Camel

A large hornless ruminant quadruped with a humped back, long neck, and cushioned feet. It is domesticated as the main beast of burden in arid regions of western Asia and northern Africa. There are two distinct species, the Arabian or one-humped, and the Bactrian or two-humped. A lighter and faster variety of the Arabian is known as the dromedary. The Bactrian was fully domesticated by the 1st millennium BC and evidence of their existence dates to the first half of 3rd millennium BC. There are four camelids found in the Andes of Peru - the vicuna, guanaco, llama, and alpaca. The first two are wild, the last two domesticated. Cave excavations yield bones from c 8000-1000 BC with herding evidence c 3000-2000 BC and pack animal use between 600-1000 AD.

There are two surviving species of the genus Camelus, both domesticated: the twohumped Bactrian camel ( C. bactrianus) and the single-humped dromedary (C. dromedarios). Archaeological evidence is hard to obtain but the domestication of the Bactrian camel must have taken place within a broad area of central Asia, bounded by the Caspian Sea on one side and the Indus Valley on the other. The earliest evidence comes from the site of Shahr-i Sokhta in eastern Iran, where camel dung (presumably from domesticated animals) was found in levels of the first half of the 3rd millennium bc. The dromedary was probably domesticated somewhere in the Arabian peninsula; it is recorded from Umm an-Nar in Oman, which should perhaps be dated to the early 3rd millennium bc. Although some communities exploit camels for milk, meat and wool, they were almost certainly domesticated for use as pack animals and this has always been their main function. Alexander the Great is said to have employed 5000 Bactrian camels, as well as other pack animals, to carry away the loot from Persepolis after he sacked the city in 330 bc.