They're more just distinct fur patterns than actual breeds. Their main colors are either a strong reddish-brown (heavy on the red), black, or off-white with minimal to no striping. Deities are often depicted with off-white or pure white giant elands as their mounts. Horn shape is all over the place with the only real distinction being the length and it's really only the consistent horn shortness that is a notably Ansongoan giant eland trait at this point. Thanks for the info on animal domestication timelines, I'm trying to be very careful that I don't overestimate how quickly giant elands spread through the continent (and beyond) and I know nothing about giant eland coat genetics, I'm partially basing the color morphs on photos of giant elands I've seen online and common morphs that show up in pretty much all furred animals.
I can see a radiation of horn types pretty easy, from what I can tell of other domestic bovids. Heck, even some farmed deer show some
crazy results in antler shape from just 50 years of breeding (admittedly aided greatly through the knowledge of modern genetics and heredity)
It's pretty difficult to get an accurate picture of ancient domestication timelines, or how quickly the first 'breeds' emerged. I actually don't think this has been extensively researched; not that specific bit at least. Those first instances of captivity are understandably blurry. Actually trying to look into real-life examples can get sort of inconclusive sometimes, but the impression I've gotten from studying it is they can change reasonably quickly if you know what you're doing and feel the
need to change them, otherwise it's only a little faster than natural selection. Horses seem to be pretty well documented; Arabian-type horses for example seem to have appeared 500 years after the earliest evidence of captive horses in ~4000 BC (during which time and/or prior they could probably have been semi-domestic winter-grazing livestock), and there's a Botai site in central Kazakhstan that also shows evidence of minor skeletal changes to the legs at this time. But the highest incidents of captive horses in the archaeological record start at around 2500 BC and this is also where the highest skeletal variation seems to be occuring, including an increase in size, implying it took around two thousand years for domestication to take full effect. Another point to compare is the higher incidence of urbanized civilization and intensive farming at this time which may well have contributed here.
But other changes have been rather quick; it seems to have taken at most 200 years for the horses of Chincoteague Island to shrink into 'ponies' all by themselves, the fully-grazing kunekune pig of New Zealand is only about 200 years old (and likely came into its modern form even earlier), the Appaloosa breed appeared within 50 years of the Nez Perce's breeding projects, and once Robert Bakewell really fleshed out the process of selective breeding there was a phenomenal explosion of highly derived animal breeds appearing within the span of decades or less. I'm pretty sure captive bearded dragons might have some genetic predispositions toward docility and affinity towards humans and they've only been in the pet trade for ~60 years; from what I can tell nobody's been deliberately breeding them for this. However, camels seem to be the odd one out here since despite thousands of years of intensive use by humans there seems to be very little phenotypic diversity (though not sure about true genetic diversity). Maybe it has something to do with them not being 'farm' animals?
For Ansongo's elands, I see three factors that can aid in the speed of their domestication, if the people are so inclined. The first is the region already has a history of more or less well-off sedentary and even urban cultures who can afford to both maintain large animals and cull individuals that are even marginally less desirable. An urban agricultural civilization will also increase demand for meat which can incentivize more hands-on approaches to breeding. The second is that the people of the region already have experience with handling and managing large animals, especially the eland's closest domestic relatives, cattle. Some elites could also be importing some horses from the north (which was a thing IOTL but I don't remember when), learning to ride some and realizing their benefit before the inevitable issue of sleeping and horse sickness kicks in; leading some to start looking into a similarly agile beast they're currently taming as an alternative. The third feels quite effective, and it's the fact that Ansongo is engaged in trade with Mediterranean powers who have an even longer history of large animal husbandry and will doubtlessly have literature on the subject of breeding, as well as likely oral knowledge from traders and visitors. That of course depends on how extensive the literature is on the subject and
if it makes its way to Ansongoan readers.
The first generations are going to be a bit of a snooze considering the inevitable (and often desired) influx of wild stock and the fact that nobody's selecting for anything other than “don't attack me when I tell you to pull this plow”. When captive elands are in full swing in a given region and have healthy herd sizes, I think that's when the first steps to differentiation are going to occur and wild elands seen more as competition than helpers; both for grazing area, crop damage and the fact that a bull can go beyond simple sneak-breeding and literally steal cows away, incentivizing extirpation of wild eland bulls.
Now I'm not sure if all this can get you any extreme changes within 300 or even 500 years, but I think you do have the potential for domestic elands to change faster than most other tame megafauna considering the factors, even if marginally faster. I think by 300 AD the roads to divergence are already in place and beginning to happen, but how fast it happens depends on how it's managed by West African farmers or polities.
As you said, melanism is a fairly common mutation and I figure a couple of very pale-coated giant elands could be born and if they're born to a noble family, they could have an increased chance of spreading their genes. Though I wonder if the black and cream morphs would have a harder time in the African sun? Something to note about giant elands, is that 300 years from the initial point of domestication, I still consider them more "tamed" than anything, especially because it's not uncommon for people to capture giant eland juveniles and sub-adults to use as breeding stock. They're still temperamental and a bit more skittish than horses and cattle are. Perhaps that will always remain.
Yeah, I figure that's exactly the kind of thing nobility would be up to; they'd very likely be the ones driving the fancier looks into existence.
Black animals would definitely heat up faster, but black also dissipates heat faster. Aurochs seem to have done well enough having black fur in the stifling climate of the Near East, even without using bodily sweat glands to cool like horses and humans, but I'm looking at pictures of melanistic antelopes like impalas that suggest they're not totally struggling with the heat.
Captive animals have the advantage of access to shelter and care. If they look like they're getting too hot they can just be cooled with water or wear a white cloth to reflect the sunlight.
I wonder, what exactly is the dividing line between tamed animals that you're breeding and are used to humans and full on domesticated animals?
Good question. It's about the same as defining a separate species or subspecies, or even comparing a new one to its predecessor – in other words it can get
really fuzzy and words like 'dividing line' can start to lose value. It is sort of a gradient, and goes up to the point of 'full-on domesticated' as you said – i.e when the population of animals being kept by humans are distinctly different, physically, genetically, ancestrally (main stock diverged long enough ago) and behaviorally, from the wild-type population sufficiently enough to be considered at least its own subspecies. So one way to determine if an animal is/was domesticated is to look at its physical features (even if just a skeleton) and see if they're sufficiently different, and if these features are in some way consistent with captive selection pressures.
Well, Egypt, Aksum, Nubia and Carthage all have seen Ansongoan caravans for themselves and the Romans know of a grassland empire in the heart of Africa that supplies gold to Egypt and Carthage. They can't quite get over that Ansongoans ride on gigantic antelopes
. So Ansongoan coinage, cloth, carvings, and a bit of literature have made it to the Mediterranean basin along with the raw materials they trade. I would say that the furthest east Ansongo's culture has spread is the kingdom of Mao, centered around Lake Chad, which is starting to transition from a purely oratory culture to one that uses Southern Punic for governance. However only the most crucial orders are written down. West of Mao, and all people groups know of Ansongo and its elands. I would say by this point, all of west Africa uses giant elands and this is a particular boon for the forest peoples. However, they're probably the least likely to adopt Mande culture as the forest insulates them from both Ansongo's military and its practices.
Due to Persian contact, Bactrian camels were first used in the Sahara, but now Dromedaries are used to traverse the desert. And yes, one of the goals of this TL is to get a much more connected Africa, both within and without.
I see. It's impressive that they are able to personally travel as far as Egypt, but my point is you definitely can't overlook the power of indirect trade – which can be even more impactful than a direct caravan in some cases. It's highly likely at least
some goods are getting to Rome, for example, anyway, through Egyptian middlemen, and then even further; I wouldn't find it surprising if archaeologists found a West African trinket in Crimea or someplace. At one point IOTL a good portion of European coinage was derived from Mali gold that ultimately got there. Indirect trade is a great way to spread culture and materials; pre-Columbian North America makes an excellent
case study for this (though this map doesn't really touch on Mississippi River trade that would have been all over the place); it's how a lot of the agriculture, religious ideas and political ideas got around (and most likely how the SECC and political structure in the Eastern Woodlands spread because we don't have evidence for one single direct spread of the first polities). I don't know what the trade environment looked like in OTL sub-Saharan Africa, but I imagine it would look a little denser than that with more people making shorter journeys due to the terrain, environment and ethnic density. Pastoralists and hunter-gatherers with extensive seasonal rounds might indeed have done long-distance trading, but this isn't my strong suit in history.
So, while the Ansongoan caravan stops at Mao, Mao is trading with
its neighbors, either as part of direct relations or her citizens are making private transactions themselves (anything from a conventionally recognized 'trade' to marriages, gift-givings or raids), and they are doing likewise. So even the people way to the east of Mao will eventually be getting Ansongo luxuries, religious/ceremonial material, and ideas of what Ansongo is. Spread via the world's longest game of telephone, various tales would be told about the empire and the things they supposedly have done, and a few people, perhaps inspired by the closer Mao's government may try to make regional mansas of themselves (they may be confederating in response to Mao anyway). Your Two God Path is slowly bleeding through from both sides of Africa, and after that the closest path of least resistance is the rift valleys and the East African Plateau. The Bantu-speaking peoples are currently making their way down there, no?
Continuing on trade, once elands get to Mao (if they haven't already), I imagine things are going to get pretty crazy. They're entering a region that previously had no true riding animals to speak of, and in many places no centralized polities. If horses in the Americas taught us anything, this is going to spread very fast. People of all subsistence strategies are about to become
way more mobile than before, and I think this is going to shake up basically everything. This has a lot of implications...I could theorize more here but I've already taken up a huge chunk of space.
In other words, I think you've just lit a wildfire that's going to envelop the entire Sahel and beyond. But this was the plan all along, wasn't it?
