Wejden Bendhafer’s research while affiliated with Institut Jacques Monod and other places

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Publications (1)


Fig. 1. Iconographic and textual depiction of the kunga. (A) Third millennium BCE cuneiform signs for the kunga (ANŠE.BARxAN) above a photo and drawing of a clay tablet from UrIII Girsu/Lagaš (British Museum BM23836) featuring multiple occurrences, highlighted in the juxtaposed drawing. The first two lines read "transmitted barley plots of 1 bur 6 iku (=8.64 ha) in area, (for the keeping of) ANŠE.BARxAN -equids of the king" (drawing and translation courtesy of K. Maekawa). (B) Detail from the Standard of Ur shows an equid team pulling a four-wheeled wagon in battle (photo credit: The British Museum Images). (C) Image of a rein ring with decorative equid from a royal grave at Ur, contemporary and similar to those visible in the Standard of Ur. (D) Nineveh panel: "hunting wild asses" (645 to 635 BCE) (British Museum, London). Figure S8 shows additional panels attesting that the equids depicted are noncaballine. (C and D) British Museum, London; photo credit: E. Andrew Bennett.
Fig. 2. Map of third millennium BCE Syro-Mesopotamia showing the major historical and archaeological sites (modified from Wikipedia https://fr.m.wikipedia. org/wiki/Fichier:Syrie_3mil_aC.svg). The insert shows a representative equid burial in Umm el-Marra. Photo credit: G. Schwartz.
Fig. 3. Median-joining network of equid sequences. (A) Hypervariable region (324 bp) of mitochondrial DNA from 278 individuals belonging to Asiatic wild asses [E. hemionus subspecies (23)], to horses (E. f. caballus and E. f. przewalskii), and to African asses (E. a. asinus and E. a. somaliensis). The position of the sequences obtained from the Umm el-Marra samples is indicated with pink stars. The E. hemionus mitogenome clades (I, TI, TI*, CI, H1, H2, D1, D2, Kh, KD, and KD*) are as defined previously (23). (B) Three different fragments (168 bp) of the Y chromosome of equids (asses, horses, and hemiones). The position of the sequences obtained from the Umm el-Marra samples is indicated in pink.
The genetic identity of the earliest human-made hybrid animals, the kungas of Syro-Mesopotamia
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January 2022

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Science Advances

E. Andrew Bennett

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Wejden Bendhafer

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Before the introduction of domestic horses in Mesopotamia in the late third millennium BCE, contemporary cuneiform tablets and seals document intentional breeding of highly valued equids called kungas for use in diplomacy, ceremony, and warfare. Their precise zoological classification, however, has never been conclusively determined. Morphometric analysis of equids uncovered in rich Early Bronze Age burials at Umm el-Marra, Syria, placed them beyond the ranges reported for other known equid species. We sequenced the genomes of one of these ~4500-year-old equids, together with an ~11,000-year-old Syrian wild ass (hemippe) from Göbekli Tepe and two of the last surviving hemippes. We conclude that kungas were F1 hybrids between female domestic donkeys and male hemippes, thus documenting the earliest evidence of hybrid animal breeding.

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Citations (1)


... This method of horse control has been observed throughout history. In the third-millenium BC Mesopotamia and Levant, where the earliest evidence for mounted riding is found, the equids were controlled using only a bridle (Bennett et al. 2022). Two paintings from Tang (618-907 AD) and Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127AD) of historic China depict people using only bridles to control horses (Fig. 8). ...

Reference:

Early horse traction in the lower Yellow River valley: pathological evidence from the Bronze Age rural site, Qingqiu, China
The genetic identity of the earliest human-made hybrid animals, the kungas of Syro-Mesopotamia

Science Advances