• Vast curtain of grassland from Hungary to Manchuria
• Historical significance derived from use of horses
• People of the Yamnaya culture were first to take advantage
  • Starting from around 3000 BCE, used horses and wheeled carts
  • Geneticists have found second cousins buried almost 900 miles apart
  • Descendants were in Europe, India, Near East, western China
• By seventh century BCE, Scythians occupied western end
• Around 200 BCE, Xiongnu occupied eastern end and collected payment from Han