Adoption and abandon of camel culture in Southeast Anatolia

Abstract

Camels are exotic animals in Anatolia. Except the Palaeolithic site of Karain Cave, no pre-Bronze Age archaeological site reveals any camel remains so far in Anatolia. However, domestic camel became common and very significant in the Early Imperial as well as in the Roman and Byzantine Anatolia. Southeast Anatolian region, being the corridor between Anatolia and Mesopotamia, always played key roles since the early stage of the spread of camel culture in rest of Anatolia. Moreover, from the Bronze Age to nineteenth century onwards, camel pastoralism was very lucrative in Southeast Anatolia mainly because of trade, transport and warfare. While camel culture was gradually abandoned in rest of the Anatolia in the beginning of twentieth century, camels still remained as an important socio-cultural part of pastoral groups in Southeast Anatolia until last 30 years. In the light of archaeozoologic, ethnohistoric and ethnozoological data, this review is aimed to illustrate a glimpse of camel culture in Southeast Anatolia throughout different cultural periods in the region.