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Episode 9.7 · 21 min

when people first rode and drove horses, and the grassland herders whose wagons, milk, horses and

When did people first ride horses—and what carried the grassland herders of the Black and Caspian Seas across Europe and Asia? This episode follows the evidence from Botai horse management, Yamnaya cattle-drawn wagons and milk to the later spread of the modern horse lineage, rider images and chariots, separating what the clues show from the myth of a mounted conquest of Europe.

Watch this film on YouTube ↗

Visual credits

39 sources

Sources and credits for imagery used in this film, including material incorporated into explanatory animations.

  • Arkaim settlement, aerial view

    ZolanPro

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

  • Kikkuli horse-training tablet

    O.Mustafin

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC0 1.0

  • Standard of Ur, war side

    LeastCommonAncestor; source photograph by BabelStone

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

    Source photograph corrected for distortion and cropped by LeastCommonAncestor; bottom vehicle register cropped for this film.

  • Gonur Tepe ruins

    David Stanley

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 2.0

  • Ljubljana Marshes wheel and axle

    Petar Milošević

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Tablet with Chariot Scene

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC0 1.0

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917; 17.194.2297.

  • Ceramic wagon model, Hungarian National Museum

    CryolophosaurusEllioti

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

  • Horse panel, Chauvet Cave, detail

    Claude Valette

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Syrian wild ass at Vienna Zoo

    Kaiser

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Published in O. Antonius, Beobachtungen an Einhufern in Wien-Schönbrunn, Der Zoologische Garten (N.F.) 1 (1928), 19–25.

  • Kamennyj Ambar-5 burial plan and grave goods, Figure 3

    Stephan Lindner; after A. V. Epimakhov (2005, figs 29 & 30)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Figure extracted from the article page; only its left-hand grave-plan panel is shown.

    © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020. From Stephan Lindner, Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC, Antiquity 94(374), 361–380.

  • Kamennyj Ambar-5 vessels and cheekpieces, Figure 6

    Stephan Lindner, after Epimakhov 2005; types according to Teufer 1999

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Figure cropped from the article. Original figure modified after Epimakhov 2005, figures 21, 22, 31 and 32; types according to Teufer 1999.

    © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020. Antiquity 94(374), 361–380.

  • Arkaim and Sintashta settlement plans

    Stanislav Grigoriev

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

    Arkaim plan cropped from the combined plans, retaining its scale bar.

  • Botai horse tooth wear, Figure 4

    David Anthony, Martin Trautmann and Volker Heyd; photographs by David Anthony

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Panels A–B cropped from Figure 4.

    © 2026 The Authors. Science Advances 12, eady7336.

  • Yamnaya and Afanasievo distribution map, Figure 1B

    Martin Trautmann and coauthors; background map made with Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Map panel B cropped from Figure 1; panel A photograph excluded.

    © 2023 The Authors. Science Advances 9, eade2451.

  • Botai settlement geophysics plan, Figure 2

    Alan K. Outram

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Figure cropped from the article.

    © 2023 Outram. Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology 2:1134068.

  • Corded Ware beaker, City of Prague Museum

    Zde

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Yamnaya kurgan on the Great Hungarian Plain

    Péter Cseh, Dávid Molnár, László Makó and Pál Sümegi

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Photograph extracted from panel E; panel tag removed and cropped to 16:9.

    © 2022 by the authors. Quaternary 5(2), 20.

  • Yamnaya facial reconstruction, Ufa museum

    Лапоть

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC0 1.0

  • Kurgan in southern Ukraine

    Iwona Dembicz, Ivan I. Moysiyenko, Anastasia Shaposhnikova, Denys Vynokurov, Łukasz Kozub and Barbara Sudnik-Wœjcikowska

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Panel c cropped from the published figure; panel letter and power line excluded.

    Dembicz, Moysiyenko and coauthors, Biodiversity and Conservation 25(12), 2016.

  • Old Babylonian rider plaque, British Museum 1897,0511.104

    The Trustees of the British Museum

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

    © The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (object 1897,0511.104).

  • Yamnaya kurgan on the Great Hungarian Plain, detail

    Péter Cseh, Dávid Molnár, László Makó and Pál Sümegi

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Panel E photograph cropped to 16:9; panel tag removed.

    © 2022 by the authors. Quaternary 5(2), 20.

  • Southern Ukrainian kurgan, detail

    Iwona Dembicz, Ivan I. Moysiyenko, Anastasia Shaposhnikova, Denys Vynokurov, Łukasz Kozub and Barbara Sudnik-Wœjcikowska

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Panel c cropped; panel letter and power line excluded.

    Dembicz, Moysiyenko and coauthors, Biodiversity and Conservation 25(12), 2016.

  • Botai horse tooth wear, side and front views

    David Anthony, Martin Trautmann and Volker Heyd; photographs by David Anthony

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Panels A–B cropped from Figure 4.

    © 2026 The Authors. Science Advances 12, eady7336.

  • Yamnaya and Afanasievo distribution and proposed rider sites

    Martin Trautmann and coauthors; background map made with Natural Earth

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Map panel B cropped from Figure 1; panel A photograph excluded.

    © 2023 The Authors. Science Advances 9, eade2451.

  • Kamennyj Ambar-5, kurgan 2, grave 8: burial plan

    Stephan Lindner; after A. V. Epimakhov (2005, figs 29 & 30)

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Cropped to the left-hand grave-plan panel of Figure 3; caption and right-hand grave-goods panel omitted.

    © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020. From Stephan Lindner, Chariots in the Eurasian Steppe: a Bayesian approach to the emergence of horse-drawn transport in the early second millennium BC, Antiquity 94(374), 361–380.

  • Arkaim settlement plan

    Stanislav Grigoriev

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

    Arkaim plan cropped from the combined plans, retaining its scale bar.

  • Standard of Ur, vehicle register

    LeastCommonAncestor; source photograph by BabelStone

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY-SA 3.0

    Source photograph corrected for distortion and cropped by LeastCommonAncestor; bottom vehicle register cropped for this film.

  • Inozemtsevo cauldron reconstruction, Figure 3B

    Shevan Wilkin, Peter Hommel, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Nicole Boivin, Antonella Pedergnana, Natalia Shishlina and Viktor Trifonov

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Artistic reconstruction in panel B cropped from Figure 3.

    © 2023 The Author(s). iScience 26, 107482.

  • Inozemtsevo cauldron reconstruction, Figure 3B

    Shevan Wilkin, Peter Hommel, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Nicole Boivin, Antonella Pedergnana, Natalia Shishlina and Viktor Trifonov

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Artistic reconstruction in panel B cropped from Figure 3.

    © 2023 The Author(s). iScience 26, 107482.

  • Yamna culture vessel, 3300–2600 BCE

    Archaїc

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    3D model presented as a turntable video excerpt.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m lakes

    Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Selected lake geometry projected, styled and animated in original maps.

    Made with Natural Earth.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m land

    Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Land geometry projected, styled and animated in original maps.

    Made with Natural Earth.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m rivers and lake centerlines

    Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Selected river geometry projected, styled and animated in original maps.

    Made with Natural Earth.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m lakes

    Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Selected lake geometry projected, styled and animated in original maps.

    Made with Natural Earth.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m land

    Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Land geometry projected, styled and animated in original maps.

    Made with Natural Earth.

  • Natural Earth 1:50m rivers and lake centerlines

    Natural Earth contributors

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain

    Selected river geometry projected, styled and animated in original maps.

    Made with Natural Earth.

  • GEBCO 2021 Grid

    GEBCO Compilation Group (2021)

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain, subject to GEBCO terms of use

    Regional elevation subset sampled at 0.05 degrees, reprojected and rendered as shaded relief and sea-depth tint.

    GEBCO Compilation Group (2021) GEBCO 2021 Grid (doi:10.5285/c6612cbe-50b3-0cff-e053-6c86abc09f8f).

  • GEBCO 2021 Grid

    GEBCO Compilation Group (2021)

    View original source ↗Source licence: Public domain, subject to GEBCO terms of use

    Regional elevation subset sampled at 0.05 degrees, reprojected and rendered as shaded relief and sea-depth tint.

    GEBCO Compilation Group (2021) GEBCO 2021 Grid (doi:10.5285/c6612cbe-50b3-0cff-e053-6c86abc09f8f).

  • Ancient horse sample locations and dates, Supplementary Tables S1–S2

    Pablo Librado and coauthors

    View original source ↗Source licence: CC BY 4.0

    Selected Table S1 sample coordinates and dates used to position source regions and sample markers in original animated maps; the spreadsheet is not reproduced.

    Librado et al. (2024), Nature 631, 819–825, Supplementary Tables S1–S2.

Stock footage

39 items

Licensed stock footage used in this film, with each item’s creator and source page.

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

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  2. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ado9774 ↗
  3. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ady7336 ↗
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  8. Liu 2025 ↗
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  10. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08372-2 ↗
  11. DOI: 10.15584/anarres.2025.20.4 ↗
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  20. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.033 ↗
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  22. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7 ↗
  23. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm0218 ↗
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  28. SMB VAT 06693 record ↗
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  38. recht2022 excerpt ↗
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  105. Sintashta1 copy.jpg ↗
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  110. Artefacts - Sintashta culture - Museum of Archeology and Ethnography, Ufa.jpg ↗
  111. Standard of Ur - War side.jpg ↗
  112. Chariot of Tutankhamun.jpg ↗
  113. Yerevan, National History Museum of Armenia (2).jpg ↗
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Music

  • Original score
    AgentHouse · Project-made score (From Cosmos to Civilization score catalog v4 with bespoke opening and closing)
    Impulse responses: Detmold University of Music SRIR database, CC BY 4.0.
Footage and image usage

Credits and usage times retained from the published edition or its production credit record. Where present, times identify visual appearances, not documentary chapters. Source and licence corrections are listed in the visual credits above.

  • Alan K. Outram — 2:31-2:36
  • AmazingAerial — 5:50-5:54, 16:27-16:31
  • andtheytravel — 14:41-14:46
  • antonpetrus — 3:35-3:40, 15:18-15:22
  • Archaїc — 4:36-4:39
  • Berdiy888 — 21:07-21:12
  • biveco — 20:00-20:03
  • BlackBoxGuild — 7:39-7:48, 10:19-10:25, 14:16-14:19, 16:51-17:00
  • Bumblebee520 — 1:24-1:27
  • Bussker — 14:28-14:32
  • Claude Valette — 1:46-1:50
  • CryolophosaurusEllioti — 5:00-5:03
  • David Anthony, Martin Trautmann and Volker Heyd; photographs by David Anthony — 3:00-3:05
  • David Stanley — 20:18-20:27
  • DedovStock — 20:07-20:08
  • dotshock — 15:42-15:45
  • EvalMiko — 0:17-0:20
  • FootageLab — 5:34-5:42
  • ivz — 1:12-1:18
  • Iwona Dembicz, Ivan I. Moysiyenko, Anastasia Shaposhnikova, Denys Vynokurov, Łukasz Kozub and Barbara Sudnik-Wœjcikowska — 4:33-4:36
  • Kaiser — 17:00-17:04
  • Kokhanchikov — 20:15-20:18
  • LeastCommonAncestor; source photograph by BabelStone — 16:43-16:51
  • Martin Trautmann and coauthors; background map made with Natural Earth — 12:51-13:01
  • O.Mustafin — 19:38-19:44, 19:47-19:54
  • PD-media — 8:14-8:21
  • Petar Milošević — 4:58-5:00
  • pikosokz — 9:18-9:23, 20:27-20:34, 21:12-21:23
  • Pro-Stock — 1:18-1:21, 3:10-3:13, 3:13-3:18, 3:49-3:57, 3:57-4:05, 4:09-4:14, 6:46-6:49, 9:31-9:39, 13:29-13:35, 20:34-20:39
  • Péter Cseh, Dávid Molnár, László Makó and Pál Sümegi — 4:30-4:33
  • Shevan Wilkin, Peter Hommel, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Nicole Boivin, Antonella Pedergnana, Natalia Shishlina and Viktor Trifonov — 6:33-6:36
  • sibstock — 13:26-13:29, 19:35-19:38
  • skrip169 — 6:26-6:29, 9:14-9:18
  • Stanislav Grigoriev — 17:36-17:40
  • Stavros16 — 3:40-3:49
  • Stephan Lindner, after Epimakhov 2005; types according to Teufer 1999 — 17:57-18:03
  • Stephan Lindner; after A. V. Epimakhov (2005, figs 29 & 30) — 17:43-17:57
  • StockFS — 14:50-14:52
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art — 19:23-19:25
  • The Trustees of the British Museum — 16:21-16:27
  • towfiqu_barbhuyia — 7:36-7:39
  • vagoart — 4:39-4:47, 8:35-8:44
  • WhiteMountMedia — 9:00-9:02
  • Zde — 10:02-10:07
  • ZolanPro — 17:31-17:36
  • Лапоть — 13:35-13:42

How this film was made

Created and editorially directed by Anders Lunde using a custom production system developed over six months. AI assists research, drafting, programming, and visual production; I review and edit the material and make the final editorial decisions. Narration uses text-to-speech. Visuals combine custom-built scientific animations, AI-generated reconstructions, and credited scientific imagery.

Generated reconstructions illustrate scientific interpretations. They are distinct from photographs, specimens, and measured data.

More about the creator and production →