Introduction of the horse in Arabia: the state of the art

Introduction of the horse in Arabia: the state of the art

Faunal remains

22Dating the introduction of the horse in the Arabian Peninsula cannot be solved by the isolated discovery of equid statues on the surface of al‑Maqar. Faunal remains were found in different archaeological contexts in the Peninsula, and bring first‑hand information. However, we come up against a lack of systematic studies and, when available, these studies are faced with the difficulty to distinguish, from bone fragments, one equid from another or domestic from wild species. The recognition is often merely that of the genus (Equus sp.), when the subgenus remains a question mark. Rare is the distinction between onager (Equus hemionus), ass/donkey (Equus asinus) and horse (Equus caballus). In this context, only a multi‑proxy approach making an inventory of archaeozoological occurrences of faunal remains with iconography, epigraphy and classical sources brings us closer to the answer.
23Although not exhaustive, Table 1 attempts to gather as many occurrences of equid bones as possible in Arabian archaeological contexts. Data are displayed in chronological order.
Table 1: List of Arabian sites with rest of equids within the faunal remains (NISP = Number of identified specimens).

Table 1: List of Arabian sites with rest of equids within the faunal remains (NISP = Number of identified specimens).

24With regard to equids in general, Table 1 underlines several trends.
32⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 1991.
33⦁ ⦁ Cattani⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Bökönyi⦁ , 2002
34⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 1991; ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 2012, p. 80‑81.
35⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 1997, p. 245‑247.
36⦁ ⦁ Fedele⦁ , 2009, p. 143.
25Firstly, the wild ass —generally the African species (Equus asinus africanus)32— is well attested in the Gulf area and Yemen at the latest in the Middle Holocene period. Incipient attempts to domesticate the ass (Equus asinus) at ash‑Shumah (Yemen), in the 7th/6th millennium BC, have been proposed33. However faunal remains from the sites of Hili, Tell Abraq and Maysar 25 coalesce to indicate that the domestication of asses most probably happened in the Early Bronze Age (c. mid‑3rd mill. BC). This hypothesis is reinforced by the representation in a bas‑relief on grave 1059 at Hili of a rider sitting on an equid, most probably a donkey34. In Bahrain and Yemen, the earlier evidence of domesticated donkeys was found in later contexts —respectively at Qalʿat al‑Bahrain, in the City II levels, c. 2100–1700 BC35, and at Yalā, in the early 1st millennium BC36. This is not to say that donkeys were not domesticated earlier in these regions.
37⦁ ⦁ Anthony⦁ , 2013.
38⦁ ⦁ Curtis⦁ ⦁ et al⦁ ., 2012, p. 16‑17.
26The testimonies of domestication of asses happened several centuries later than in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt where it is known in fourth millennium contexts37, and where the animal was trained to pull wagons and battle carts as early as the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. An iconographic example is represented on the ‘Standard’ of Ur, c. 2600 BC38. It cannot be said whether the domestication of asses in Arabia resulted from its spread from surrounding regions or developed locally.
39⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 1997, p. 248.
40⦁ ⦁ Van⦁ ⦁ Neer⦁ ⦁ et al⦁ ., 2017, p. 14.
41⦁ ⦁ Mashkour⦁ , 1997; ⦁ Jasim⦁ , 1999, p. 77‑80; ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 1999.
42⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 2012, p. 84
43⦁ ⦁ Studer⦁ , 2011, p. 316.
44⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Uerpmann⦁ , 2013, p. 199‑200; ⦁ Yule⦁ ⦁ et al⦁ ., 2007, p. 505.
27Secondly, the earliest osteological evidence for the appearance of the horse in Arabia was found in much later contexts. The most ancient comes from Bahrain in a mid‑1st millennium BC context39. At the turn of the Christian era, horses are attested in ed‑Dur40 and in Tombs 4 and 22 at Mleiha41, where they appeared similar in size to modern Arabian horses, but maybe slightly more robust42. At a same period, a horse or a hybrid is mentioned at Madāʾin Sāliḥ43. A few horse bones were also found in the cemetery and ‘Stone Building’ at Ẓafār, in the early Christian era44.
Arguments a silentio
45⦁ ⦁ Yule⦁ ⦁ &⦁ ⦁ Robin⦁ , 2006, p. 262: “Were one to lament the lack of physical evidence for horses (skeletons ⦁ (...)
46⦁ ⦁ Ryckmans⦁ , 1963; ⦁ Macdonald⦁ , 1996, p. 79.
28The absence of horse bones before the mid‑1st millennium BC is not necessarily a proof of its late introduction in Arabia45. However, both arguments a silentio, and other testimonies (iconography, numismatics, inscriptions, classical sources) reinforce this hypothesis. Several arguments a silentio have been stressed by Robin in this issue and others46. They briefly are:
47⦁ ⦁ Macdonald⦁ , 1996, p. 79; ⦁ Albenda⦁ , 2004; ⦁ Donaghy⦁ , 2014, p. 198.
1. The Neo‑Assyrians royal annals: none of the peoples offering horses in tribute to the king come from the Peninsula; besides the tributes from the Arabs includes camels and donkeys, never horses47.
48⦁ ⦁ Curtis⦁ ⦁ et al⦁ ., 2012, p. 23.
2. Similarly, on the Achemenid reliefs of the Apadana at Persepolis, the delegations offering horses are the Armenians, the Cappadocians, the Scythians, and the Sagartians from central Iran48. Arabs are offering dromedaries.
49⦁ ⦁ Ryckmans⦁ , 1963, p. 219.
50⦁ ⦁ Robin⦁ in this issue; see also ⦁ Sima⦁ , 2000, p. 63‑71.
3. South‑Arabian languages: in the corpus of Minaic inscriptions (8th–1st cent. BC), the South‑Arabian word for ‘horse’ (frs¹) is never used49; in the Qatabanic corpus (c. 2500 inscriptions written from the 7th cent. BC to the 2nd cent. AD), only one inscription uses it (RES 851). Nearly all of the occurrences of the word frs¹ only appeared in the Sabaic corpus from the 1st century onwards50.
4. South Arabian iconography: none of the representations of horses in South Arabia are securely dated previously to the turn of the Christian era. Moreover, Robin in his contribution underlines that the horse was not a symbolic animalassociated with gods in South Arabia —contrary to the ibex, the bull, and the ostrich for example—; this could result from its absence in the daily life of Southern Arabians, at the time their rites were organised and codified in the early 1st millennium BC.
5. Eastern Arabian iconography: the horse does not appear as an iconographic motif previously to the mid‑1st millennium BC (Table 2).
51⦁ ⦁ Robin⦁ in this issue; see also ⦁ Curtis⦁ ⦁ et al⦁ ., 2012, p. 44; ⦁ Donaghy⦁ , 2014, p. 198.
6. Classical sources: both accounts by Herodotus and Strabo are frequently quoted as an illustration of the absence of horses in the Peninsula previously to the very end of the 1st mill. BC51. Herodotus (7.86), while describing the cavalry forces of Xerxes, states that “the Arabians […] rode on camels no less swift than horses”; Strabo (Geogr. 16.4.2), quoting Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276‑195 BC), says of Arabia that “with the exception of horses and mules and hogs, it has an abundance of domesticated animals”.