ON THE BEGINNING OF HORSE HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTHERN BALKAN PENINSULA – THE HORSES FROM KIRKLARELİ-KANLIGEÇİT (TURKISH THRACE)

Authors : Norbert Benecke

Pages : 13-24

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Publication Date : 2009-12-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The paper presents archaeozoological data on horse remains from the Early Bronze Age site Kırklareli-Kanlıgeçit (Turkish Thrace). Because of the absence of wild horses in Thrace in the Mid-Holocene the bone finds fromKırklareli-Kanlıgeçit can safely be assigned to domestic horses. According to adiocarbon dates on five of the horse bones, they date to the centuries between 2600 and 2300 cal BC. This is one of the earliest records of domestic horses in the southern Balkans. In comparison to other domestic mammals horses only represent a small part of the bone collection. Age determinations show thatmost horses were adult when they were slaughtered with animals seven to ten years old predominating. This seems to indicate that horses were primarily exploited as work animals, i.e., for riding, as pack animals, for traction, etc. The osteometric data point to quite a large and strongly built animals as the usual type of horse at this place and time. As local domestication can be ruled out, the Early Bronze Age horses fromKırklareli-Kanlıgeçitmust have been imported to Thrace fromareas outside of this region. Metrical comparisons seem to favour Anatolia as a possible region of origin.
Keywords : Trakya (Türkiye kesimi), İlk Tunç Çağ, at yetiştiriciliği, arkeozooloji

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