Horse dentistry began more than 3,000 years ago on the open steppes of Mongolia and eastern Eurasia, according to a new study.
Scholars analysed horse remains from an ancient Mongolian pastoral culture known as the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Culture which existed roughly from 1300-1700 BC which is well known for its impressive horse burials.
Through study of their skeletal remains, the team of experts, led by William Taylor of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, discovered that the people there began using veterinary dental procedures to remove baby teeth as this would have caused young horses pain or difficulty feeding.
The i newsletter latest news and analysis
These early herders were the first in eastern Eurasia to rely heavily on horses as livestock for food products and they may have been among the first to use horses for mounted riding. This developing horse-based economy, is likely to have been the driver for the invention of equine veterinary care.
“We may think of veterinary care as kind of a Western science,” said Mr Taylor. “This results of our study show that a careful understanding of horse anatomy and a tradition of care was first developed, not in the sedentary civilizations of China or the Mediterranean, but centuries earlier, among the nomadic people whose livelihood depended on the well-being of their horses.”
Additionally, Taylor and his team discovered that changes in horse dentistry accompanied major developments in horse control technology such as bits and bridles.
This equipment, which spread into eastern Eurasia during the early first millennium BC, gave riders more subtle control over horses, and allowed them to be used for new purposes – especially warfare.
Using metal to control horses, however, also introduced new oral problems, including painful interactions with a vestigial or stump tooth that develops in some animals, known as a “wolf tooth.” Taylor and his team discovered that, as herders began to use metal bits, they also developed a method for extracting this problematic tooth – similar to the way most veterinary dentists would remove it today.
In doing so, these early riders could control their horses in high-stress situations using a metal bit, without accompanying behavioral or health complications, which may have had major implications for the ancient world.
The findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.