PREHISTORY OF KAZAKHSTAN The site of Botai with pithouse depressions clearly visible on the ground surface. Sandra L. Olsen Section of Anthropology Carnegie Museum of Natural History Since 1993, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History has been collaborating with the University of North Kazakhstan and the North Kazakhstan History Museum in the investigation of an eneolithic (3600-2300 B.C.) settlement known as Botai. The Botai culture is known by three large sites, the eponymous settlement of Botai, Krasnyi Yar, and Vasilkovka. The site of Botai is located on the Iman-Burluk River, a tributary of the Ishim, in Kokshetav Oblast. The settlement has at least 153 pithouses, but part of the site has been cut away by the steeply eroding river bank. The Carnegie Museum has been involved in excavating one pithouse and one large midden and their surrounds. Dog burial in a small pit adjacent to the house excavated by our team. The economy of the Botai people depended almost solely on horses. Most were probably the wild species, Equus ferus, that was hunted with bows and arrows and harpoons, but some may have been domesticated. The current research has focused on the following topics: Were some of the horses at Botai tamed or domesticated? If so, is this one of the earliest locations for horse domestication? How did they butcher the horses and what products from horses did they use? Were the Botai people sedentary rather than nomadic like their ancestors and descendants? Were the Botai people Central Asian or Indo-European? How did they use the bones of horses and other animals to make tools and other artifacts? What can we learn from modern Kazakh pastoralists that applies to Botai horse utilization? [ COLLECTIONS | RESEARCH | STAFF | EXHIBITIONS ] [ ANTHROPOLOGY HOME | CMNH HOME ]