probably linguistically, from the Danube Valley and Balkan cultures at their west despite trade between them, the foragers of the northern forest zone, and from the cultures east of the Ural river. Chapter Ten: The Domestication of the Horse and the Origins of Riding: The Tale of the Teeth The domestication of the horse had a wide-ranging effect on the steppe cultures, and Anthony has done fieldwork on it. Bit wear is a sign of horse-riding, and the dating of horse teeth with signs of bit wear gives clues for the dating of the appearance of horse-riding. The presence of domesticated horses in the steppe cultures was an important clue for Marija Gimbutas's development of her Kurgan hypothesis. According to Anthony, horseback riding may have appeared as early as 4200 BCE, and horse artifacts show up in greater amounts after 3500 BCE. Horseback riding greatly increased the mobility of herders, allowing for greater herds, but also led to increased warfare by the need for additional grazing land. Chapter Eleven: The End of Old Europe and the Rise of the Steppe The Sredny Stog culture (4400–3300 BCE) appears at the same location as the Dniepr-Donets culture but shows influences from people who came from the Volga River region. The Sredni Stog culture was "the archaeological foundation for the Indo-European steppe pastoralists of Marija Gimbutas," and the period "was the critical era when innovative Proto-Indo-European dialects began to spread across the steppes." Around 4200–4100 BCE, a climate change occurred, causing colder winters. Between 4200 and 3900 BCE, many tell settlements in the lower Danube Valley were burned and abandoned, and the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture showed an increase in fortifications and moved eastwards, towards the Dniepr. Steppe herders, archaic Proto-Indo-European-speakers, spread into the lower Danube valley in about 4200–4000 BCE, causing or taking advantage of the collapse of Old Europe. According to Anthony, their languages "probably included archaic Proto-Indo-European dialects of the kind partly preserved later in Anatolian." According to Anthony their descendants later moved into Anatolia at an unknown time, maybe as early as 3000 BCE. According to Anthony, the herders, forming the Suvorovo-Novodanilovka complex, probably were a chiefly elite from the Sredni Stog culture at the Dniepr Valley. Chapter Twelve: Seeds of Change on the Steppe Borders. Maikop Chiefs and Tripolye Towns The collapse of Old Europe led to a decrease in copper grave gifts in the North Pontic steppes. Between 3800