Richard Collins: Primordial horse of the steppe is gone forever

Hunited for its meat on the steppes of Central Asia, the horse seems to have been domesticated by the Botai people of Kazakhstan five and a half millennia ago. The noble beast was revered even then; horse skulls were buried with their snouts facing the rising sun, writes Richard Collins.

A thousand years later, working animals were brought to the Middle East; a Mesopotamian depiction of one with a rider dates from that time. Over the centuries, quadrillions of tonnes of soil were turned by horse-drawn ploughs. Horses helped us build civilisation, explore the world and fight wars. Until steam-trains arrived, they offered the fastest means of transport. What became of their wild ancestor? Experts speculated that it might be still alive, but a paper just published suggests that it isn’t.