Clay horse statue: age 4300 years

Did you know that evidence of the domestication of horses by man dated back to at least 4,300 years ago?  This conclusion was reached by University of Chicago archaelogists following the discovery in 1993 of a clay figurine representing a horse at an excavation site in North Eastern Syria. The site, Tell es-Sweyhat, which is located on the Euphrates in present day Syria, was apparently a trading outpost between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia..

I wonder whether the horse is an Arabian. How interesting would that be, especially that this is the same area the horse-breeding Bedouin tribes of Anazah and Shammar roamed and later settled. Of course, these tribes came from Central Arabia some 300 years ago, and so did their Arabian horses..

The New Times article also mentions Prof. Juris Zarins, who specializes in the role horses played in Middle East history, and teaches at the South West Missouri State University in Springfield. Maybe he could be invited to speak at a future Al Khamsa convention in nearby Illinois..

I wonder what the state of the research on the cradle of the Arabian horse is..