Archaeologists uncover earliest evidence for equid bit wear in the ancient Near East

EurekAlert! ^ | May 16, 2018 | Elana Oberlander, Bar-Ilan University

[SunkenCiv]

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the earliest example of the use of a bridle bit with an equid (horse family) in the Near East. The discovery provides first evidence of the use of the bit (mouth piece) to control an animal long before the appearance of the horse in the Near East.

Evidence of the bridle bit was derived from the skeleton of a donkey dating to the Early Bronze Age III (approximately 2700 BCE) found at the excavations of the biblical city Gath (modern Tell es-Safi) of the Philistines, the home of Goliath, located in central Israel. The donkey was laid as a sacrificial offering before the construction of a house in a domestic neighborhood.

The international team, including archaeologists from Bar-Ilan University, the University of Manitoba (St. Paul's College), University of Saskatchewan (St. Thomas More College), Ariel University and Grand Valley State University published their findings today in the journal PLOS ONE...

The donkey is one of four that were found buried under neighborhood houses, which indicates the importance of the donkey in this society -- most likely as a beast of burden used in trade, the researchers said.

In a previously-published study the researchers provided evidence, based on isotopic analyses, that this very donkey was born in Egypt and... brought to the site only in the last few months of its life, before it was sacrificed and buried beneath the floor of the house as it was being rebuilt. Domestic horses were not yet present in the Near East at that time. As a result, donkeys were not only used as beasts of burden, but also were used to pull and be ridden by the newly emerging elites in these early city-states.

[Albion Wilde]

Tenpole Tudor - Wunderbar

Yep, that's a short film of my Viking ancestors invading Ireland in the year 800!

Here's one for you:

The Alan Parsons Project - (The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether

[SunkenCiv]

The APP... never been a favorite, although I did like Ambrosia, and I think they were involved in the studio work for TOMAM.

[Albion Wilde]

We are carbon-dating ourselves. Or vinyl-dating, as it were.

[SunkenCiv]

I only found them thanks to a related vid link on YT, sometime over five years ago. The band name came from a worn out sign, Public Foot(path to) The Roman (fort). They just never broke big, broke up, and according to some comment in one of the YT vids of their songs, one of the former members wound up in IT or something, in Canada.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... well, there is carbon in vinyl...

[SunkenCiv]

This guy's voice is a chore to listen to, IMHO, but I'm on my second time through.

David W. Anthony, Professor of Anthropology and Anthropology Curator of the Yager Museum of Art and Culture at Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York, presents "Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes" at the Penn Museum's symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity."

Horseback Riding and Bronze Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppes | Penn Museum | Published on June 20, 2011