The elaborate leather saddle is dated from between roughly 700 B.C. and 400 B.C. and may be the earliest ever found.
Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborate leather horse saddle — possibly the oldest ever found — from a grave in northwestern China, according to a new study.
"This places the Yanghai saddle at the beginning of the history of saddle making," study lead author Patrick Wertmann, an archaeologist at the University of Zurich, told Live Science. Horse herdsArchaeologists now think horses were domesticated as herd animals up to 6,000 years ago. But the earliest evidence suggests they were kept for their milk and meat; horse-riding may not have started until up to 1,000 years later.
The development of saddles began"when riders began to care more about comfort and safety, and also the health of the horses," he told Live Science in an email."Saddles helped people to ride longer distances, hence leading to more interaction between different peoples." University of Zurich biomolecular archaeologist Shevan Wilkin, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science that the extraordinary level of preservation of the Yanghai saddle suggests other, potentially older saddles, may be found nearby.
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