A Brief History Of Donkeys
Donkeys were first domesticated around 7,000 years ago in North Africa and Egypt for meat and milk. Around 2,000 years ago donkeys were among the draught animals used to carry silk from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean along the Silk Road in return for trade goods. The overland route was approximately 4,000 miles or 6,400km and lasted several years. No single animal completed the entire journey and mixing of breeds occurred as unplanned matings happened en-route to give us the beginnings of the diverse range of donkey breeds we now have.
The journey ended in the Mediterranean ports of Greece, Italy, the Middle East and Alexandria in Egypt. In Greece donkeys were found to be ideal animals for working on the narrow paths between the vines. Their use for cultivation in vineyards spread through the Mediterranean countries to Spain, whose coast at the southern tip is separated from North Africa by only a few miles - possibly another entry route for the African wild ass.
The Roman Army was responsible for the movement of donkeys into Northern Europe. Donkeys were used in agriculture and as pack animals. The Romans used donkeys in their new vineyards, some planted as far north as France and Germany. Donkeys came to England with the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. However, donkeys were still not commonly documented in the UK until after the 1550s.
The journey ended in the Mediterranean ports of Greece, Italy, the Middle East and Alexandria in Egypt. In Greece donkeys were found to be ideal animals for working on the narrow paths between the vines. Their use for cultivation in vineyards spread through the Mediterranean countries to Spain, whose coast at the southern tip is separated from North Africa by only a few miles - possibly another entry route for the African wild ass.
The Roman Army was responsible for the movement of donkeys into Northern Europe. Donkeys were used in agriculture and as pack animals. The Romans used donkeys in their new vineyards, some planted as far north as France and Germany. Donkeys came to England with the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. However, donkeys were still not commonly documented in the UK until after the 1550s.
Donkeys were the first animals to pull wheeled vehicles, and the first to be ridden. Riders were higher and faster and therefore superior to people on foot. Cuneiform tablets from the Bronze Age city of Mari in Syria show how donkey carts were considered appropriate transport for kings, and the famous royal Standard of Ur shows royalty being drawn in carts pulled by donkeys or onagers.
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The Mari tablets also show that only a pure bred donkey was acceptable for important sacrifices, and a foundation deposit beneath a temple at Tel Haror in Israel (1500-1400 BC) consisted of a sacrificed donkey together with the oldest bridle bit yet recovered. So although Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday is usually taken to represent his association with the poor, this is not so. An alternative translation of the prophecy that Christ would enter Jerusalem on the back of a ‘humble ass’ makes it clear that the animal was associated with kingship.
Donkeys were used by the Roman army from c. 200 BC but mules, the hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, were to become the most important working animals for the military and were used to pull heavy artillery such as catapults. It has been estimated that there were probably half a million mules serving in the Roman army by the time of Augustus (31 BC-AD 14) but they have remained elusive in the archaeological record until recently. The advent of precise morphometric techniques and DNA studies has now shown that mules may have comprised up to 50% of the equids in the Roman Empire. Horses were the elite animals, but mules and donkeys were the commonplace working animals. Roman mules were surprisingly large and uniform in size, suggesting that their breeding was controlled. |
Christ entering Jerusalem from a mosaic in the Palatine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily
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