Camels

Dialog on the Ancient Near East List, November 1997

Herodotus, Bk. I, 79-80, mentions the use of camels as pack animals in the Persian army and the cunning way in which they were used during the siege of Sardis against the cavalry of Croesus to frighten the enemy horses. Does anyone on the list know if these were Bactrian camels? If they were not Bactrians, where did they come from and were they in the charge of a non-Iranian element in Cyrus's army? Is there any evidence for the regular use of Bactrian camels in Iran or else where before Cyrus? I am aware of the depiction on the Black Obelisk, but his is hardly evidence for their regular use. A related question is how an army garison would keep and look after bactrian camels between campaigns, in Anatolia for instance. Would they have been kept in pounds, housed in stables, let loose to graze and tethered at night. Could anyone provide refernces to the later use of Bactrian camels in warefare or as regular pack animals in Iran and further west. What archaeolgical evidence, apart from bones, might suggest the presence of camels of either species?

More recent and well documented use of Bactrian camels in Mongolia and its neighbours shows these animals carrying loads across snow covered mountains in the most extreme conditions, but the evidence of Herodotus relate to less unfavourable climates. It is of course possible that Herod. himself had never seen a Bactrian.

Any comments, on of off list, would be most welcome.

Geoff Summers

Pierre Briant in *Histoire de l'Empire Perse* has a long section about the depictions of tribute, especially exotic animals, in the Persepolis et sim. reliefs. Perhaps the references there will help with understanding the role of camels in Persian military operations and elsewhere (especially paradises).

Peter T. Daniels
grammatim@worldnet.att.net

Geoffrey Summers: before you spend time trying to find out where Cyrus obtained the camels he used against Croesus in 546 BC, you might take a close look at the story in Herodotos 1.80, which has the earmarks of a folk tradition. The Greeks in the fifth century BC believed that Croesus and his predecessors had had great cavalries, and so the Greeks would necessarily have had to come up with some plausible reason why the great Lydian cavalry had been routed by Cyrus. Camels provided the perfect solution. The mainland Greeks had been greatly impressed by the camels that had accompanied Xerxes' army to Greece in 480 BC. That was the first they had seen of the animal, and in Herodotos' time Greeks were still telling stories about how the lions of Thrace, being patriotic European lions, had attacked these Asiatic intruders in Xerxes' supply train. The camel ploy ascribed to Cyrus by Herodotos at 1.80 was probably invented after the Greeks had gotten a whiff of Xerxes' camels, and is not reliable evidence for what had actually happened in 546 BC. I doubt that either Herodotos or his informants had any solid information on the battle between Cyrus and Croesus. I recommend Pericles Georges' book, <Barbarian Asia and the Greek Experience>.

Bob Drews

Robert Drews
Department of Classical Studies
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235
(615) 343-4115
drewsr@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu

There are indeed Bactrian (i.e. double-hunched) camels on the Apadana reliefs, but since it is quite a non-military scene, I am afraid they won't provide you with clues as to their use in warfare. I believe to remember, however, a neo-Assyrian relief (they show everything, after all...) showing a military camp with tents (quite beautifully rendered, in section as in a doll-house) and camels (can't remember which type) bound to a pole nearby.

Hope this helps,

Alexander Heinemann
Institut für Klassische Archaeologie
Marstallhof 4
D - 69117 Heidelberg
quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Camels are reasonably well attested in the Achaemenid sources from Iran. The Persepolis tablets (with a single exception) use the logogram AN$E.A.AB.BA, which is taken in Elamite (as in Akkadian) to be the dromedary. These beasts also appear in the Behistun inscription (18:86 f.), where they're being used by Darius, along with horses, to cross the Tigris in the campaign against Nidintu-Bel in Babylonia.

In the Persepolis region in the late 6th - early 5th century, camels are being used for hides, transport, and meat. See the references in R.T. Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets (Chicago, 1969), p. 667. In addition to these there are some interesting unpublished balanced accounts or inventories of breeding herds of camels, containing between 150 and 200 animals. As is typical in such texts, is is seldom stated what the purpose of animals removed from the herd is intended to be. Some are listed as slaughtered, others (mostly calves) are simply indicated as withdrawn. Interestingly, there is a subcategory of adult male camels, accounted as part of the herd, but designated as travelling the road.

Chuck Jones-
cejo@midway.uchicago.edu

Reply to Geoffrey Summers re: Bactrian camels

You might want to consult R. W. Bulliet's THE CAMEL AND THE WHEEL re: their place in history. Your question has made me think of the military uses of Bactrian camels at a later period, for example, during the time of Darius III, and by the Graeco-Bactrian kings. Surprisingly, Bactrian camels always appear as pack animals, in contrast to horses and elephants, which were important for their use in battles. Curtius mentions camels in Darius' procession at Issus and those obtained by Alexander, while he was campaigning in Sogdiana. The latter must have been Camelus bactrianus, or more correctly, animals that later became famous as Bactrian camels. But again the are used as pack animals. See Curtius ( 3:3:28/ 8:4:19/ 9:10:17 ). It is also surprising that Bactrian camels rarely appear on the copious and varied coins of the Greek rulers of Bactria, whereas horses (i.e., the famous Bactrian chargers) and elephants, which formed an integral part of Seleucid warfare, recur frequently.

H. Sidky

This book has just appeared in English as From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns).

David W. Baker, Ph.D.
Professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages
Ashland Theological Seminary
910 Center St.,
Ashland, OH 44805
USA
(419)289-5177 (Office); (419)289-5969 (fax)
dbaker@ashland.edu; http://www.ashland.edu/~dbaker/home.html

Reply to Geoffrey Summers re: Bactrian camels

You might want to consult R. W. Bulliet's THE CAMEL AND THE WHEEL re: their place in history. Your question has made me think of the military uses of Bactrian camels at a later period, for example, during the time of Darius III, and by the Graeco-Bactrian kings. Surprisingly, Bactrian camels always appear as pack animals, in contrast to horses and elephants, which were important for their use in battles. Curtius mentions camels in Darius' procession at Issus and those obtained by Alexander, while he was campaigning in Sogdiana. The latter must have been Camelus bactrianus, or more correctly, animals that later became famous as Bactrian camels. But again the are used as pack animals. See Curtius ( 3:3:28/ 8:4:19/ 9:10:17 ). It is also surprising that Bactrian camels rarely appear on the copious and varied coins of the Greek rulers of Bactria, whereas horses (i.e., the famous Bactrian chargers) and elephants, which formed an integral part of Seleucid warfare, recur frequently. This leads me to suspect Herodotus' passage as Robert Drews suggests in his reply.

H. Sidky

Many thanks to all those who sent information regarding camels in response to my question last week. There were a number of replys concerning written and figurative evidence for camels in general, and Bactrians in particular, from the Achaemenid and later periods. No responses mentioned pre-Achaemenid evidence form Iran, and no one came up with evidence concerning how camels might have kept apart from a reference to a Neo-Assyrian relief depicting them tied to a pole (which I have not yet been able to follow up).

My reason for asking the question is connected to our research at Kerkenes and the interpretation of one structure in particular. An interim report on our survey can be found in Anatolian Studies 46 (1996) and JNES 1997, although the feature in question has not yet been fully described in print. Brief notices have appeared each year in AJA. There is also an experimental web site:

http://www.metu.edu.tr/home/wwwkerk/index.html

Briefly, the site is a very exposed mountain-top city, alt. 1500m, on the N edge of the Cappadocian plain. In 1997 we experienced frost on several occasions in August! The defences are 7 km in length enclosing 2.5 square kilometers all of which was built over. At the S end we have identified a hugh zone of public monuments and structures. High status residential blocks have been located at the lower N end. The city was short lived, destroyed by an intense fire, and thereafter abandoned. It has been proposed that the city could be identified with Pteria (Herod. I.76), and that it was built by the Medes following the Battle of the Eclipse in 585 and destroyed by Croesus in, traditonally, 547 BC. Alternatively, the city was slightly earlier and thus falls into an historical vacuum.

The monument under consideration consists of a circular stone wall some 50m dia, with a wall some 3.5m wide preserved to a height of c. 1m. The original height is unknown. The circle is located on a south facing slope and protected from the prevailing weather by the Kale. There are no visible entrances, but many of the large stones were robbed for reuse in a Byzantine cemetery. No traces of internal structures are visible on the surface, and none were located by limited resistivity survey. Magnetic survey has yet to be tried here. A small, deep hole dug by locals for water in or before 1992 has not revealed any surfaces or other cultural indications.

It is possible that the monument was never finished, as has been argued for the city wall and other complexes.

The circle is located in or adjacent to the zone of Public monuments, to the east of the important gate that leads down to the Cappadocian plain, and west of the eastern city gate. It fits exactly between the city wall and the street linking the two gates.

On the opposite side of the street is a large complex with what appear to be monumental elements, perhaps to be interpreted as an administrative complex.

The circle was clearly a part of the city because, 1. it respects the city wall and the street, 2. its construction and monumentality are in keeping with other urban elements in this part of the city, and, 3. there is no trace of earlier urban (or other) structures beneath or within it.

The problem is the function of the circle. I have long thought that it was a large animal pound that, from its size and position was public in function. I would like to suggest that pack animals, and camels in particular, were kept here, at least for short periods. These animals could have been from caravans and / or military.

If this interpretation can be supported we would have evidence for the regular use of camels as pack animals in the first half of the Sixth Century BC, prceeding thier use by Cyrus in the defeat of the Lydians. If this interpretation is correct, it raises the further question of which type(s) of camel. Did the Achaemenids, or the Medes before them, use Bactrian and / or Arabian on a regular basis before the Persain conquests in Mesopotamia? Could Arabian camels have survived the harsh winter conditions at Kerkenes, or indeed elsewhere on the Central Anatolian Plateau?

Comments on any aspects of the above would be most appreciated.

Geoff

Geoffrey Summers,
Dept. of Political science and Public Administration,
METU / ODTÜ
Ankara

The circle you describe in Cappadocia (quoted below) immediately called to mind an engraving of a Zoroastrian burial pit, in which the bodies of the deceased were exposed to dogs and vultures, and the picked bones were subsequently stored in an ossuary. I can't remember where I saw the engraving (and it may have referred to 19th cent. Parisee practices or have been an artist's reconstruction). Strabo has an extended description of Zoroastrian practices in Asia Minor and I thought he described something. I don't have Strabo at hand, except in TLG and word searches aren't helping. Check Strabo 15.1-6, or better, check Mary Boyce's source book for early Zoroastrianism, or maybe Zaehner. Sorry this is so sketchy, but I have a strong memory that these were circular *disposal arenas* and i don't have time to track down the references myself. Hope this helps.

Kenneth Mayer
kenneth-mayer@uiowa.edu
Visiting Assistant Professor
http://www.uiowa.edu/~classics/mayer/home/
Department of Classics
University of Iowa