Donkey domestication is documented
Published: March 17, 2008 at 12:30 PM
The findings by the team led by Professor Fiona Marshall at Washington University in St. Louis suggest the process of domestication might have been slower and less linear than previously thought.
The research focused on 10 donkey skeletons from three graves dedicated to donkeys in the funerary complex of one of the first pharaoh's at Abydos, Egypt.
Marshall, in collaboration with Stine Rossel of the University of Copenhagen, found donkeys approximately 5,000 years ago were in an early phase of domestication. They looked like wild animals, but displayed joint wear that showed they were used as domestic animals.
"Genetic research has suggested African origins for the donkey," said Marshall. "But coming up with an exact time and location for domestication is difficult because signs of early domestication can be hard to see. Our findings show that traces of human management can indicate domestication before skeletal or even genetic changes."
The research appeared in the March 10 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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A bedouin rides a donkey in Petra, Jordan, August 5, 2007. Petra is the remains of a city carved out of the rock in southern Jordan by the Nabataean Arabs. It was voted second in the New Seven Wonders of the World on July 7, 2007. More than a million votes were cast from 200 countries on an online poll. (UPI Photo/ Debbie Hill)
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