4000–3000 BCE: (The Donkey Reaches Mesopotamia — Spreading Northward from Cushitic-Speaking Peoples via Egypt to Southwestern Asia, the Cities of Ancient Mes…

4000–3000 BCE: (The Donkey Reaches Mesopotamia — Spreading Northward from Cushitic-Speaking Peoples via Egypt to Southwestern Asia, the Cities of Ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant Acquiring a Valued Means of Long-Distance Goods Transport and Pulling Wheeled Vehicles No Later Than the Early Fourth Millennium BCE, a Sumerian Cylinder Seal of the Fourth Millennium Depicting Chariots Pulled by Donkeys Predating the First Introduction of Horses South of the Caucasus and the Black Sea): From the Cushitic-speaking peoples of the Red Sea Hills regions, the domestic donkey spread northward via Egypt to southwestern Asia. With the arrival of donkeys, the cities of ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant acquired a new and valued means for carrying goods over long distances and for pulling wheeled vehicles no later than the early fourth millennium BCE. Ehret draws attention to a remarkable artifact: a Sumerian cylinder seal of the fourth millennium BCE depicting chariots pulled by donkeys, dating well before the first introduction of domestic horses south of the Caucasus and the Black Sea. The central portion of this seal depicts a chariot with its rider, being pulled by a donkey whose reins the rider holds, followed by additional chariots in a procession. These are not chariots as later eras would know them — they have solid wheels, no spokes — and their cumbersome construction suggests prestige vehicles rather than practical war weaponry. But the point is what they represent: the first wheeled transport in the history of the ancient Near East, powered by an animal that Africans domesticated and that African networks of exchange delivered to Mesopotamia. When we think of ancient Sumer, we think of ziggurats and cuneiform and the cradle of civilization. We should also think of a donkey from the Horn of Africa pulling the very first wheeled vehicle through the streets of Uruk.