Thursday 1 September 2016

When Did Horses Come to Indonesia/ISEA? [old post]

I'm taking part in an induction week here in Leiden and things are very busy at the moment. I'm writing a few brand new things for this site but I haven't had time to finish them, so here's some old content while you wait. Things will suddenly be a lot quieter at the weekend and for most of next week, so expect new posts then.

      Horses (Equus ferus caballus) are not native to Indonesia or Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and their bones are not commonly found at archaeological sites in the archipelago. They were first domesticated on the Eurasian steppe, with the earliest known sites discovered in Kazakhstan, and were introduced to Indonesia at some point in the last few thousand years. Precisely when is difficult to ascertain, although horses appear in inscriptions and texts from fairly early periods.