Horses

[Geoffrey Summers]

It might be worth pointing out that bones of wild horses have been found
in neolithic levels at both Çatal Höyük and Asikli Höyük in recent
years. This came as a surprise to many of us and should be a warning
against the use of negative evidence.

It is also clear that horses (as opposed to onagers or what ever) appear
on some of the Çatal murals. So far as I know, horse bones and skulls
have not yet been recognised as components in the plastered wall
decorations at Çatal (in contrast to cattle, foxes, vultures and so
forth).

The neolithic peoples of the Anatolian plateau would have had word(s)
for horses since they both ate them and painted them. Archaeological
evidence is not (yet) able to tell us what language(s) those words
belonged to.

It is now necessary to re-examine the few horse bones from Bronze Age
sites in Anatolia to see if the animals were domesticated (often
assumed) or whether there were small wild populations on the plateau as
late as the Third Millennium BC.

It has always seemed to me striking that the Assyrian Colony trade used
donkeys and not horses (or mules).

Best,
Geoff
--
Geoffrey SUMMERS
Dept. of Political Science & Public Administration,
Middle East Technical University,
Ankara TR-06531, TURKEY.

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