Horses

Abstract Horses are not native to Africa, but were introduced there first into Bronze Age Egypt ca. 1700 bce . They were taken up as signifiers of elite status and weapons (mostly in pulling chariots) by New Kingdom pharaohs and retained these associations further south along the Nile in the kingdom of Kush. Their spread into North Africa and the Sahara is poorly dated, but occurred during the first millennium bce , with further expansion into the Sahel grasslands to the desert's south by the seventh/eighth centuries ce . There, they retained the same role in warfare, especially in raiding for slaves, and in differentiating elite individuals, but movement further south into West Africa was precluded by diseases such as trypanosomiasis.