The Domestication of Camel in the Literary, Archaeological and Petroglyph Records

Abstract

The domestication of camels happened at the start of the III millennium BC in their natural habitats, for the dromedary in SE-Arabia, for the Bactrian camel in SW-Central Asia. Three steps of camel domestication and use are distinguished: for harvesting its body products, as transport animal (drafted, loaded, and ridden), as military animal. With the start of the I millennium BC the introduction of new saddle types and of hybridization techniques promoted, in all the arid expanses of Afro-Eurasia, the growing superiority of the loaded camel over wheels and draft transports, and of camelry over cavalry.