New evidence for equid hybrids in the ancient Near East

By Laerke Recht, Associate Editor for Zooarchaeology

An exciting new paper just published in Science Advances by E. Andrew Bennett, J. Weber, W. Bendhafer, S. Champlot, J. Peters, G. Schwartz, T. Grange and E.-M. Geigl confirms the breeding of equid hybrids in third millennium BCE Mesopotamia. Using aDNA, the team examined specimens from Tell Umm el-Marra, a site in Syria known for its ‘Elite Mortuary Complex’ of the mid-third millennium BCE, including elite burials of both humans and equids. The excavations were led by Glenn M. Schwartz of Johns Hopkins University, with Jill Weber as the zooarchaeologist, both co-authors of the paper. Weber has long suspected and argued for the presence of equid hybrids in the burials, based on her study of the faunal material. The hybrid has been thought to be the so-called ‘kunga’ (in Sumerian), a cross between a domestic donkey and the wild Syrian onager (E. hemionus hemippus, now extinct). The new results now confirm exactly this combination for one individual from Tell Umm el-Marra, based on the aDNA analysis. What is more, the results indicate that the mother of this particular animal was the domestic donkey, and the father the Syrian onager. This wonderful new evidence is important for the understanding of the role of equids, early animal breeding practices, and for human-animal relations more broadly in the ancient Near East.

One of the last surviving E. hemionus hemippus in Schönnbrunn Zoo, 1929. Photo by Conrad Keller.