In 1991 the twelfth season of excavation of the Akkadian buildings at Tell Brak in Syria, under the direction of David and Joan Oates, yielded the skeletons of five domestic donkeys to add to the skeletons of a dog and a donkey that were retrieved in 1987 (Clutton-Brock 1989). The positions of the new skeletons are shown on the plan, p. 163, and their excavation is described by D. and J. Oates (1991). It appears from the finding, in 1992, of a small temple in the same area (FS), together with fragments of yet another donkey skeleton, that the deposition of the carcasses had a ritual significance. The temple was at first thought to be dedicated to the god Šakkan, whose name was read on bullae found in the courtyard, but this reading has since been disputed. However, the presence of the donkey skeletons and of a number of gazelle horns in the temple ante-cella suggests that the deity had some special connection with these animals, as we know that Šakkan did (p. 164). The donkeys were probably sacrificed at the same period as the donkey and dog excavated in 1987 and can be similarly dated to an historical date of c. 2200 BC.

As with the previous donkey skeleton the five new equids were identified as donkeys rather than horses, hemiones, or hybrids, on the enamel patterns of the cheek teeth and on the size and proportions of the limb bones; see Clutton-Brock (1986 and 1989) and Eisenmann (1986) for the anatomical and dental distinctions between the species of equids.