Posted on 07/28/2019 11:19:33 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
A photograph of mesial/anterior face of both left and right LPM2 teeth that shows evidence of erosion of the enamel that is characteristic of bit wear on the 4700-year-old donkey skeleton excavated from Israel. Photo: Greenfield et al.
Horses tamed 1,000 years earlier than thought
Times Online | 06 Mar 2009 | Mark Henderson
Posted on 03/06/2009 8:03:54 AM PST by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2200706/posts
Amazing! Thanks!
some relevant sidebars from the Philistines keyword:
Bit wear happens in flash drives today..
:)
Words fail me :)
We should keep in mind that computers are white supremacist and sexist because they are based on binary.
I’m stealing that.
You’re right of course. Most women think in trinary - yes/no/maybe.
No, they just talk that way.
;^)
That’s true. Yes means no, no means no and maybe means no.
Equid bit wear sounds like a progressive rock band.
Landfall of the Dragon Ships was the name of their first album.
LOL!
What a great band! Don't know how I missed out on them at the time. Reminds me of Yes, whom I saw in concert several times and totally loved.
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