Self-study
P1
Through years of excavations and careful analysis of her finds around Krasnyi Yar in Kazakhstan, archaeologist Sandra Olsen has assembled what may be evidence of the earliest known people to have domesticated and ridden horses, a momentous development in human history. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Olsen found evidence of earliest domestication of horses for riding?
Phenomenon ·
Large number of horse bones in pit houses of the Botai people
Phenomenon ·
Unclear if horses were domesticated or wild
Cannot tell difference just by looking at the bones.
Method ·
Statistical tabulations
Olsen used statistics to find patterns that might distinguish between domestication or wild.
P2
Exclude Alternate Hypothesis ·
Domesticated horses for food?
Because if domesticated for food, wouldn't find that many fully grown male horses and most of the bones were exactly that.
Alternate Hypothesis ·
Wild horses hunted for food?
That would explain the large proportion of males since hunters like to hunt bigger animals for more food.
Exclude Alternate Hypothesis ·
Proportion of adult males is too high
Because if the Botai hunted horses, they would target families, not groups of males.
Phenomenon ·
Why were young males not culled?
Hypothesis ·
Because the horses were domesticated for riding
P3
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Evidence for Hypothesis ·
Remains include full skeletons
This is also inconsistent with the hunting hypothesis because hunters presumably would have only brought the meat and not the full skeletons back.
Evidence for Hypothesis ·
Burial patterns
Horses were buried in carefully arranged patterns which suggests a closer relationship with the Botai, consistent with the riding hypothesis.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
10.
If the horse remains found ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ █████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
The Botai targeted ████ ████ ████ ███████ ███████
It’s not clear how bones that are mainly fully grown females and young males is evidence of targeting of male pods. We’d expect to have more adult male bones if (A) were what the Botai did.
b
The Botai caught, ████████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████
The author tells us the following at the beginning of P2: “Herders of domesticated animals used for meat or milk typically kill off all but a few males before they are fully mature, but not the females.” So if the horse remains found at the Botai sites had consisted mainly of fully grown female and young males, that’s evidence the horses were domesticated, not wild.
c
The Botai had ████████████ ██████ ███ ███ ███ ████ █████
The author tells us the following
In addition, the author tells us at
d
The Botai had █████████ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████
It’s not clear how horse bones would be evidence of food other than horses. In any case, the evidence described by the question stem is consistent with the domestication of horses for food.
e
The Botai incorporated ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████████ ████████
It’s not clear how the evidence described in the question stem is evidence of use of horses in cultural rituals. The proportion of female bones to male bones, or adult male bones to young male bones, has no clear relationship to any ritualistic use of horses.