Bit wear, horseback riding and the Botai site in Kazakstan

Bit wear is the damage that occurs on the occlusal surfaces of the second premolar teeth when a horse chews the bit. Bit wear can provide evidence of horseback riding and/or horse draught from teeth found in archaeological sites. This article revises our earlier definition of bit wear and describes wear on an expanded study collection of modern bitted and feral horses (72 individuals). An experiment is described in which previously unbitted horses were ridden with organic bits to simulate the wear made by pre-metallic bits. Because the evaluation of bit wear depends partially on the age of the horse, a crown-height/age curve for horse lower second premolars is presented. Finally, horse premolars from the archaeological site of Botai in Kazakstan are evaluated using the new definition of bit wear and are found to provide evidence for horseback riding in northern Kazakstan between 3400 and 2700 BC. © 1998 Academic Press Limited.