Western China

[SED]

Cool history and anthropology.     Glad I didn't have to fly! 

[Testarossa]

Kidneb:  I saw that NYT story too, and it overstates the case a bit. Rock art is very hard to carbon-date because the pigments are typically mineral (ochre=iron oxide) rather than organic. An international team published a paper in 2016 dating the art to 4600 years old, plus or minus about 600. This isn't older than some of the skis found in bogs in Fennoscandinavia. See

https://skiinghistory.org/news/origin-story-where-did-skiing-begin

And yes, I did see the rock art in question. There are hundreds of petroglyph sites across central Asia. I sat through two days of academic presentations by archaeologists from Norway, Russia, China and Mongolia. The 10,000-year age is speculative and based on the assumption that this region was clear of glacial ice by that time. The area is desert and never was covered by continental glaciation, but it was buried under local Altai Mountain glaciers. There's evidence of human habitation in unglaciated northern Russian 40,000 years ago.

In other parts of the world rock art age is estimated by carbon dating other material found in the cave, or by geological evidence of glacial or sea shore level at the site.

[kidneb]

Thanks for your educating answer Testarossa,- and the article was an interesting read. I was born in Norway and grew up there with skies on my feet, and thus bear some interest to the subject.
I just read a Norwegian article on the history of skiing, and it mentions the 8000 years old ski artefact found in Vis in North Russia. In Norway the oldest ski artefact found is about 5000 years old, but there are older findings both in Sweden and Finland. As the ice withdrew from the coast, there were two major migration waves into what is now known as Norway about 10500 to 11500 years ago, one coming up from south, and a later one from east, entering the north,- and why shouldn't they have brought their skiing technology with them?

[Testarossa]

As the ice withdrew from the coast, there were two major migration waves into what is now known as Norway about 10500 to 11500 years ago, one coming up from south, and a later one from east, entering the north,- and why shouldn't they have brought their skiing technology with them?

That's exactly right. It's assumed that the tribes followed the elk and reindeer herds northwestward and northeastward from central Asia, on skis all the way because the most efficient way to hunt big game is to catch up to them when they're postholed in the snow. One mystery: why didn't skis cross the Bering Strait into North America? Why don't the Inuit have them?

Go to youtube and search altay ski.  Lots of cool video.

[kidneb]

One mystery: why didn't skis cross the Bering Strait into North America? Why don't the Inuit have them?

Never thought about it, but could it just be due to lack of proper wood to make them? The skis didn't follow nor did the horse, but one should think that sealskin would do the job as well as horsehide ?

Anyway,- thanks for the youtube tip, and hope you've recovered from the long flight home.

Some Norwegian Sami people here, from the beginning of the 20th century. They`ve had a tough time then for some centuries:





edit,- Hmm, did a read up on man riding horse, and I learned that the oldest documented proof of men riding horses in central Asia is "only" 4000 years old, so --- 

[Lannis]

One mystery: why didn't skis cross the Bering Strait into North America? Why don't the Inuit have them?

I know one potential reason they don't have them.   Because in the wintertime, it's hard enough keeping warm and dry and whole in normal conditions.   If you add to that, however, the issues of continually falling on your arse while sliding down a hill, getting snow in every gap and orifice that the snow can find, and bruising yourself up so that you can barely lift a cup of hot chocolate (or whatever the Inuit drank around the fire) to your lips ....

.... then "not skiing" might make sense.   And how do I know that .... ?   

Lannis

[Chuck in Indiana]

^^^^^ I've been on skis once. About all I remember about it is trying to get back on them a lot. 
As for why the Inuit didn't have them? There's probably a reason they made igloos..

[Tom]

Hard to browse and graze when you're sliding by.   They did use the technology in their sled runners.