Saudi Arabia Discovers 9000 Year Old Civilization

We do not catch a lot of detail here and it sounds like they have plenty.  The key observation is that domestication of the horse was well under way 9000 years ago and contemporaneous with cattle domestication in England.

It should be patently obvious that the idea of domestication was universally prevalent 9000 years ago and we merely lack the digs to make it proven, or more likely the simple luck.  A large site such as this one will have evidence.  Smaller sites may simply be better at consuming and disposing of the evidence.  After all, they were also feeding dogs.

We can generally accept that humanity adopted settled lifeways and nascent agriculture some nine to ten thousand years ago and the methods traveled very well.  After all, just how hard is it to capture a calf, foal or any other young animal to make it a pet?  You quickly discover your options and the species tractability.

The real challenge was the production of usable cereal crops and that story was much more challenging and plausibly may have been helped along.  I cover the details in my manuscript titled ‘paradigms shift’.

Without question though, the open steppes provided the space for the speedier evolution of a huge horse based culture and it is the most plausible center.

Saudi Arabia discovers 9,000 year-old civilization

By Asma Alsharif | Reuters – 7 hours ago

A new archeological site named al-Maqar, after the site's location in Saudi Arabia, …

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/saudi-arabia-discovers-9-000-old-civilization-180941680.html

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia is excavating a new archeological site that will show horses were domesticated 9,000 years ago in the Arabian peninsula, the country's antiquities expert said Wednesday.

The discovery of the civilization, named al-Maqar after the site's location, will challenge the theory that the domestication of animals took place 5,500 years ago in Central Asia, said Ali al-Ghabban, Vice-President of Antiquities and Museums at the Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities.

"This discovery will change our knowledge concerning the domestication of horses and the evolution of culture in the late Neolithic period," Ghabban told a news conference in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

"The Maqar Civilization is a very advanced civilization of the Neolithic period. This site shows us clearly, the roots of the domestication of horses 9,000 years ago."

The site also includes remains of mummified skeletons, arrowheads, scrapers, grain grinders, tools for spinning and weaving, and other tools that are evidence of a civilization that is skilled in handicrafts.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is trying to diversify its economy away from oil and hopes to increase its tourism.

Last year the SCTA launched exhibitions in Barcelona's CaixaForum museum and Paris's Louvre museum showcasing historic findings of the Arabian Peninsula.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Editing by Angus MacSwan)