The genetic identity of the earliest human-made hybrid animals, the kungas of Syro-Mesopotamia

Before the introduction of domestic horses in Mesopotamia in the late third millennium BCE, contemporary cuneiform tablets and seals document intentional breeding of highly valued equids called kungas for use in diplomacy, ceremony, and warfare. Their precise zoological classification, however, has never been conclusively determined. Morphometric analysis of equids uncovered in rich Early Bronze Age burials at Umm el-Marra, Syria, placed them beyond the ranges reported for other known equid species. We sequenced the genomes of one of these similar to 4500-year-old equids, together with an similar to 11,000-year-old Syrian wild ass (hemippe) from Gobekli Tepe and two of the last surviving hemippes. We conclude that kungas were F1 hybrids between female domestic donkeys and male hemippes, thus documenting the earliest evidence of hybrid animal breeding.

Automated summary

Morphometric analysis of equids uncovered in Early Bronze Age burials in Syria suggests the presence of a new hybrid species, resulting from the F1 hybridization between female domestic donkeys and male hemippes.