Egyptian donkeys may have been incorporated into ritual burials - while local donkeys were part of the menu - in the Early Bronze Age in present-day Israel, per analysis of four complete donkey skeletons and other remains

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Photographs of the four donkey burials of Stratum E5c in Area E at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath.

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Credit: Arnold et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Egyptian donkeys may have been incorporated into ritual burials - while local donkeys were part of the menu - in the Early Bronze Age in present-day Israel, per analysis of four complete donkey skeletons and other remains

Article URL: http://plos.io/3FKA8X2

Article title: An isotopic perspective on equid selection in cult at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel

Author countries: U.S., Canada, Israel

Funding: The research was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grants #895‐2011‐1005; and 410-2009-1303). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0326421 

Article Title

An isotopic perspective on equid selection in cult at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel

Article Publication Date

9-Jul-2025