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0218 Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2
Explorations in Turkestan : Expedition of 1904 : vol.2 / Page 218 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000178
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396   ANIMAL REMAINS FROM THE EXCAVATIONS AT ANAU.

The Anau horses range themselves quite in the beginning of this table, with minimum of 22.0, mean of 26.o, and maximum of 35.o, and show themselves, therefore, to stand nearest to Equus stenonis, here again inclining to the half-asses and asses. According to Tscherski, however, Equus stenonis is nothing else than the Siberian fossil horse which he describes.

METATARSUS TERTIUS.

Of metatarsal bones we have two completely preserved specimens, from which we can determine easily the index of width, which further confirms, in the most striking manner, the thin-footed character of the Anau horse.

Index to width.

Equus onager    9.o

Anau horse, culture I, —2x feet    9.5

Equus hemionus   10.0

Equus przewalskii    10.1

Small German bronze-age horse of Spandau   10 .6

Anau horse, culture I, +15 feet   10.5

Small German horse of the Schlossberg   11.9

Large Schlossberg horse   12.0

Siberian fossil horse of the Yana River   13.3

German diluvial horse of Westeregeln   13.9

This table is particularly instructive, since in it so great a variation is shown between two metatarsi of the Anau horse that the Spandau horse of the bronze age is seen to be still more narrow-footed than the Anau horse I.

PHALANGES.

The phalanges also confirm what has been said, since their measurements agree only with the smallest breeds and species of horses. The larger of these phalanges from culture I, No. 20, — zo feet, and from No. 1205, —15 feet, as well as No. 168 from the Komorof trench, must be considered as the phalanges of the posterior extremities, and the others as belonging to the anterior extremities.

ON THE TYPE AND THE RELATIONS OF THE HORSES FROM ANAU.

We have now come to the close of our discussion of the remains of the horse of Anau, and it remains only to give a short recapitulation of the results and to draw some inferences.

In order to deal clearly with this subject, however, we must first try to determine arithmetically the approximate size of this horse in the manner formerly used by me,* the results of which I give below:

Height of withers (in centimeters).

Calculated from the scapula   132.7

Calculated from the tibia    132.9

Calculated from the metacarpus   146.5

Calculated from the metatarsus    136.4

Mean height   137

*Die Tierwelt der Ansiedelungen an Schlossberge zu Burg an der Spree, pp. 18, 276, 277.