AUGL'ST, 1904.] 



KNOWLEDGE .S: SCIENTIEIC NEWS. 



^7i 



Cjpsar's time unless they were the descendants of the 

 native prciiistoric breed; for it sccnis scarcely likely 

 that the Britons, at any rate, could have imported a 

 foreig'n breed. Unfortunately, \vc know nothing what- 

 ever with rejfard to the physical characteristics of these 

 horses. If the ancient British war-horse were an 

 animal of the type depicted in the Madclaine sketches, 

 there would be little doubt as to its being an inditjenous 

 breed, for, as I shall show directly, the domesticated 

 horses of South-Eastern luirope and Western Asia be- 

 lonsj'ed to a long-maned breed of threat antiqiiitv. 



What we, in fact, really want to know is whether 

 naturally hogf-maned horses of the tarpan type were 

 ever domesticated in Europe; and to this question there 

 seems, unfortunately, no possibility of giving- a decisive 

 answer. 



It has, indeed, been suggested to me that the hog- 

 niancd horses represented on the frieze of the Parthenon, 

 which was completed in the year 4;^8 B.C., and those on 

 the so-called Amazons' .Sarcophagus, dating from the 

 first century B.C., are animals of this type. .Xnd since 

 at least most horses in Greek sculptures from about 

 the year 500 B.C. to the Christian era display similar 

 hc^-manes, the suggestion appears at first sight very 



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Fi^. 3. — Long-maned Horses of the Assyrian countries. 

 iFrom Lajard's "Nineveh.") 



plausible. I am infofmed, however, by Mr. Cecil Smith, 

 of the British Museum, that until about the year 500 

 B.C. the Greek horse is represented with a long flowing 

 mane. .About the latter date, or, perhaps, a little 

 earlier, .Athenian vases begin to show horses with hog- 

 manes, after which such a type becomes predominant, 

 if not universal, in the sculptures. Etruscan vases, on 

 the other hand, generally show long-maned horses. 

 From this, I think, it is perfectly evident th.it the short 

 manes of the horses on the Parthenon friexe and other 

 GrfEcoRomaa sculptures are the result f)f cutting. It 

 follows from this, on the assumption that a long mane; 

 is the result of domestication, that the Greek and 

 Etruscan horses belonged to a very ancient breed. 



If, now, we direct our attention to the sculptures of 

 horses from Ximrod, Persepolis, and other ancient 

 cities of Western Asia, as shown, for instance, on pages 

 224 and 225 of Vaux's "Nineveh and I'erscpolis " 

 (1850), and on the plate facing page 334 (herewith re- 

 produced) of the abridged edition of Layard's 

 " .Vineveh," we find that they all have long flowing 

 manes, and tails of such length as to be, in some 

 instances, looped up. These horses, moreover, ap- 

 pear to be of a finer and more .Arab-like shape than 

 those in the Greek sculptures. A similar type of mane 

 and tail is displayed in some of the horses depicted in 

 the ancient Egyptian frescoes, as in the one represent- 

 ing the "Tribute of the .Arvadites " given on page 67 



of Gosse's "Ancient h'gypt " (1847). Here the whole 

 shape and make of tlw horse is decidedly of the Arab 

 type. In some of the other figures of horses in the 

 work last mentioned, .is those on page to8, the pendent 

 character of the mane is not so unmist.ik.ibly dis[)Iayed, 

 although I think it was the artist's intention to repre- 

 sent this type. 



.As to the date lh.it horses were introduced among 

 the Babvlonians and .Assyrians, there docs not appear 

 to he any definite record; but from the f.ut that in the 

 sriilpturc's the horseman when going to w;ir is always 

 represented with an attendant on foot leading his horse 

 and carrying one or more of his weapons, it has been 

 suggested that riding was a comparatively new art. 

 In h'gypt the evidence is more satisfactory, as the hoT.se 

 r", not represented on ;iny of the frescoes antecedent to 

 til'' i8th dynasty (alxiiil igoo n.c), after which it gradu- 

 ally becomes more numerous. In all these inst.-mces, 

 it may be observed, the horse is invariably used only 

 for war, or in state processions — ^never for drawing 

 Ijurdens or in agricultural operations. 



The ancient Egypti;ins doubtii'ss received their horses 

 from Assyria and the Babyloni;in countries. .As tO' the 

 origin of the Assyrian and Babylonian horses, sO'Uie 

 difference of opinion has prevailed, but it appears tO' me 

 most probable that they came from some part of Central 

 .Asia, such as the Turcoman countries. They certainly 

 were not derived from Arabia, where the horse is 

 definitely known toi have been a comparatively recent 

 introduction. Neither, I think, was Africa the place 

 of origin, as has been suggested by soime, for the very 

 sufhcient reason that we have nO' evidence of the exist- 

 ence on that continent of either wild or half-wild true 

 horses at any period. 



From the foregoing it would appear that we have 

 decisive evidence of the existence in Egypt so long ago 

 as 1900 B.C., and in the .Assyrian countries (if the above 

 inferences be correct) at a considerably earlier period, 

 ol a long-maned breed of Aral>like horse totally unlike 

 the wild tarpan or the prehistoric horse familiar to the 

 •,:ave-dwellers of La Madclaine. .Such a breed must have 

 been the result either of a long ;mtucedent domestica- 

 tion, or must have been produced from a wild species 

 furnished with a long mane and t;iil. Probably the 

 former view is correct so far as the development of the 

 mane and t.'ii! is concerned, although, as shown below, 

 it is most likely that tiie I)ree(l traces its origin to a 

 species distinct from the tarpan and prciiistoric iinrse of 

 Western Europe. 



That such a breed should have been introduced into 

 CJermany and Britain in pre-Ca-s.-uian times — at all 

 events, in such numbers as to obliterate all traces of 

 crossing wilii the wild horses which abinmdcd in those 

 countries during that period — seems to me in the high- 

 est degree improbable; rmd I therefore cannot at present 

 see any valid reason for refusing to- credit the view of 

 I'iowcr that in Palaeolithic and Neolithic times the 

 iiuiigenous hog-mancd wild horses were domesticated 

 I)y the aborigines. 



When advocating this view. Sir Williami was, how- 

 ever, careful to- add that it is " doubtful whether the 

 majority of the horses existing now are derived directly 

 from the indigenous wild horses of Western I'^urope, 

 it being more prob.'ible that they are the descendants of 

 horses imported through Greece and Italy from Asia, 

 derived from a still earlier domestication, followed by 

 gradual improvement through long-continued attention 

 bestowed upon their breeding and tr.'iining." 



In other words, this, broadly speaking, is equivalent 



