The Spirited Horse

Equid–Human Relations in the Bronze Age Near East

Laerke Recht

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781350274310
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350158931
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: Social Sciences

Presenting a new perspective on human–animal relations in the ancient Near East, this volume considers how we should understand equids (horses, donkeys, onagers and various hybrids) as animals that are social actors. Recht brings together a wealth of new data, including Bronze Age Near Eastern material culture from a range of archaeological contexts with equid remains as well as iconography and texts. She looks in particular at finds of equids themselves from burials, sacred space and settlements alongside associated artefacts such as chariots and harnesses.

This is the first time the agency of animals is recognized. The study is essential reading for prehistorians, archaeologists and those studying early animal domestication, showcasing how humans encounter and interact with other animals, and how those animals in turn interact with humans. Recht outlines the broader implications for human involvement with their environment, both today and in the past, and points to further study in a number of focused appendices.

1

Introduction

I am a mule, most suitable for the road.

I am a horse, whose tail waves on the highway.

I am a stallion of Šakkan, eager to run.

Šulgi A¹

1.1 Equid–human relations

On 6 November 2011, the Dutch stallion Hickstead died, collapsing after a round of World Cup show-jumping at the Verona tournament (Nir 2011). He was fifteen years old and had a lifetime of achievements behind him, winning gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, showing better than his riders at the Rolex Top Four Final, where he was the only horse that cleared the round with four different riders (subsequently earning the Fédération Équstre Internationale ‘Best Horse in the World’ Award), and in high demand as a stallion across the world. The tournament in Verona was discontinued at the request of the riders, who held one minute of silence in memory of Hickstead. This act shows that he was honoured and respected as a champion in his own right, and as a great athlete, an attribute more often bestowed on humans. It illustrates a human recognition of animal personhood, skill and intention.

In a broad sense, it is this acknowledgement of an equid’s agency and personhood – its ability to act and influence its own lifeworld, and its individuality – that I call ‘spirited’. But the ‘spirited horse’ of this book goes much further than this. ‘Spirited’ is also a recognition of equid moods and intentions, and of ranges of behaviour and needs specific to different equid species. The ancient writer of Šulgi Hymn A illustrates this nicely with three different attributes associated with three types of equids – one an expert in endurance, one in swishing its tail (however that is interpreted) and one in speed. Here we have the equids of the ancient Near East in a microcosm, with a clear knowledge of what each animal was best at. These few short lines demonstrate acute ancient observation of equids and even hint at their agency. ‘The Spirited Horse’ is shorthand for not only horses but all the equids of the ancient Near East, and is intended as a tribute to their individuality, moods, intentions and lived experiences, and their deep engagement with humans through mutual becomings, and sharing space, food, learning, travels, work, hunting, war and death.

It is difficult to overstate the impact of nonhuman animals on human lives, both today and in the past – for a sense of how the interaction between humans and other animals featured in all aspects of human existence in the ancient Near East, see e.g. Collins (2002), Arbuckle & McCarty (2014), Greenfield (2014), Mattila et al. (2019), Recht & Tsouparopoulou (2021), and the many papers in the various volumes of Archaeozoology of the Near East. The focus in this book is on equid–human relations. This approach is firmly situated within the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field of Human–Animal Studies (e.g. Ritvo 2004; Flynn 2008; Haraway 2003; 2008; Engel & Jenni 2010; DeMello 2012), closely related to multispecies ethnography, multispecies archaeology and social zooarchaeology (Kirksey & Helmreich 2010; Russell 2011; Hamilakis & Overton 2013; Ogden et al. 2013; Overton & Hamilakis 2013; Kopnina 2017; Pilaar Birch 2018; Stépanoff & Vigne 2019) and part of what is sometimes called ‘the animal turn’ (Weil 2010). Human–Animal Studies is an extremely diverse field with scholars examining human–nonhuman animal relations from many different perspectives, including those of history, psychology, political science, gender studies, literary studies, animal rights groups, medicine, anthropology and sociology, to name but a few. These kinds of approaches have also made an appearance in archaeology, where nonhuman animals have found voice through studies that explore concepts such as trust, co-becoming, hybridity and entanglement, and moving beyond dichotomies and the ‘othering’ of nonhuman animals (e.g. Ingold 1994; Manning & Serpell 1994; Armstrong Oma 2010; 2017; Lindstrøm 2012; Boyd 2017). For example, Armstrong Oma has discussed sheep-human relations in Bronze Age Norway, including the mutual becomings through shared habitation and lived experience (2017), and in a paper on canines, Lescureux outlines some of the complexities of human encounters with dogs, wolves and dog-wolf hybrids, and challenges the traditional wild-domestic division (2019). Moving to the equids that are at the centre here, Argent has eloquently explored the role of horses in some of the Pazyryk burials of Inner Asia (e.g. 2010; 2013; 2016). The range in social status associated with these horses are akin to those of humans; their identity and personhood, like that of their human counterparts, were expressed through their burial equipment and individual embodied features such as haircuts and braiding, and some horses were recognized as honoured ‘elders’.

The variety in Human–Animal Studies research is naturally based on different methods and data sets, but what they have in common is a desire to decentre humans, moving away from anthropocentrism (or, more accurately, speciesism) to a more equal consideration of all species involved. This is not a call to abolish humans from the equation, but rather to consider all elements equally (in this case humans and nonhuman animals, more specifically equids). The equal consideration does not automatically translate to equality in the relationship. On the contrary, we will see that in the vast majority of encounters between equids and humans, humans are the more powerful, dominant agent. We will also see that the relations between equids and humans were extremely complex and varied, as much as those between humans themselves, and that constant negotiations instigated by both sides occurred. When the focus is on the relationship or nature of the interaction between equids and humans, the dynamics and two-way action are emphasized. That is, equids are not passive, mindless objects which humans (actively, deliberately) do things to. Both equids and humans are here recognized and treated as social actors (Dornan 2002; Robb 2010; Recht 2019) with personhood (Willerslev 2007; Losey et al. 2011; Shir-Vertesh 2012; Recht & Morris 2021). That is, they are individual subjects with intentions and the ability to act upon them (more or less consciously): they profoundly impact each others’ lives physically, emotionally, socially and economically.

The challenge in this approach is far from insignificant, since we cannot entirely escape our own human bias. In a sense, I see this as an extension of the problem of intersubjectivity, but merely the fact that I cannot ever truly know what it is like to be another person does not prevent me from trying, and there are certain methods that I can apply in order to do this. Understanding equid agency may be a step further away, but is nevertheless on the same scale. The strict dichotomy between humans and other animals (mirrored in a culture–nature and mind–body divide) that is so deep-seated in much Western thought is socially constructed – DeMello neatly traces it back to Aristotle, and certainly Descartes also played an important role in cementing it (2012: 36–41). Importantly, this dichotomy is hierarchical, with a perception of human superiority that spills over into a legitimization of human domination and mistreatment of other species.² Throughout history, and in many parts of the world today, very different classification systems and ways of seeing the world prevail, and often the line between human and nonhuman entities is blurred, if not non-existent (e.g. Morris 2000; Willerslev 2007). There is thus no inherent need or reason to maintain this hierarchical dichotomy, which is why the starting point here is the interaction itself and the assumption that both equids and humans actively engage in it.

1.2 Sources and terminology

In terms of the source material, three main lines of enquiry are used in this book: faunal remains, ancient texts, and iconography. For each, we are meet with very specific potentialities and challenges, and each contributes knowledge that is not accessible through other means. In the Bronze Age Near East, we are very lucky that the first great transformations in equid–human relations coincide with an intensification in written records and iconographic objects. These lead to a wealth of information, and the three lines of enquiry offer a rare luxury of being able to compare different records. Modern equine knowledge and ethology supplement and refine these ancient records.

Faunal remains

Animal bones constitute one of the most common finds at most archaeological sites of the ancient Near East. The compositions of faunal assemblages are incredibly revealing of human–nonhuman animal relations and social structures. Like pottery, the vast majority of animal bones come in fragmentary form and represent the waste of settlements. More rarely, complete or nearly complete animals are found, typically in non-habitation contexts such as tombs, temples or ritual deposits and, more rarely, in dumps. Animal bones, antlers, horns and tusks also form the basis of a wide range of tools, jewellery and other decorative items. Non-osseous parts of animal bodies were utilized to make products such as skin, leather, glue and various types of cords and strings. These organic items are very rarely preserved in the archaeological record of the Near East (with a few notable exceptions, like the extraordinary finds in the tombs of Jericho), where with luck we are able to note them through impressions in the soil. They are otherwise better known from texts and iconography, or found in adjacent areas like Egypt, where the dry conditions have preserved a broader range of material culture.

The bones bring us into direct contact with ancient equids. They are the physical remains of animals that lived and experienced the world 4000–5000 years ago, and who died in the vicinity (and sometimes because) of humans. Such remains provide us with a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the equids themselves: to determine their species, sex, age and aspects of lifestyle and roles performed when in contact with humans. Evidence from morphological and pathological studies can provide information about health and the activities an equid performed, for example indicating crib biting, bit wear or load carrying. Stable isotope analysis can help us understand feeding and the journeys of an individual, and aDNA studies are beginning to reveal information about parentage.

In practice, this potential information is rarely available, for a number of reasons. As with humans, many ancient equids come to us as anonymous tiny fragments or, even more frequently, not at all. In the faunal assemblages of the Near East, equid bones are found at many sites, but in fairly small percentages during the third and second millennia BCE. This is most likely because the faunal remains we collect consist primarily of food waste, and the consumption of equids declined substantially in the third millennium.

The collection and retention of faunal remains have not always been common archaeological practice (and in fact even today, are not always prioritized or consistently collected). Much information is thus lost to us. Potentially less damning, in the sense that future discoveries may help fill in gaps in research, is the unevenness of exploration, partly due to research interests and partly due to a real lack of sites. There are both chronological and geographical gaps. When we look at the distributional maps of faunal remains in Chapter 3 (also Appendix K), it would seem that equids disappear almost entirely from the southern heartland of Mesopotamia in the late second millennium BCE. This is certainly not the case; rather, it reflects a limited number of excavated sites with corresponding published analysis of the faunal remains. To repeat an oft-noted mantra in archaeology, this is an excellent example of absence of evidence not necessarily being evidence of absence.

Even with these challenges (and more will occur in the next chapters concerning the actual interpretation of the bones), faunal remains provide us with some of the most remarkable and tangible evidence for equid intervention in human lives in the ancient Near East.

Ancient texts

One of the greatest cultural achievements of humans, the invention of writing, is traditionally assigned to Mesopotamia.³ Written records in the form of clay tablets are documented already in the second half of the fourth millennium, where we may even have the first examples of a type of equid being mentioned (Zarins 2014: 151–4, 259). In the third and second millennia, the form of writing was cuneiform, which was syllabic, but changed in style over the period. It was primarily impressed on clay tablets, which constitute the majority of sources discussed here. However, we also find inscriptions on a range of other objects, such as sculptures, buildings, reliefs and engraved on cylinder seals. By the second millennium, records were also made on wooden tablets with a wax surface, and possibly on some kind of parchment – unfortunately, these organic materials have not survived the conditions of the area.

The most important and prolific use of writing was for administration. Palaces and temples, but also certain individuals (usually private entrepreneurs of some kind) kept extensive records of their affairs down to the minutest detail. The archives of the Ur III period provide us with tablets in the hundreds of thousands, unfortunately mainly from looted contexts. They contain extensive information about the movement and counts of animals, people and goods. From them, we know much about the types of equids present, their ages, sex, some of their tasks, rations of fodder, and sometimes their health. We also learn that their skins were important, and that they could be fed to dogs belonging to the army. However, due to the very specialized purpose of the administration, there are many lacunas: they reveal little about breeding and daily management beyond pastures and fodder, and virtually nothing about training and behaviour.

Letters are another common and useful type of written evidence for equids. They are rarely specifically about equids, but often mention them as part of other concerns. The information must be extracted, but is no less valuable. The letters of the merchants at Kanesh/Kültepe are a fantastic and extensive record of donkeys carrying heavy goods over extremely long distances. The number of animals involved is astounding, and the correspondence reveals information about harnessing, prices, health and, to some extent, the treatment of donkeys. The Amarna letters represent exchange of goods on a completely different level, between wealthy rulers and vassals. Here horses, with their chariots, are elite prestige goods, highly valued and highly skilled.

A variety of other objects and types of written documents help in our endeavour to find our ancient equine companions. Scribal lists and practice tablets enumerate animals, workers and goods, literary compositions mention mythical and legendary equids, while fables refer to equid features (imagined or real); and ‘manuals’ offer fascinating insights into human–equine training and veterinary procedures to cure equine ailments. These are rare but hint at important aspects of which we would otherwise be entirely ignorant. They each present some very specific difficulties, which will be addressed with the relevant chapter.

As with the faunal remains, our written sources are extremely uneven. Some periods and areas offer almost no information, not only concerning equids, but in any capacity. Even in the record-rich Ur III period, the known archives all c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Online Appendices
• Series Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Equid Species: Spirited Horses, Stoic Donkeys and Vigorous Hybrids
• 3 Beginnings, History and Distribution
• 4 Equids Changing History I: Caravans and Transport of Goods
• 5 Equids Changing History II: Chariots and Traction
• 6 Joint Journeys: Equids Carrying Humans
• 7 Management of Equids, or, How to Keep a Human
• 8 Honourable and Dishonourable Deaths
• 9 Equid–Human Relations and Equid Agency
• 10 Conclusion
• Appendices
• Notes
• References
• Index of Place Names
• Subject Index
• Copyright