fost descoperite și piese în inventarul complexelor arheologice cercetate, am inclus, sintetic, și informații privind analogiile și ocurența acestora. Aceste descoperiri contribuie la conturarea epocii într-o zonă mai puțin cunoscută și în același timp se adaugă la alte materiale deja publicate în ultima perioadă.Frînculeasa Alin, Munteanu Roxana, Garvăn Daniel, Dinu Cătălin, Negrea Octav, Preda-Bălănică Bianca, Grigoraș Laurențiu, Simalcsik Angela, Bejenaru Luminiţa, Cristea-Stan Daniela, Constantin Florin, Petruneac Marta, Focşăneanu Marin, Sava Tiberiu, Dima Andreea, Sava Gabriela, Ilie Maria. Turanici la Dunărea Inferioară – complexe cercetate recent în nordul Munteniei / Turanians at the Lower Danube – recently investigated contexts in the northern Wallachia. In: Materiale şi cercetãri arheologice (Serie nouã), N°16 2020. pp. 199-228