The horses of rush

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Volumn 56, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 105-114

  Heidorn, Lisa A ^a  

^a American Research Center   (Egypt)

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EID: 63849305149     PISSN: 00222968     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/468525     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. This article builds upon the research of S. M. Dalley, "Foreign Chariotry and Cavalry in the Armies of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II," Iraq 47 (1985): 31-48
2. and J. N. Postgate, Taxation and Conscription in the Assyrian Empire, Studia Pohl: Series Major, no. 3 (Rome, 1974)
3. See also the reference to Postgate's work in Piotr Scholz, "Pferd," in Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 4 (Wiesbaden, 1982), cols. 1010-12, n. 18
4. The earliest horse skeleton known in either Egypt or the Sudan was discovered at Buhen in an archaeological context dated to the destruction of the Middle Kingdom fortress around 1675 B.C. (200 years before the earliest known horse remains from Egypt)
5. see D. M. Dixon, J. Clutton-Brock, and R. Burleigh, "The Buhen Horse," in W. B. Emery, H. S. Smith, and A. Millard, The Fortress of Buhen: The Archaeological Report, Egypt Exploration Society Memoir, no. 49 (London, 1979), pp. 191-95. The excessive wear on the one remaining lower molar showed that the horse had been ridden or driven with a bit in its mouth. Radiocarbon dating was attempted on this skeletal material, but the collagen in the bones was too degraded to be measured
6. see R. Burleigh, "Attempted Radiocarbon Dating of the Buhen Horse," in Emery, Smith, and Millard, Buhen, p. 195
7. cankh)y au Musée du Caire: JE 48862 et 47086-47089, Etudes sur la Propagande Royale Egyptienne, vol. 1 (Cairo, 1981), pp. 68-69, §13,11. 64-67
8. see C. Rommelaere, Les chevaux du Nouvel Empire égyptien: Origines, races, harnachement, Connaissance de l'Egypte Ancienne, Etude no. 3 (Brussels, 1991), pp. 34-37, 44-46
9. Smith, Art and Architecture, p. 397, fig. 390
10. and D. Dunham, The Barkal Temples (Boston, 1970), pi. 50
11. Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, vol. 1, El Kurru (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), pp. 116-17
12. Shabako, Shebitku, and Tanwetamani all had horses buried in Cemetery 200 at El Kurru
13. see G. A. Reisner, "The Discovery of the Tombs of the Egyptian XXVth Dynasty at El-Kurruw in Dongola Province," Sudan Notes and Records 2 (1919): 252-54. Taharqa was buried at Nuri, but no horse burials were identified at that site. According to G. M. Allen of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, the skeletal remains in these horse graves were of a "short, rather small breed, not unlike the Arab"
14. see Dunham, El Kurru, p. 111. The publication states that no skulls were found in these graves, and it was thus assumed that the horses were decapitated before burial. Bökönyi, however, found skull fragments and teeth when he studied the two horse skeletons at Harvard University in 1986
15. see "Kurru Horse Skeletons," pp. 302, 303, and 305. Bökönyi states that the horses had very slender limbs and wide, flat hooves and that they were "large animals [over fifteen hands], of a much greater size than the average oriental horses of their time-"
16. see Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, vol. 5, The West and South Cemeteries at Meroe (Boston, 1963), p. 441 (S 193). Since no objects were found in this tomb, the dating remains uncertain
17. M. F. Laming Macadam, The Temples of Kawa: History and Archaeology of the Site (London, 1955), vol. 1, pp. 75 and 136 (object no. 0796), and vol. 2, pi. lb (Ashmolean 1931.551)
18. F. LI. Griffith, "Oxford Excavations in Nubia," Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (Liverpool) 9 (1922): 99-100, pis. 31-34 and 117-18, pis. 50-53. More evidence for the riding of horses is found in an inscription on the stela of Nastasen from the second half of the fourth century B.C., wherein the king states that he mounted a "great horse" to ride to his coronation ceremony at Gebel Barkal
19. see T. Eide et al., Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, vol. 2, From the Mid-Fifth to the First Century B.C. (Bergen, 1996), pp. 477-78,1. 12
20. S. Wenig, Africa in Antiquity: The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan, vol. 2, The Catalogue (New York, 1978), pp. 59-61, fig. 36. Wenig, while noting the possibility that these reliefs may date to the Meriotic period, believed that the battle reliefs from the south wall stemmed rather from the reign of Aspelta in the early sixth century B.C.
21. Regnal years for the Assyrian kings are taken from J. A. Brinkman, "Mesopotamian Chronology of the Historical Period," in A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization, rev. ed. completed by E. Reiner (Chicago, 1977), p. 346
22. Those for the Egyptian and Kushite rulers are taken from K. A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 BC), 2d ed. with supplement (Warminster, 1986), pp. 588-89
23. H. Tadmor, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileserlll, King of Assyria (Jerusalem, 1994), pp. 176 (Summ. 8), 1. 7' and 188 (Summ. 9), rev. 8 (both contexts partially restored)
24. E. F. Weidner, "Silkan(he)ni, König von Musri, ein Zeitgenosse Sargons II., nach einem neuen Bruchstück der Prisma-Inschrift des assyrischen Königs," Archiv fiir Orientforschung 14 (1941-44): 42,11. 8-11
25. A. Fuchs, Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus GörsabadiGmngen, 1994), pp. 80,11. 66-67, 186,1.450; and 245, 11. 183-84
26. also D. D. Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, vol. 2, Historical Records of Assyria from Sargon to the End (London, 1989), pp. 39, §74 and 44, §87. Sargon II seems to have been allied with the Kushite king Shabako (716-702-B.C.). After the king of Ashdod fled from the Assyrians to Meluhha (perhaps another name for Kush or Nubia) in 711 B.C., the king of Meluhha (i.e., Shabako) had him returned to the Assyrians
27. see Fuchs, Inschriften Sargons II., pp. 76, 11. 11-14 and 220,11. 100-222,1.111
28. also Luckenbill, Ancient Records, vol. 2, pp. 32, §63 and 40, §§79-80
29. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib, Oriental Institute Publications, vol. 2 (Chicago, 1924), p. 32, 11. 3-5
30. see also idem. Ancient Records, vol. 2, p. 120, §240
31. See, for example, R. Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, Königs von Assyrien, Archiv fur Orientforschung, Beiheft 9 (Graz, 1956), pp. 99, §65,1. 44 and 114, §80, col. ii 16
32. The crown prince was named Ushanahuru according to the Zinjirli and Nahr el-Kalb inscriptions of Esarhaddon
33. see Borger, Die Inschriften Asarhaddons, pp. 99, §65 11. 43-44 and 101, §67,11. 12-13
34. This campaign was fought against the last Twentyfifth Dynasty king, Tanwetamani (664-656 B.C.)
35. see M. Streck, Assurbanipal und die lelzten assyrischen Könige bis zum Untergange Niniveh's, Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, vol. 7 (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 14, col. ii, 11.28-16, col. ii, 1. 48
36. Dalley, "Foreign Chariotry and Cavalry," p. 47
37. The Kushites are not identified in the texts by name but by the gentilic küsaya. See text no. 9 (ND 10048 [C]) in J. V. Kinnier Wilson, The Nimrud Wine Lists: A Study of Men and Administration at the Assyrian Capital in the Eighth Century B.C., Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud, vol. 1 (London, 1972), pp. 91-93, 138 rev. 21', and pi. 20 rev. 21'. The text is dated to 732 B.C.
38. see Dalley and Postgate, The Tablets from Fort Shalmaneser, Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud, vol. 3 (London, 1984), p. 22
39. Six liters (qû) of wine were issued to men of Kush. One liter was a daily ration of wine for ten men at basic rates, or for six skilled or professional men
40. see Kinnier Wilson, Nimrud Wine Lists, pp. 4 and 117. From these figures, we can perhaps assume that thirtysix to sixty Kushites were included in this ration list
41. See Kinnier Wilson, Nimrud Wine Lists, p. 56
42. and Dalley and Postgate, Fort Shalmaneser, pp. 28-29
43. KUR küsaya or simply küsaya; see Postgate, Taxation and Conscription, pp. 11-12
44. Postgate counts 929+
45. (S. W. Cole, however, counts 1,028+)
46. The reports mentioning Kushite horses were originally published in R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters Belonging to the K(ouyunik) Collection(s) of the British Museum (London and Chicago, 1892-1914), specifically no. 60,11. 7-8; no. 61,11. 8-9, rev. I, 5; no. 63,1. 7; no. 64,11. 8, 15-rev. 1; no. 372, II. 7, 9, rev. 1-3, 9, 18; no. 373,11. 7,9,11, 13; no. 374, II. 7, 9, 11-12; no. 376, II. 7-9, 12, rev. 1; no. 393.11. 8-9, rev. 1-2,4, 10; no. 394,11. 7, 12, 14, rev. 4; no. 538, II. 8-9, rev. 3-4; no. 575,11. 7,9; no. 601,11.4-5, 11-12, 14; no. 649,11. 2-3, 11-rev. 1; no. 684, rev. 1; no. 686, rev. 3-4; no. 973,11. 3, 5, 7, 9-10; no. 1159, rev. 5-6; no. 1379, II. 7, rev. 2. Note the large numbers of Kushite horses compared with Mesean horses "trained to the yoke" (85+): approximately ten Kushite horses to each Mesean horse delivered
47. See Borger,InschriftenAsarhaddons, p. Ill, §75, rev. 3-4. This text can be compared with an earlier Amarna-period letter from the reign of Akhenaton in which horses seem to be mentioned in association with men from Egypt and Meluhha
48. see W. L. Moran, The Amarna Letters (Baltimore, 1992), p. 186 (EA 112, 11. 16-24). For the dating of EA 112
49. A. Salonen, Hippologica Accadica, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, Series B, vol. 100 (Helsinki, 1956), p. 36
50. M. Elat, "The Economic Relations of the Neo-Assyrian Empire with Egypt," JAOS 98 (1977): 24-25. Postgate, Taxation and Conscription, p. 11
51. The letter in question has been newly edited in S. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, State Archives of Assyria, vol. 10 (Helsinki, 1993), p. 19 (see no. 24,11. 13-15)
52. See Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, Alter Orient und Altes Testament, vol. 5/2 (Kevelaer and Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1983), pp. 33-34, note to 11. 13 ff. The passage in question reads (ina muhhi) siŝe danni ša tallultu ša mat Küsi tallulüni
53. see Tadmor, Tiglath-pileser III, p. 188 (Summ. 9), rev. 16. It is uncertain whether this was the "sealed" quay (karri kangu) on the border of Egypt to which Sargon later referred or whether it was another emporium
54. The text has been reedited recently by F. M. Fales and J. N. Postgate, Imperial Administrative Records, pt. 1, Palace and Temple Administration, State Archives of Assyria, vol. 7 (Helsinki, 1992), p. 42 (see no. 30, 11.23'-24'): "15 corral-men, at the disposal of Küsayu, chariot driver of the Prefect of the Land." The document, which stems from the royal archives of Nineveh, may date anytime between the reign of Sargon II and 612 B.C.
55. A. Ungnad, Die Inschriften vom TellHalaf, Archiv fur Orientforschung, Beiheft 6 (Berlin, 1940), p. 57, no. 108,11. 1-16. The text, which is dated by the posteponym Sîn-šarru-usur, is also cited by Dalley
56. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, no. 575, rev. 4-8 (URU Ku-si). Note that another occurrence of URU Ku-si is found in the annals of Esarhaddon; see n. 41 below
57. Fales and Postgate, Palace and Temple Administration, pp. 55-56 (no. 47)
58. See P. Albenda, "Observations on Egyptians in Assyrian Art," Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 4 (1982): 5-23. Albenda comments also on the Egyptian materials found at Nimrud and Nineveh, which included seals inscribed with the name of Shabako, statuary and objects with Taharqa's name (from Nineveh), and ivories with depictions of Africans (from Nimrud)
59. also Luckenbill, Ancient Re cords, vol. 2, p. 220, §557
60. See, for example, A. R. Schulman, "Egyptian Representations of Horsemen and Riding in the New Kingdom," JNES 16 (1957): 264, figs. 1,5 and p. 266, nn. 23-24
61. F. M. Snowden Jr., Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), pp. 167-68, figs. 50, 63
62. See also idem, "Iconographical Evidence on the Black Populations in Greco-Roman Antiquity," in L. Bugner, ed., The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. 1, From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Cambridge, Mass., 1991), pp. 184-85, figs. 231-33 (302-3, nn. 156-57); p. 210, fig. 275; and p. 224. Note also the fifth century B.C. reference to thirty thousand "Black Horses" in Aeschylus's play The Persians (Aeschylus Persae 315)
63. Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush, vol. 4, Royal Tombs at Meroe and Barkal (Boston, 1957), pp. 105, 119, 125, and 185. Horse bones and an iron chariot wheel were found in Begrawiya North 2 (43-26 B.C.). In addition, there were horse bones in Beg. N. 1 (A.D. 25-41); and perhaps Beg. N. 5 (A.D. 25-41) and Beg. N. 28 (A.D. 246-66). For a review of the substantial evidence from the later periods
64. see Lenoble, "Une monture pour mon royaume," pp. 107-30, where the author presents horse and horse-related remains from the tombs at Meroe, Qustul and Ballana, El Hobagi, and elsewhere from the late first millennium B.C. through the mid-first millennium A.D
65. Where skeletons of sacrificed horses and their trappings were found
66. see W. B. Emery and L. P. Kirwan, The Royal Tombs of Ballana and Qustul (Cairo, 1938), vol. 1, pp. 251-71; vol. 2, pis. 55-63. The tomb owner's horses, camels, donkeys, and dogs, together with grooms and handlers, and possibly soldiers, were sacrificed in the courtyards and ramps before the blocked tomb entrance
67. see ibid., vol. 1, p. 26. For a description of the animal pits near the royal tumuli at Qustul, as well as the skeletons and riding equipment
68. see B. B. Williams, Noubadian X-Group Remains from Royal Complexes in Cemeteries Q and 219 and from Private Cemeteries Q, R, V, W, B, J, and M at Qustul and Ballana, Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition, vol. 9 (Chicago, 1991), pp. 26, 119-27
69. see also the index on pp. 405-7. The horses in the animal pits were decapitated before burial, and their heads were missing
70. For a reference to Nubian horses during the seventh century A.D., see Y. M. Kobischtschanow, "Agriculture and Economic-cultural Types in Medieval Nubia: On the Cultural Heritage of Meroe in the Middle Ages," in Meroitistische Forschungen 1980, Meroitica 7 (Berlin, 1984), p. 479. Kobischtschanow relates a story by the biographer of the Coptic Patriarch Michael in which it is said that in A.D.750 the Nubians rode to battle in Egypt with 100,000 stallions and 100,000 camels. The horses which they brought with them were trained to kick the enemy with their front and hind legs. This story is similar to a later account in which the Shaiqiyya tribe of Dongola and areas north of Sennar were said to fight "mounted on Dongola stallions, and are as famous for their horsemanship as the Mame-Iouks were in Egypt; they train their horses to make violent springs with their hind legs when galloping ... "
71. see J. L. Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, 2d ed. (London, 1822; repr., New York, 1978), pp. 64-65
72. It should be noted that the Dongola horse is not originally an Oriental, or Arab, breed. H. Epstein maintains that the "original breeding center of the Dongola horse in the Sudan forms an enclave in an otherwise purely Oriental horse-breeding country. For this reason the Dongola breed has absorbed a considerable share of Oriental blood"
73. see The Origin of the Domestic Animals of Africa, vol. 2 (New York, 1971), p. 453. The Dongolawi horse is, in fact, closely related to the Barb horse of North Africa, which is an Occidental breed
74. For the high prices of these horses, see n. 57 below
75. See R. Pankhurst, "Ethiopia's Economic and Cultural Ties with the Sudan from the Middle Ages to the Mid-Nineteenth Century," Sudan Notes and Records 56 (1975): 75. This article is in part concerned with the horse trade in the region during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries A.D
76. James Bruce, Travels between the Years 1765 and 1773 through Part of Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, into Abyssinia, to Discover the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1790), vol. 3, p. 98
77. Abyssinian troops were stationed on the border of the Funj kingdom to assure the safety of those who supplied the king with war horses
78. see O. G. S. Crawford, The Fung Kingdom of Sennar (Gloucester, 1951), p. 147. The Funj kingdom, which lasted from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries A.D., relied heavily on its cavalry to maintain power. When James Bruce visited Sennar in the late eighteenth century, he saw "about 1800 horse, all black, mounted by black [Nuba] slaves"
79. see Source of the Nile, vol. 4, pp. 480-81. Earlier in his account, Bruce observed that these cavalry horses were tall, beautiful, and nimble, and were "mostly black, some of them black and white"
80. S. C. J. Bennett, "Animal Husbandry," in J. D. Tothill, ed., Agriculture in the Sudan (London, 1948), pp. 646-49
81. R. S. O'Fahey, State and Society in Dar Fur (New York, 1980), p. 96. The scarcity of these horses and the difficulty of their importation meant that they fetched very high prices compared with slaves
82. See, for example, H. J. Fisher, "'He Swalloweth the Ground with Fierceness and Rage': The Horse in the Central Sudan. Part I," Journal of African History 13 (1972): 385. Fisher cites G. Nachtigal, who says that in Darfur "the local breed can be maintained only by continuous imports from other countries"
83. see H. J. Fisher, trans., Sahara and Sudan, vol. 4, Wadai and Darfur (London, 1971), p. 254. Twice in his accounts Nachtigal notes that Dongola horses were imported into Darfur from the upper Nile for breeding purposes
84. see ibid., p. 345. Horses bred in poor climates like that of Lower Egypt, which is humid and warm, become "long-legged and weedy"
85. see, for example, the comments by Epstein, Animals of Africa, p. 428. Some experts believe that horses become dwarved if raised in regions which are subject to climatic extremes
86. see Roger Blench, "Ethnographic and Linguistic Evidence for the Prehistory of African Ruminant Livestock, Horses and Ponies," in Thurston Shaw et al., eds.. The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns (London, 1993), pp. 89-92. On horse-breeding schemes to improve the Kordofani horse during the early nineteenth century
87. see Bennett, "Animal Husbandry," pp. 648-49. Officers of the Anglo-Egyptian condominium in the Sudan reported that horses were susceptible to diseases carried by the tsetse fly in certain regions, but that the Abyssinan and Dongolawi breeds were the most resistant
88. see Lord Edward Gleichen, ed., The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan: A Compendium Prepared by Officers of the Sudan Government (London, 1905), vol. 1, p. 98 (Kassala province). Bruce reported that no horses could live in Sennar, but were kept at places "a small distance [from the capital] ... free from the plague of the fly"
89. See Burckhardt, Travels, pp. 286-87. The horses were shipped from Dongola through the markets of Shendy
90. See also Frédéric Cailliaud, Voyage a Meroe, au Fleuve Blanc, au-delà de Fazoql (Paris, 1826), vol. 3, p. 120
91. see H. A. R. Gibb, trans., Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354 (London, 1969), p. 113
92. See Crawford, Fung Kingdom, p. 269, where he describes the two types of horses observed by Giovanni Finati. Finati also remarked that the Dongola horse was more common at Berber and in the region of the Shaiqiya tribe than at Dongola
93. See also Cailliaud, Voyage a Meroe, vol. 2, pp. 108-9
94. Crawford, Fung Kingdom, p. 269, n. 13. For examples of such horses in the wall paintings of Nubian churches, see Griffith, "Oxford Excavations in Nubia. XLIII: A Symbol of Isis," Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (Liverpool) 13 (1926): pi. 58:1 (Riverside Church, Faras); and idem, "Oxford Excavations in Nubia: LVI: The Church of Abd el-Gadir near the Second Cataract," Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology (Liverpool) 15 (1928): pi. 35 (Church of St. Mercurius; example shown in fig. 11), pi. 43 (Church of St. George), and pi. 45 (Church of Abd el-Gadir near the Second Cataract, dated probably after A.D. 1000)
95. The main breeding area of the Kordofani horse was actually in Darfur
96. Gleichen, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, p. 182 (preferred by the Baggara tribe of Kordofan). One description of this breed of horse from the middle part of this century, however, harshly states that the large size of the Dongola horse (up to 15.2 hands high) and its dark color were its only redeeming features; it was "large, flashy, ugly, and useless ... "
97. Chris Hedges, "In Sudan, All the Horses Run under a Handicap," The New York Times, 12 December 1994, p. 5