An analysis of a complete skeleton of an early domestic donkey from the Early Bronze Age (2800-2600 BC) deposits at the site of the Biblical city ‘Gath of the Philistines’ (modern Tell es-Safi) in central Israel demonstrates that the animal was being ridden or managed with the use of a dental bit. Domestic donkeys were being ridden and controlled with bits during the early 3rd millennium BC in the southern Levant, very soon after they...
