Domestication of the Donkey: From African Wild Ass to Pack Animal

The domestication of the donkey took place in north-east Africa around 5000 BC, when herding communities began to tame and breed the African wild ass. It produced the first domestic animal used mainly for carrying loads, long before the horse or camel took on that role. Donkeys made it possible to move goods across deserts and mountains, and they underpinned the trade routes and expeditions of early Egypt and the Near East.

The wild ancestor

Domestic donkeys (Equus asinus) descend from the African wild ass, Equus africanus. This hardy relative of horses and zebras lived in the dry hills and plains of north-east Africa, from the Red Sea coast to the Horn of Africa. Two subspecies are recognised: the Nubian wild ass, which ranged from Sudan to the Red Sea and is probably extinct in the wild, and the Somali wild ass, which survives in small numbers in Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Wild asses are adapted to harsh conditions. They can lose a large share of their body water and recover by drinking quickly, they feed on tough desert plants and they move steadily over rough terrain. These traits later made the domestic donkey such a valuable animal for people living in arid lands.

Why people domesticated the wild ass

Most domestic animals of the ancient world, such as cattle, sheep and goats, were first tamed for meat and milk. The donkey stands out because its main early role seems to have been transport. Archaeologists link its domestication to climate change in north-east Africa.

During the African Humid Period the Sahara had been much greener, with lakes and grasslands that supported cattle herders. From around 6000–5000 BC the region gradually became drier. Herders who moved seasonally between scattered pastures and water sources needed animals that could carry tents, water and goods over long distances. The wild ass, which already lived in the same dry landscapes, offered a solution.

The evidence: bones, art and DNA

Early evidence for domestic donkeys is scattered and sometimes hard to tell apart from wild asses. Remains of small asses have been reported at Egyptian Predynastic sites such as El-Omari near Cairo, dated to the 5th millennium BC, and at Maadi, a trading settlement of the 4th millennium BC. Late Predynastic carved palettes and other objects from Egypt show rows of donkeys, suggesting that they were already counted as valuable property.

The clearest early proof comes from Abydos in Upper Egypt. In 2002 archaeologists found ten donkeys buried in three brick tombs beside the funerary enclosure of an early 1st Dynasty king, around 3000 BC. A study published in 2008 showed that their bones had the wear and strain of animals that had carried heavy loads, although their limbs still resembled those of wild asses. Domestication, in other words, was a slow process, and early donkeys were not yet physically very different from their wild ancestors.

Genetics has added much detail. A study of mitochondrial DNA published in 2004 found two distinct lineages among domestic donkeys, both of African origin, and ruled out any Asian wild ass as an ancestor. A major genome study of more than 200 modern and ancient donkeys, published in 2022, concluded that donkeys were domesticated once, in East Africa, about 7,000 years ago, and then spread out of Africa about 2500 BC.

Donkeys and early trade

By the time Egypt was unified under rulers such as Narmer, around 3100 BC, donkeys were essential. They carried grain at harvest, trampled seed into fields and threshed crops. Above all, they carried goods along desert routes linking the Nile valley with the oases, Sinai, the Red Sea coast and Nubia.

Egyptian records show the scale of donkey caravans. The official Harkhuf, who served kings of the 6th Dynasty around 2250 BC, described in his tomb inscription at Aswan returning from the land of Yam, south of Egypt, with a caravan of 300 donkeys laden with goods such as incense, ebony and ivory. Expeditions to mines and quarries in the deserts also relied heavily on donkey trains.

In the Near East, donkeys spread through the Levant and Mesopotamia during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. In the early 2nd millennium BC, Assyrian merchants used donkey caravans to carry tin and textiles from Assur to Kanesh in Anatolia, a journey of several weeks. Donkeys were also crossed with horses to produce mules, which became important pack and draught animals.

Consequences

The donkey changed how goods and people moved. Before it, everything carried overland had to go on human backs or be dragged. A single donkey can carry roughly 40–70 kilograms over long distances, more than a person, and needs little care. This allowed pastoralists to range more widely, villages to trade more easily and early states to supply distant expeditions.

Donkeys may have helped mobile herders spread across the drying Sahara and Horn of Africa, and they contributed to the growth of trade networks that later carried copper, gold, incense and textiles across north-east Africa and south-west Asia. In many ways they were the first “trucks” of the ancient world. Later pack animals, notably the camel, took over the longest desert crossings only many centuries afterwards.

Myths and facts

A common assumption is that donkeys came from Asia, like horses and camels. In fact the Asian wild asses, such as the onager and the kulan, were never domesticated. In Mesopotamia people did cross domestic donkeys with Syrian wild asses to breed a powerful hybrid called the kunga, used to pull war wagons in the 3rd millennium BC, as ancient DNA research published in 2022 confirmed. But the donkey itself is African.

Another lasting idea is that donkeys are stubborn. Their reluctance to move when frightened or overloaded reflects the caution of an animal that evolved in rocky deserts, where a panicked dash could be fatal. Unlike horses, which tend to flee, donkeys often freeze and assess danger, a trait that early herders may have found useful on narrow mountain and desert tracks.

Legacy

Donkeys remain vital in many parts of the world today. There are an estimated 40–50 million donkeys worldwide, many working in Africa, Asia and Latin America, carrying water, firewood and goods for farming families. Their wild ancestor, by contrast, is critically endangered, with at most a few hundred African wild asses, and perhaps fewer than 200 adults, left in the wild.

Timeline

• c. 6000–5000 BC: The eastern Sahara becomes drier at the end of the African Humid Period.
• c. 5000 BC: Probable start of donkey domestication in north-east Africa, according to genetic estimates.
• 5th millennium BC: Possible domestic donkey remains at El-Omari, near Cairo.
• c. 3500 BC: Donkeys present at the trading settlement of Maadi in Lower Egypt.
• c. 3000 BC: Ten donkeys buried beside an early 1st Dynasty royal enclosure at Abydos.
• c. 2500 BC: Domestic donkeys spread widely beyond Africa into Eurasia.
• c. 2250 BC: Harkhuf leads a caravan of 300 donkeys back from Yam.
• c. 1900 BC: Old Assyrian donkey caravans trade between Assur and Kanesh.

Why it matters

The donkey was the first animal domesticated mainly to carry loads, and it opened up long-distance overland trade in Africa and the Near East. Its story shows that domestication was not only about food, and that Africa was a centre of animal domestication in its own right.