The Domestication of Equidae in Third-Millennium BCE Mesopotamia

Abstract

It has been forty years since the first edition of this book, as an Oriental Institute doctoral dissertation, was completed. Now, in a fully revised and much expanded study, CUSAS 24 presents a comprehensive discussion of the philological, historical, and archaeological evidence for the range of equidae known now from much of Western

Animals as Social Actors: Cases of Equid Resistance in the Ancient Near East

“…Hauser 2007, 373; Makowski 2014, 262). Precisely when the different species of equids were domesticated in the Near East is a matter of some debate, which I will not endeavour to cover here (for a detailed study, see Zarins 2014). Certainly by the second half of the third millennium bc , we have good evidence that selective breeding of equids took place, and that certain cities were famous for their equids.…”

The genetic identity of the earliest human-made hybrid animals, the kungas of Syro-Mesopotamia

“…Large-sized male kungas were used to pull the vehicles of "nobility and gods" (6), and their size and speed made them more desirable than asses for the towing of four-wheeled war wagons (8), which predate horse-pulled chariots. Smaller-sized male and female kungas were used in agriculture, where they were frequently reported pulling ploughs (4,9). Kunga foals were seldom born within the urban centers of Sumer and Syria, and Ebla purchased young kungas almost exclusively from what may have been the principal breeding center at Nagar (modern Tell Brak), in northern Mesopotamia, whose rulers also provided them as gifts to the elites of allied territories (3).…”

“…1C), decorated with a small statue of a noncaballine equid, either a kunga or hemione. Kunga use and traditions decreased and eventually vanished following the introduction of domestic horses in the region (9,11). Early references to horses in cuneiform writing coincide with the Third Dynasty of Ur (late third millennium BCE), where they are referred to as anše-zi-zi and later anše-kur-ra (equids of the mountain) (6,8).…”

“…It has been argued that in addition to its untamable, aggressive nature (14), its diminutive size made it an unlikely candidate for use in breeding kungas [(3) and references therein]. Some authors considered the nondonkey parent to be a horse [discussed in (4,9)].…”

Peter Mitchell. The donkey in human history: an archaeological perspective. 2018. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 978-0-198-74923-3 £65.

“…He makes a cogent and passionate argument for the key role of the donkey in underpinning many of the social and economic transformations evident in this region in the fourth and third millennia BC, continuing with accounts of the large-scale donkey-caravan trade in the southern Levant and as recorded in the later archives from Kültepe, Mari and Ugarit. He makes an excursion (self-admittedly brief) farther into Asia, then returns to the Near East to discuss the production and ceremonial usage of hemione-donkey hybrids, including an account of the phenomenon of apparent sacred burials of both these and donkeys—although he does not refer to Zarins's comprehensive 2014 work on equids in the third millennium BC.…”