Titel der Masterarbeit:
Kinship Analysis of the Prehistoric Horses of the Lichtenstein Cave
In human history the horse (Equus caballus Linnæus, 1758) was the domestic animal that had the main impact on the development of social and political processes. It nurtured human social activities and put them on a more transregional scale. The conquest of landscapes or whole continents and their settlements was carried out on horsebacks, as well as the battles for victory or defeat of a kingdom (Bowling & Ruvinsky, 2000). Still, the DNA of horses is only poorly investigated. Today, the parentage analysis is implemented via fingerprinting the individuals with dinucleotide short tandem repeat (STR) systems and DNA extracted from blood. Dinucleotide STRs are in general not suitable with aDNA; hence there is the need to establish a new analyzing method with tetranucleotide STRs for aDNA-cases. Within this thesis a new multiplex will be designed and established. It will be tested with recent horse-DNA and the bones of the Lichtenstein Cave will be analyzed. The mentioned cave is located near Osterode am Harz and was discovered in 1972. According to 14C dating, the discovered remains are at least 3,000 years old. It is assumed that it will be possible to find related animals within the remains of the cave. If this thesis is proven right, an evidence for human induced breeding of horses in the Bronze Age is given.