Deriivka

Deriivka is a Copper Age settlement and cemetery on the right bank of the Dnieper in Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine, dating to c. 4500-3500 BC and associated with the Sredny Stog culture [1] [2]. The site gained fame for a high percentage of horse bones and a horse burial with apparent bit wear, initially interpreted as the earliest evidence of horse domestication and riding [1] [3] [4]. However, radiocarbon dating later showed the horse skull dated to the Iron Age (c. 700-200 BC), undermining claims of 4th-millennium horseback riding [1] [5] [6].