The Relationship between Humans and Camels in Late Prehistoric Southeastern Arabia: The Problems of Distinguishing between 'Wild' and 'Domestic' Camels Using Zooarchaeological Materials and Methods

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Questioning the Fundamentals of Plant and Animal Domestication" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius) is a crucial component of the lifeways of humans in arid regions. Delineating the nature of the early relationship between humans and dromedaries is therefore critical to our understanding of the ancient human societies that co-existed with the dromedary in these areas. Many studies into this relationship have focused on the domestication of the dromedary, attempting to distinguish between wild and domestic camel populations with the assumption that a stark dichotomy exists between the two. This has led to the creation of a model whereby dromedary domestication is hypothesised to have occurred in southeastern Arabia over a short period, around 1000 BCE.

This presentation outlines evidence from a camel bone assemblage recently excavated at Saruq al-Hadid, U.A.E. (2200 – 800 BCE), which questions the assumed dichotomy between wild and domestic camels. The evidence from Saruq al-Hadid reinforces a framework of camel domestication as a longer-term process, as opposed to the commonly accepted short-term model. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed, and new methods are proposed that might allow future researchers to further elucidate the nuanced relationship between humans and dromedary camels, prompting us to rethink the way we view camel ‘domestication’.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Questioning the Fundamentals of Plant and Animal Domestication   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23947