Riding on Through

Riding on Through History

By: Lindsey E. Horton

Almost everybody can enjoy watching a horse run. Then again, almost everybody also enjoys solving a good puzzle. Well, it just so happens that there's a mystery that ties in both of those. Where did horse domestication originate? Now that's something worth solving.

It's now being suggested by new archeological evidence that horses were domesticated up to 5500 years ago by the Botai Culture of Kazakhstan. In present day America, horses are more of a pet to have, for riding, and for giving little girls their first love. It turns out though that to the Botai Culture, horses were much, much more. Horses were used for riding, of course, but surprisingly they were also used for food and milk! There is evidence found that suggested that people would actually drink horse milk, like we drink cow milk today. The bone structures of the horses from 5500 years ago show that they were very similar to the horses that later showed up in Europe, and to wild horses. This tells archeologists that the early people selectivley bred their wild horses for physical attributes, and to emphasize the attributes through breeding.

Through new techniques, archeologists were able to find three individual lines for early horse domestication. It was around the fourth melenium that the Botai Culture started to domesticate them. The archeologists also used a very interesting technique called "bit damage" which is caused by horses having been harrnessed or bridled, and a bit would leave a mark. This technique also supports the fact that horses were ridden back then. This early culture used something called a "thong bridle", that is shown on the image to the right.

Even more interesting, using lipid residue analysis, archeologists took a look at Botai pottery, and found that to make the pottery, people used horse fat. Through this pottery they found that people also drank the mare's milk and would let it ferment to make an acholohic sort of drink called "koumiss". They still do this in Kazakhstan. Horse tradition runs through the viens of Kazakhstan's history, very far back. Well, as far back as 5500 years ago! The steppes of Kazakhstan were plentiful with wild horses back then, and hunting them was common. It was also a great oppurtunity for the culture to get to know the equines, and how they behaved. Horses were shown to have been prefenced for adapting to the Botai culture over cattle and sheep. Even more amazingly, horses were shown to have been able to graze year round, and adapted to the harsh winters so that they could eat the grass through snow.

This discovery has a great impact on our scientific community. Scientists thought that horses were only domesticated about 4000 years ago, and this shows that they were off by quite a bit. This will change how scientists think about earlier cultures, and what they were cabable of. An impact that I predict is now that one solid fact is to be questioned, that scientists will start questioning other "known" facts about earlier civilizations, or question closer the source in which the evidence came from.

I picked this article because I love horses, and history. This seemed like an article that combined both. I was in AP world history last year, so I got a new pair of glasses, as you might say, to see history through. It's amazing to me to see how an early culture so new could make use of such a powerful and majestic resource. I also like to see how the relationship that humans and horses have today has developed through history, including the origin. I have a mare named JJ, so understanding the where the relationship between horses and people came from, and seeing how useful horses are, can really help me to bond with her better.

MLA Citation:

University of Exeter. "Archaeologists Find Earliest Known Domestic Horses: Harnessed and Milked." ScienceDaily 8 March 2009. 10 October 2009 .

Get Smarter By Computer Games?

Get Smarter By Computer Games?

By: Lindsey Horton

Usually our parents have to tell us to stop playing computer games. Yet recently, scientists have reason to tell us that we might as well make them a nightly part of our homework. Well, perhaps not every computer game, but on in specific, called "Tetris". There is evidence to show that playing this game for up to 1.5 hours a week, for three months, that the grey matter in your brain will grow larger. The gray matter in your brain is the area that processes information, by brain cells and capillaries. 15 adolescent girls took the experiment of playing the game for 1.5 hours a week for three months, and their area of their gray matter in their brains were seen to grow larger. They were compared to other girls who, over the three months did not do the tetris, and whom showed no growth in size for their gray matter. The 15 girls that were in the study were chosen because they may not have had their gray matter affected as boys might, who stereotypically play coordinated video games more. The 15 girls began as novice players, and soon they became very experienced. Scientists suggested that the cause for the growth in grey matter is because the brain is learning to communicate different areas of itself that it hadn't before. After the three months, that communication becomes typical of the brain.

The social impact of this discovery on how to increase grey matter, an area crucial to planning complex movements, could be the increase in assigned computer use in school. Perhaps game time, which could add up to 1.5 hours a week, could be scheduled in a classroom. A teacher may perhaps assign 18 minutes a day, just like they typically assign SSR time. Another social impact could be more encouraging of computer games at home for boys, and girls as well, from their parents who would otherwise say that the computer is off limits. The last possible social impact is that researchers may do the same experiment with other games, and see if grey matter can be grown further quicker. This could mean that perhaps American soldiers could use this tactic is is was developed enough, and aim weapons better, or learn ducking moves better. 

I though that this article was very interesting because I am always very interested on how the brain evolves and works to adapt to it's surroundings. I think that this example is just one of many that attests to the fact that the brain is an amazing tool, unlike any other. I possibly want to be a cognitive scientist when I grow up, so this article particularly stands out to me. 

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/47026/title/Tetris_players_are_not_block_heads