Animal breeding began as far back as 4,500 years ago
Archaeological finds confirm: humans began selective animal breeding as early as 4,500 years ago. The consequences are still felt today.
In present-day Aleppo in Syria researchers have excavated the bones of an extraordinary type of donkey.
Even before domesticated horses were introduced to Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago, people there were already breeding hoofed animals that they harnessed to war chariots and ploughs and used for diplomatic and ceremonial purposes: the so-called kungas.
Throughout history, horses and other equids have played a key role in the development of civilisations as well as in warfare. A Sumerian mosaic dating back around 4,500 years provides evidence that the Sumerians were already using war chariots on the battlefield at that time, pulled by horse-like animals. Domestic horses, however, were not introduced to the region until around 500 years later.
Genetic analyzes show that the 4,500-year-old fossils represent the oldest known example of deliberate animal breeding by humans.
Archaeologists suspect that these were the legendary «kungas», a rare type of donkey, as they report in the academic journal «Science Advances». Cuneiform tablets dating from the same period as the bone finds record that these animals were highly prized by Mesopotamian elites for being strong, sturdy, and fast.
Researchers had already suspected that these were hybrids of domesticated and wild animals. What remained unknown was which species were involved. Geneticists have now been able to show that they were crossbreeds between female domestic donkeys and — now extinct — male Syrian wild asses.
Mesopotamians were skilled breeders
The selection of female domestic donkeys demonstrates a highly sophisticated breeding management, the researchers report. These domesticated mothers ensured the kungas could be raised without difficulty, while the wild ass fathers were reportedly notoriously stubborn.
Although the human breeders of the first domesticated animals must have repeatedly crossbred them with their wild relatives, this is the first documented example of a half-wild, half-domesticated animal. The mule – a cross between a horse and a donkey – is possibly the next oldest animal of this kind, but it did not appear on the scene until over 1’000 years later.
So valuable that they received a burial
The fossils were discovered in 2006 at the 4,500-year-old royal burial site of Umm el-Marra in Aleppo. Based on the arrangement and positioning of the graves, archaeologists suspected that the creatures might be the mythical kungas.
They were buried as individuals, which is rare in archaeology, as animal remains are normally simply discarded. Many of the animals also appear to have been sacrificed, presumably to join their humans in the afterlife. «These animals must have been something very special«, says Eva-Maria Geigl, geneticist at the Institut Jacques Monod in Paris.
