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
14.
Data from which one of ███ █████████ ███████ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████ ███████████
a
tabulation of the ██████ ██ █████████ █████ █████ ██████ █████████ █████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████████████ ████
This would be helpful to evaluate Olsen’s hypothesis because (A) would be evidence bearing on whether horses were used mainly for food vs. mainly for some other purpose. If the proportion of horse bones that were butchered to those that were untouched were very high, that would suggest horses were mainly used for food (”butchered” in this context means cut up into pieces, which is evidence of use for food). But if the proportion of horse bones to untouched bones were very low, that would suggest horses were used for something besides food (which would support Olsen’s hypothesis).
b
tabulation of the ██████ ██ █████ ███ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████████████ ████
It’s not clear the relative proportion of sheep and goats to horses has any bearing on Olsen’s hypothesis. If there were a lot of goats/sheep compared to horses, that doesn’t suggest either way whether horses were ridden by the Botai.
c
determination of the ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ ████
It’s not clear that the number of other tribes at the same time as the Botai compared to the number of modern hunting tribes in the same area is relevant. If there were a lot more/fewer tribes in the past, that doesn’t provide any reason to think horses were or were not ridden by the Botai.
d
analysis of mortality ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █████ █████
It’s not clear that mortality patterns in other animals affect Olsen’s hypothesis. Other animals may have been used for food; that doesn’t suggest horses were or were not ridden.
e
analysis of the █████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██████████ █████
It’s not clear that the proportion of human remains to horse remains is relevant. We know that some horse remains were found arranged in burial sites with human remains. What’s important is the fact the horse remains were arranged, not the number of human bones found with the horse bones.