Wild ass tamed, buried with Egyptian king

One of the earliest Egyptian kings carried his "beasts of burden" into the afterlife.

Paleoscientists discovered the skeletons of 10 donkeys nestled in three mud graves dating back 5,000 years ago when Egypt was just forming a state.

The donkey skeletons were discovered in 2003 lying on their sides in graves at a burial complex of one of the first pharaohs at Abydos, Egypt, which is about 300 miles south of Cairo.

"There have been very few funerary complexes of the first pharaohs ever found," said Fiona Marshall, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, "and nobody expected that in some of the highest status graves there would be donkeys; you normally have high courtiers or nobles."

The excavators, who expected to at least find human remains and likely those of noble descent, got a surprise when they found grave areas full of donkeys. But only recently did scientists study the bones in detail to reveal the true significance of the discovery: The skeletons represent the first clear evidence of the domestication of the wild ass.

The new findings are reported online in the March 10 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...

•	Wild ass tamed, buried with Egyptian king 'Beasts of burden' found nestled in graves dating back 5,000 years MSNBC.com, Monday, March 10, 2008 Byline: Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience

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