Piotr, Thanks for the review article of Late
Prehistoric Exploitation of the Eurasian Steppe. Chapter 2 by Marsha
Levine on horse domestication was most interesting and somewhat alarming in that
most of the information runs counter to that included in the Alekseev Manuscript
Lecture 6. As well, Ms. Levine cites riding injuries on a small sample of
horse skeletal material from Ak-Alaka(h). I, along with Raisa Tarasova,
translated Polosmak's site report from Ak-Alaka and Kuturguntis and
nowhere do I recall mention of riding injuries in the original report.
Actually to Raisa's chagrin, we did a word for word translation of the site
report.
The horse was considered a sacred animal by the
Scythians (who have been known to have slept while riding) and the mention by
Levine of horse meat used as food is contrary to Herodotus' reports on the
Scythians and Alekseev's Lecture 6. I am familiar with kumiss (fermented
mare's milk) used as an intoxicating drug.
Alarming also is Levine's debunking the warrior
Kurgan Culture theory based on her interpretation that artifacts such as
horse-head scepters or maces were not symbols of power because they were never
found with evidence of horse domestication or horse-riding. Frankly, I
cannot figure out where Levine was going with the correlation between lack of
symbols of power and horse domestication. If scepters had been found along
with domestic horses, would Levine have cried "Geronimo!". And how
did Levine expect to prove horse domestication in the archaeological
record?
I did review the Dereivka taxon as provided on
the web (Google search engine) and did not find mention of horse bones (I sent
you the link earlier today); however, another web article by Andrew
Gregnovich (the second link I sent) should help clarify the
discrepancy.
Finally, do you have any idea why Levine used 5
oral histories she gathered from Steppe nomads between 1989 and 1992 to disprove
Gimbutas' Kurgan Culture theory and Polosmak's archaeology at
Ak-Alaka? IMO, this smacks of a blatant attempt to do in the credibility
of two archaeologists based on very shabby evidence. What was Levine
thinking of or hoping to attain?
Before I contact Levine I need to research Botai as
well as the Molyuknov Bugor taxon which I shall do shortly on Google. Do
you by chance know at which institution Marsha Levine is located or how I might
be able to reach her? Thank, Piotr.
Gerry Reinhart-Waller
Independent Scholar
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 2:53
PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: horses
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 8:42 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: horses
Gerry wrote: If anyone has any further
information to add, I be most appreciative. I'll post additional
information in a second email.
Here's more on Dereivka and related sites
-- a very interesting review:
Piotr