Donkeys were first domesticated from wild asses around 7000 years ago in East Africa.
(Photo Credit: Eric Lafforgue/Getty Images)
Wild donkeys were domesticated by the East Africans between 7000 and 4000 BC in the Red Sea Hills and the northern fringe of the Ethiopian highlands. (Ehret, Ancient Africa, p.64).
Donkeys enabled the transport of cargo across the Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamia and Pakistan. As Roger Blench states, "The spread of the donkey across Africa was linked with the proliferation of long-distance caravans." He notes that "Donkeys are used mainly
as pack animals, either for carrying loads or for
riding. In arid regions they are used together with
camels to pull water from deep wells."
Historically, donkeys pulled carts, dragged mill stones, and drove olive presses. With the development of sedentary communal agriculture, they were used to plow the fields. However, the greatest claim to be made on their behalf involves their role in the emergence of trade across vast distances. And the early Hebrew were largely responsible for that development. They controlled many of the ancient trade routes, such as the Hula Valley and commerce along the major water ways. One means of control was to build twin settlements on opposites sides of the river.
The early Hebrew (4000-2000 BC) dispersed widely in the ancient world, traded valuable commodities, established themselves in new territories, and influenced the religious beliefs of the people among whom they lived. There is little doubt that the donkey heled them to become wealthy.
The Horite Hebrew of Edom and Seir are mentioned in Genesis 36.
An early representation of donkeys is on an Egyptian palette dated c. 3100 BC. Donkeys were buried in elite cemeteries of the Nilotic peoples. In a royal funerary complex at Abydos, donkey skeletons were found in mudbrick graves. Donkeys indicated a clan's status.
The earliest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is at Nekhen on the Nile. Historical and archaeological data indicates that this was one of the early breeding grounds of the donkey. As Dr. Christopher Ehret notes, "Africans were the domesticators of the donkey, and animal that became a major stimulus for change in the relations of trade, there came the emergence of a new kind of town. Previously towns, where they did exist, as in Egypt and in the Levant and Mesopotamia, were principally temple centers and/or the governing centers of kingdoms. The new kind of town served instead primarily as a production center of goods destined for commerce or else as a trading center located as the crossroads of trade routes from one region to another, or both." (Ehret, Ancient Africa, pp. 67-68.)
Related reading: How donkeys changed the course of human history; Interview with Christopher Ehret; The Wealth of the Mesopotamian Rulers
