ThePlanetBroke t1_jb4zfcu wrote
Reply to comment by cquinn5 in Humans Started Riding Horses 5,000 Years Ago, New Evidence Suggests by geoxol
Agreed. I think the shock is that it has ONLY been 5000 years. We built cities, had agriculture, even basic plumbing, long before we have evidence for riding horses. I find it one of those fascinating steps on our journey as a species.
NautilusPanda t1_jb5741q wrote
It’s interesting that in the new world they had massive civilizations in central and southern Americas without any domesticated riding animals (just lamas and alpacas as load bearers).
chainmailbill t1_jb5z826 wrote
Also without tool metallurgy or a practical wheel and axle.
They worked gold, and they had little wheeled toys for kids, but they never figured out copper/bronze/iron or wheeled vehicles.
Morphized t1_jb66g66 wrote
I don't think wheels would have been very useful in a staircase-based society
chainmailbill t1_jb66k3a wrote
I agree, which is why they were never developed. There was no need, due to the twisty mountain paths and thick jungle.
Lajinn5 t1_jb6gbm4 wrote
Lack of large domesticated animals is also a fairly big factor. A big cart or wagon is great when you have creatures like horses or bulls, combined with staircases and terrain though? No big reason to make them
laa-laa t1_jb7n05n wrote
Not to argue against your point but there's been some Interesting developments lately along the line of Mayan superhighways.
walruskingmike t1_jb6m7jl wrote
There was copper working near the Great Lakes for a while, but it wasn't used to make very many tools; it was largely used like a precious metal.
LeGama t1_jb6z3df wrote
Similar fun fact, the bow has been used for thousands of years for hunting and war, but the far more efficient compound bow was invented after the nuke.
[deleted] t1_jb8h1ke wrote
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hucktard t1_jbb3b3z wrote
People have been mining and using copper in the Americas for like 8000 years though.
chainmailbill t1_jbb845r wrote
I should have been more specific when I said metallurgy; I’m talking about turning ore to metal via smelting, and then alloying those metals with other metals to make useable materials for tools and weapons.
There’s no evidence that smelting existed in any capacity in the precolombian Americas.
hucktard t1_jbcsih2 wrote
Yeah, sorry to be so pedantic. I recently learned that fact about copper mining in North America and it blew my mind a little so I had to comment.
SparkyDogPants t1_jb68l9y wrote
Riding horses came after domestication. They were originally too small
Beer_Bad t1_jb590rz wrote
Right. You would have thought nomadic people would have used horses long, long before agriculture and settling into cities were a thing.
helm t1_jb772q3 wrote
Dogs are the first domesticated animal.
What's been lacking is pictures. Apparently the Yamnaya did not paint their riding activities in caves so it could be preserved for millennia.
OldKingCanary t1_jb514fh wrote
Well we see when horses did come around the culture that first domesticated them basically took over most of the damn world. Like a proto-mongol empire, the yavanna people swept over much of Asia and all of Europe and took over the leadership roles in the civilizations they conquered. That's why Indo European languages and customs are so absurdly wide spread
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