Prehistoric Horses of Europe. 97 



it will be as well to inquire if the historical annals can throw 

 any further light on the problems at issue. 



Historical Evidence on the Domestication of the 

 Horse. 



That no representation of horses is to be found on any of 

 the monuments of the Nile valley, prior to the eighteenth 

 dynasty, seems to have been overlooked by Egyptologists 

 till the year 1869, when Professor Owen, in the course of a 

 visit to the country, drew attention to it (see Lenormant, 

 "Les Premieres Civilisations," vol. ii. p. 299). However 

 that may be, the fact is of great significance, and quite in 

 harmony with a passage in Genesis (chap, xlvii. 17), where 

 we are informed that Joseph, then administrator of the 

 country, gave the people ''bread in exchange for horses, 

 etc." As the invaders, known as Hyksos or Shepherds, 

 entered Egypt from the north, it is probable that they first 

 introduced the domestic horse into the Mle valley, but, being 

 a simple pastoral people, and not given to erecting monu- 

 ments, they left little evidence of their presence in the 

 country, though they are said to have governed it for five 

 hundred years. That the Shepherd Kings were in power 

 during the time of Joseph seems almost certain from the in- 

 structions given by him to his brethren as to what they 

 should say when they came before Pharaoh : " Ye shall say. 

 Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth 

 even until now, both we and also our fathers : that ye may 

 dwell in the land of Goshen : for every shepherd is an abomi- 

 nation unto the Egyptians " (Genesis xlvi. 34). At a later 

 period, Egyptian horses became famous, as we find King 

 Solomon not only using them exclusively for his army and 

 household, but also importing them for the neighbouring 

 kings of the Hittites and Syria. Also, in pictorial represen- 

 tations of battles on monuments of the eighteenth dynasty 

 and onwards, war-chariots drawn by a couple of prancing 

 steeds play a conspicuous part. 



In Greece, the earliest indications of domestic horses are 

 the sculptured war- chariots on the famous tombstones at 

 vol. XV. H 



