the Noble Burro.....

[almaty 19]

few years ago, Egyptologists found a new Pharaonic burial site more than 5,000 years old. They opened up a tomb.

"They're expecting to find nobles, the highest courtiers," said Washington University archaeologist Fiona Marshall. "And what do they find? Ten donkey skeletons.

"The ancient Egyptian burial shows how highly valued (donkeys) were for the world's first nation-state. After the horse came, they became lower status. Of course, they're the butt of jokes and all the rest of it. That has to do with the name mostly."

Heehaw. Marshall wants to know how the donkey was domesticated from the Somali wild ###. By traveling around the world, searching for bones in London museums and African deserts, she hopes to pinpoint the time and place of this event, which Marshall says was as revolutionary as the invention of the steam engine. Advertisement

She also hopes to understand why the ### was domesticated and not, say, the zebra.

Animal domestication events are rare in human history. Of 148 land-dwelling mammals that weigh more than 100 pounds, only 14 were domesticated. These animals tend to have certain characteristics, like a strong hierarchy. That allows humans to slip in atop the order. Calm, social and nonterritorial animals also made good candidates.

Yet wild asses - stubborn, territorial, flighty - have none of these characteristics. "That is the conundrum. By all the rules of domestication, they're not at all suitable," Marshall said.

Marshall is working with St. Louis Zoo researcher Cheryl Asa to understand how asses breed and behave in captivity, which could provide clues as to how they were turned into the domesticated donkey.

The St. Louis Zoo has five wild asses. Only a few dozen are kept in North American zoos, and only a few thousand cling to war-torn lands in Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, where the Zoo is funding conservation work.

While the vicious and flighty zebra has resisted domestication even by modern biologists, the ### was somehow domesticated in these lands at least 6,000 years ago, according to Marshall. RELATED

### by any other name might get more sympathy

The estimated date and place for animal domestication changes

Pinpointing domestication events is a challenge. Marshall looks for subtle things to distinguish donkey and ### bones, like arthritis in a shoulder bone - evidence of a pack-laden animal.

The events are important to archaeologists because they have major historical implications. Domesticated plants and animals let farmers stockpile food in a more predictable way, said Melinda Zeder, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Natural History.

"Domestication around the world has certainly been an incredible lever for human change," she said.

In one theory, the large number of domesticated plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent of the ancient Near East spread easily across the east-west axis of Eurasia. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Guns, Germs and Steel," Jared Diamond credits that for the eventual dominance of European powers.

Marshall said, "It helps us understand the trajectory that's been taken to the modern world. The places that are wealthy and powerful today had good conditions for domestication long ago."

But in Africa, something different happened, she said. Few plants were domesticated. Africans did domesticate cattle and donkeys, but that didn't encourage an intensive, settled agriculture. Instead, a herding culture thrived. Donkeys were the engines that moved men, women and children from pasture to pasture with their cattle and belongings.

Pastoralism is dying in the modern world as intensive, agricultural societies prevail economically. But Marshall says donkeys still have an important role to play.

Mules, the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, are used for agriculture the world over and renowned for their endurance. Miniature mules are now popular as pets. And donkeys are making a comeback as transportation for ecotourists in southeastern Europe, Marshall said.

"The donkey is a gift that Africa had for the world," she said.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

LOL @ the word filter "bowdlerizing" the story....

[mybackpages 0]

In Morocco, telling someone that they work like a donnkey is an insult except in Fez where they seem to appreciate the hard work of this noble animal. I think they are fabulous animals!

[Saddle Bronc 124]

few years ago, Egyptologists found a new Pharaonic burial site more than 5,000 years old. They opened up a tomb.

"They're expecting to find nobles, the highest courtiers," said Washington University archaeologist Fiona Marshall. "And what do they find? Ten donkey skeletons.

"The ancient Egyptian burial shows how highly valued (donkeys) were for the world's first nation-state. After the horse came, they became lower status. Of course, they're the butt of jokes and all the rest of it. That has to do with the name mostly."

Heehaw. Marshall wants to know how the donkey was domesticated from the Somali wild ###. By traveling around the world, searching for bones in London museums and African deserts, she hopes to pinpoint the time and place of this event, which Marshall says was as revolutionary as the invention of the steam engine. Advertisement

She also hopes to understand why the ### was domesticated and not, say, the zebra.

Animal domestication events are rare in human history. Of 148 land-dwelling mammals that weigh more than 100 pounds, only 14 were domesticated. These animals tend to have certain characteristics, like a strong hierarchy. That allows humans to slip in atop the order. Calm, social and nonterritorial animals also made good candidates.

Yet wild asses - stubborn, territorial, flighty - have none of these characteristics. "That is the conundrum. By all the rules of domestication, they're not at all suitable," Marshall said.

Marshall is working with St. Louis Zoo researcher Cheryl Asa to understand how asses breed and behave in captivity, which could provide clues as to how they were turned into the domesticated donkey.

The St. Louis Zoo has five wild asses. Only a few dozen are kept in North American zoos, and only a few thousand cling to war-torn lands in Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, where the Zoo is funding conservation work.

While the vicious and flighty zebra has resisted domestication even by modern biologists, the ### was somehow domesticated in these lands at least 6,000 years ago, according to Marshall. RELATED

### by any other name might get more sympathy

The estimated date and place for animal domestication changes

Pinpointing domestication events is a challenge. Marshall looks for subtle things to distinguish donkey and ### bones, like arthritis in a shoulder bone - evidence of a pack-laden animal.

The events are important to archaeologists because they have major historical implications. Domesticated plants and animals let farmers stockpile food in a more predictable way, said Melinda Zeder, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Natural History.

"Domestication around the world has certainly been an incredible lever for human change," she said.

In one theory, the large number of domesticated plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent of the ancient Near East spread easily across the east-west axis of Eurasia. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Guns, Germs and Steel," Jared Diamond credits that for the eventual dominance of European powers.

Marshall said, "It helps us understand the trajectory that's been taken to the modern world. The places that are wealthy and powerful today had good conditions for domestication long ago."

But in Africa, something different happened, she said. Few plants were domesticated. Africans did domesticate cattle and donkeys, but that didn't encourage an intensive, settled agriculture. Instead, a herding culture thrived. Donkeys were the engines that moved men, women and children from pasture to pasture with their cattle and belongings.

Pastoralism is dying in the modern world as intensive, agricultural societies prevail economically. But Marshall says donkeys still have an important role to play.

Mules, the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, are used for agriculture the world over and renowned for their endurance. Miniature mules are now popular as pets. And donkeys are making a comeback as transportation for ecotourists in southeastern Europe, Marshall said.

"The donkey is a gift that Africa had for the world," she said.

Note that donkeys DO herd--and are thus do have one of the characteristics.

Which could NOT be said of cats (except for lions--which none actually successfully domesticated--cats are loners, and definitely territorial).

LOL @ the word filter "bowdlerizing" the story....

And then MISSING several instances (all of the plurals)

Yet wild asses - stubborn, territorial, flighty - have none of these characteristics. "That is the conundrum. By all the rules of domestication, they're not at all suitable," Marshall said.

Marshall is working with St. Louis Zoo researcher Cheryl Asa to understand how asses breed and behave in captivity, which could provide clues as to how they were turned into the domesticated donkey.

The St. Louis Zoo has five wild asses. Only a few dozen are kept in North American zoos, and only a few thousand cling to war-torn lands in Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, where the Zoo is funding conservation work.

[almaty 19]

aw, yes some right thinking people on this post...the noble donkey is the pick-up truck of the 3rd world

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

aw, yes some right thinking people on this post...the noble donkey is the pick-up truck of the 3rd world

i drive a pick-up truck. a Ford at that. proving that I come from a long line of burro herders.

Daniel

:energetic:

[almaty 19]

aw, yes some right thinking people on this post...the noble donkey is the pick-up truck of the 3rd world

i drive a pick-up truck. a Ford at that. proving that I come from a long line of burro herders.

Daniel

:energetic:

i drive a mazda one..i feel spiritual link to the noble burro

[AnaAndDaniel 0]

aw, yes some right thinking people on this post...the noble donkey is the pick-up truck of the 3rd world

i drive a pick-up truck. a Ford at that. proving that I come from a long line of burro herders.

Daniel

:energetic:

i drive a mazda one..i feel spiritual link to the noble burro

you my friend, are truly a right thinking man.

Daniel

:energetic:

[almaty 19]

aw, yes some right thinking people on this post...the noble donkey is the pick-up truck of the 3rd world

i drive a pick-up truck. a Ford at that. proving that I come from a long line of burro herders.

Daniel

:energetic:

i drive a mazda one..i feel spiritual link to the noble burro

you my friend, are truly a right thinking man.

Daniel

:energetic:

thank you daniel-san..and so are you and all the burro fans