Horses Domesticated 9000 Years Ago in Saudi Arabia

News.discovery.com - Full Article

Thu Aug 25, 2011 01:43 PM ET
Content provided by AFP

Previous estimates had dated horse domestication back only 5,000 years.
Saudi Arabia has found traces of a civilization that was domesticating horses about 9,000 years ago, 4,000 years earlier than previously thought, the kingdom said.

"This discovery shows that horses were domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula for the first time more than 9,000 years ago, whereas previous studies estimated the domestication of horses in Central Asia dating back 5,000 years, Ali al-Ghabban, vice-chairman of the Department of Museums and Antiquities, said at a news conference late Wednesday.

The remains of the civilization were found close to Abha, in southwestern Asir province, an area known to antiquity as Arabia Felix.

The civilization, given the name al-Maqari, used "methods of embalming that are totally different to known processes," Ghabban said...

Read more here:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/horse-domestication-saudi-arabia-110825.html