WINNIPEG, CANADA—Microscopic indentations in a 4,700-year-old donkey’s lower premolars are thought to have been made by a metal bit, offering the oldest-known evidence of donkey riding using such equipment in the Near East, according to a report in Science Magazine. Haskel Greenfield of the University of Manitoba, Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, and their colleagues say the animal had been slaughtered and buried as an offering before the construction of a mudbrick house at the site, in the foothills of central Israel. Horses are thought to have arrived in the region about 1,000 years later, relegating donkeys to beasts of burden led from a tether or a nose ring. To read about another recent discovery in Israel, go to “Gods of the Galilee.”
