Krasnyi Yar (also spelled Krasny Yar) is one of three Chalcolithic Botai culture sites in what is now Kazahkstan (the others are Botai and Vasilkovka), dated to about 5,600 years ago. The Botai have long been associated with early evidence for horse riding, although the precise level of domestication at these sites has been under some debate for some time.
Investigations at Krasnyi Yar
Investigations conducted at Krasnyi Yar by a team from the Carnegie Museum led by Sandra L. Olsen have included the identification of some 54 pithouses, identified using magnetometer survey. Also discovered were dozens of postmolds outside the pithouses where vertical posts had been planted, some of these arranged in circles. Investigations of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium concentration levels in the interiors of the circles identified a level 10 times what was found outside the settlement. High phosphorous levels are associated with manure, leading researchers to believe that these circular patterns of postmolds represent horse corrals.
This discovery at Krasnyi Yar is the earliest evidence for the domestication of horses yet found in the world.
Sources
See the article on horse domestication for more information
Brown, Dorcas and David Anthony 1998 Bit Wear, Horseback Riding and the Botai Site in Kazakstan. Journal of Archaeological Science 25(4):331-347.
Levine, Marsha A. 1999 Botai and the origins of horse domestication. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18(1):29-78.
Outram, Alan K., et al. 2009 The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking. Science 323:1332-1335.
