Портрет лошади каменного века на фоне ландшафтов юга Восточной Европы и проблема ее ранней доместикации
Portrait of a Stone Age Horse against the Landscape of South Eastern Europe and the Problem of its Early Domestication

Summary/Abstract: For the first time the results of the study of bones of the Upper Pleistocene horse from the Upper Palaeolithic site Anetovka II (Domanevsky district of Nikolaev region) are published in full. Studied are also the bones of Mesolithic and Neolithic horses from a multilayer site of Mel’nychna Krucha (Sabatynivka village, Ul’ianovka district, Kirovograd region) and the Katarzhino site (Chervonoznamenka village, Ivanovsky district of Odessa region), respectively. The taxonomic status of the Anetovka horses is specified, and the characteristic features of their morphology are identified. The main factors influencing the population dynamics of the species in the southern part of Eastern Europe at the turn of the Pleistocene — Holocene are analyzed. It is suggested that the difference in numbers of horse bones found at the Upper Palaeolithic sites of the region reflects fluctuations of population size of this species at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. The bones of the Upper Plestocene horse show a tendency to size reduction (while retaining their massiveness) in time/space. The probability of early domestication of the horse in the southern part of Eastern Europe is considered.

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