More recent research [0] suggests that the Botai horses are Przewalski horses that were hunted, not domesticated.
The apparent bit damage is explainable by natural wear. Also, the age/sex distribution of the horse remains don't fit with what you would expect from a domestic herd, none of them showed signs of having been ridden, some had been shot with arrows, and the evidence of horses having been kept in pens and horse milk stored for consumption was weaker than first thought.
The apparent bit damage is explainable by natural wear. Also, the age/sex distribution of the horse remains don't fit with what you would expect from a domestic herd, none of them showed signs of having been ridden, some had been shot with arrows, and the evidence of horses having been kept in pens and horse milk stored for consumption was weaker than first thought.
[0]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86832-9