page_title: Proto-Indo-European society
section_title: Domesticated animals
hierarchical_section_title: Proto-Indo-European society / Animals / Domesticated animals
caption_attribution_description: Only known illustration of a tarpan made from life, depicting a five month old colt.(Bennett 1998)
context_page_description: Proto-Indo-European society is the reconstructed culture of Proto-Indo-Europeans, the ancient speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, ancestor of all modern Indo-European languages.
context_section_description: The reconstructed lexicon suggests a Neolithic economy with extensive references to domesticated animals. They were familiar with cows (*gʷṓus), sheep (*h₃ówis), goats (*díks, or *hₐeiĝs) and pigs (*sūs ; also *pórḱos, "piglet"). 
  They knew dogs (*ḱwōn), milk (*ǵl̩ákt; also *hₐmelǵ-, "to milk") and dairy foods, wool (*wĺh₂nehₐ) and woollen textiles, agriculture, wagons, and honey (*mélit). The domestication of the horse (*h₁éḱwos), thought to be an extinct Tarpan species, have probably originated with these peoples, and scholars invoke this innovation as a factor contributing to their increased mobility and rapid expansion.
  The dog was perceived as a symbol of death and depicted as the guardian of the Otherworld in Indo-European cultures (Greek Cerberus, Indic Sarvarā, Norse Garmr). The mytheme possibly stems from an older Ancient North Eurasian belief, as evidenced by similar motifs in Native American and Siberian mythology, in which case it might be one of the oldest mythemes recoverable through comparative mythology. In various Indo-European traditions, the worst throw at the game of dice was named the "dog", and the best throw was known as the "dog-killer". Canine teeth of dogs were frequently worn as pendants in Yamnaya graves in the western Pontic steppes, particularly in the Ingul valley.
caption: Tarpan horse (1841 drawing)
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