A recent paper on genomes of ancient donkeys made a good excuse to heap some praise on this much-maligned beast of burden, which has, in fact, served us longer than the current lineages of domesticated horses. It was intriguing to learn that in Ancient Mesopotamia, hybrids of donkeys and wild asses served in prestigious roles and were included in royal burials - until horses came along.
All this is in my latest feature which is out now:
A brief history of donkeys
Current Biology Volume 32, Issue 19, 10 October 2022, Pages R985-R987
FREE access to full text and PDF download
NB: as the 2022 features move into the open archives, I will add them to this thread on Mastodon.
An equid burial within the royal burial complex of Umm el-Marra likely contains the highly valued kunga known from ancient texts. Sequencing has now identified one of the animals as a first-generation hybrid of donkey and hemippe. (Photo: Glenn M. Schwartz.)
1 comment:
I saw your post on the #asstodon hashtag and I'm really interested in reading this, though the science maybe over my head. I am particularly interested in the history and culture of our human-equusasinus connection. Happy Feast of the Ass (14 January).
Gareth Thomas
DM @equusasinus@mastodon.world
https://equusasinus.net/2023/01/14/feast-of-the-ass-14-january/
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