Earliest direct evidence of horse husbandry and essential social network for sacrificial rituals during the Western Zhou Dynasty in China

Horses were initially managed and domesticated in Central Asia during the Neolithic period for their utilization as a source of sustenance and transportation. Subsequently, they came to symbolize the elevated status of individuals when interred alongside elites in nomadic cultures during the Bronze Age in the eastern Eurasian Steppe. This practice was also adopted in China and became an indispensable component of Zhou rituals, with its origins dating back to the Late Shang Dynasty and subsequently spreading throughout the Western Zhou Dynasty. The understanding of horse management for sacrificial purposes after its introduction to China remains limited. In this study, we present isotopic data (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, δ³⁴S, δ¹⁸O) and ¹⁴C-dating results obtained from equine bones discovered at the Yaoheyuan site in Ningxia, China, which served as a vassal state attached to Western Zhou. The dating analysis reveals that horses lived during the period of 1203 BC∼821 BC (2σ, 95.4%), within the chorological range of the early to middle Western Zhou Dynasty generally. The multi-isotope analysis demonstrates that sacrificial horses exhibited diverse dietary patterns and originated from various regions, highlighting how burial owners held dominant authority over valuable equine resources. Similar patterns of horse management can be observed across other sites in China during both the Bronze Age and Iron Age periods as well as within the eastern Eurasian Steppe region. This suggests that horse sacrificial ritual originated from this steppe region but became localized within Chinese culture upon its introduction to China and eventually turned into an intrinsic characteristic of Zhou ritual practices. Sustaining such widespread adoption of this ritual throughout Western Zhou period required a continuous social network, including a self-sustained system to raise horse locally and an imported system to obtain horses in the steppe by wars, tributes, or trade exchange. Our study offers the earliest direct evidence of the ceremonial handling of equine sacrifices and the crucial social network during the Western Zhou Dynasty, enhancing our comprehension of cultural exchange between the eastern Eurasian Steppe and China.