Project description
Horse breeding in ancient times
Humans have been selectively breeding the horse for more than 5 000 years. However, a lack of reliable well-preserved archaeological evidence is making early horse domestication research difficult to conduct. It is not yet clear to what extent environmental factors influenced horse domestication and how early breeding affected the local environment. For instance, there is evidence of horse domestication in the Eneolithic Botai site in Kazakhstan during the 3rd millennium BCE. But little is known about what made Botai culture choose this environment as a breeding ground. The EU-funded PALEOS project will apply an interdisciplinary method combining palaeogenomics, sedimentary genomics and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction through organic geochemistry analysis to achieve an integrated picture of the dynamic relationship between breeding and environmental changes.
Objective
Horse domestication has had major impact on human civilization through mobility, warfare and economy. In spite of horse domestication being one of the most important turning points in the human history, lack of reliable well preserved archaeological records have been an obstacle in investigating earliest horse domestication and environmental factors influencing it. Furthermore if and how early husbandry practices influenced local environment is unknown. PALEOS here proposes to use interdisciplinary approach for this purpose. It will combine Prof. Ludovic Orlando’s expertise in paleogenomics and Dr. Kuldeep More’s in sedimentary genomics and paleo-environmental reconstruction through organic geochemistry analyses. Eneolithic Botai site in northern Kazakhstan chosen for this research shows strong evidence indicative of pastoral husbandry, involving milking and harnessing. It, thus, provides a unique opportunity to catch domestication red-handed at its earliest. During the 3rd millennium BCE, different domestic horses superseded Botai horses and the descendants of Botai people also vanished. What made Botai culture to choose this environment as a breeding ground for horses and why did it stop is presently unknown. One hypothesis posits that local environmental changes at Botai may have become incompatible with husbandry. Additionally, little is known about the husbandry techniques that allowed Botai people to domesticate the horse for the first time. PALEOS plans to take several soil sediment cores that will be split in half with each half for organic geochemistry and genomic analyses. Organic geochemistry part will reveal paleoclimate changes while genomics part will reveal changes in eukaryotic and prokaryotic community. When combined we will get holistic picture of dynamics of husbandry practices in relation to the local paleoenvironmental changes. Furthermore, plant and microbial data obtained from the site will shed light on dietary specification of Botai horses.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences palaeontology paleoclimatology
- humanities history and archaeology history
- agricultural sciences animal and dairy science domestic animals animal husbandry
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry organic geochemistry
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 Paris
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.