Camel Domestication History Challenges Biblical Narrative
Bible and archaeology news
“And for her [Sarai] sake he [Pharaoh] dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.”
— Genesis 12:16
Camels play a major role in the Biblical narrative of the patriarchs; the animals are mentioned over 20 times in Genesis alone. However, a recent publication by Tel Aviv University (TAU) archaeologists Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen suggests that camels were not domesticated in Israel until the end of the 10th century B.C.E. This would place Israel’s first domesticated dromedaries during the period of the United Monarchy, centuries after the Genesis narratives. An American Friends of Tel Aviv University news release suggests that “this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes.”
Camels in the Ancient Near East
The September/October 2002 issue of Archaeology Odyssey includes an “Ancient Life” article that describes the importance and history of camel domestication in the ancient world:
Domesticated camels appeared in Mesopotamia by the middle of the second millennium B.C. The dromedary (a single-humped camel) was originally domesticated in southeastern Arabia, perhaps as early as the third millennium B.C. Around the same time, the Bactrian (double-humped) camel, which was mistakenly thought to be native to Bactria, in northern Afghanistan, was being domesticated in eastern Persia. The Sumerian word for the Bactrian camel literally means “wild bull from the foreign mountains.”
Once domesticated, camels greatly facilitated travel over the rough, arid terrain of the Near East and North Africa. Carrying up to 1,000 pounds on their backs, camels can walk some 25 to 30 miles in a day and go for weeks without drinking water. A thick lining in their mouths enables them to eat almost anything digestible, even thorny bushes—and a special, nearly transparent eyelid allows them to see while protecting their eyes from blowing sand. Camels also provide their owners with milk (females can produce more than a gallon a day for up to 18 months after giving birth) and fuel (dried dung).
The free eBook Life in the Ancient World guides you through craft centers in ancient Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and articles on ancient practices—from dining to makeup—across the Mediterranean world.
Using such perfectly adapted creatures, desert peoples carried out lucrative trade in frankincense, myrrh, saffron and cinnamon—a commerce completely dependent on camel caravans traveling through Arabia to the Mediterranean coast.
Camels were also important beasts of war. The fifth-century B.C. Greek historian Herodotus recounts how camels played a decisive role in the Persian Achaemenids’ victory over the Lydians of Anatolia in 546 B.C.: “The reason for confronting the Lydian cavalry with camels was the instinctive fear which they inspire in horses. No horse can endure the sight or smell of a camel. This is the fact upon which the stratagem was based, and its object was to render useless Croesus’ cavalry, the very arm in which the Lydians expected to distinguish themselves. The ruse succeeded, for when the battle began, the horses turned tail the moment they smelt and saw the camels—and Croesus’ chief ground of confidence was cut from under him” (The Histories 2.80).
Camels in Israel
Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen examined evidence from copper production sites in the southern Levant. Radiocarbon dates suggest that domesticated camel bones in the Aravah Valley—the oldest known domesticated camel bones in the region—date to the late 10th century B.C.E. or later, corresponding with changes in smelting practices. The researchers believe that Egyptians revised smelting operations while importing domesticated camels from the Arabian Peninsula.
Read the American Friends of Tel Aviv University Press Release
Related reading in Bible History Daily:
The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
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People of the past did not have a sense of technological progress as it was happening much slower. Stories were passing Orally for hundreds of years before they were put into writing. If we use this context and someone would put to writing the story of Columbus discovery of America today, he will probably assume that Columbus crossed the Atlantic ocean with steam ships. That However will not make the story fabricated.
I can’t take this site seriously.
“this anachronism is direct proof that the text was compiled well after the events it describes.”
Genius! They may as well say, “the fact that we don’t like the text is direct proof that it was made up at a later date”
Why can’t people process the idea that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence? The fact that they didn’t find an older one, does not mean there is not an older one.
Asides from the fact that they ignore all other evidence: There are many more similar discoveries in the region other that Younker’s.
Randall Younker discovered a gold camel figurine in a kneeling position from the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (2070-1960 BC) He also found a petroglyph at Aswan in Egypt which shows a man leading a camel by a rope, dated to 2423-2263 bce, A figurine from Aabussir el Melek, Egypt showing a camel carrying a load dated to the 3rd millennium BC and a figurine from the 2nd millennium from Hama in Syria. According to Yonker:
“This is not to say that domesticated camels were abundant and widely used
everywhere in the ancient Near East in the early second millennium.
However, the patriarchal narratives do not necessarily require large numbers of camels….
The smaller amount of evidence for domestic camels in the late third and early second millennium B.C.,
especially in Palestine, is in accordance with this more restricted use” (1997, 42:52).
Thanks to Seer and areheological for a well-reasoned response.
……….was originally domesticated in southeastern Arabia, perhaps as early as the third millennium B.C. Around the same time, the Bactrian …………..
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Lets see, Abram was from Ur of the Chaldees. There was frequent travel, warfare and the like between the Tigris/Euphrates valley and the Levant, as far back as 2500 BCE. Camels were used all over this area at an early date. The fact that they have not found camel bones yet does not invalidate the known history of the area in or outside of the biblical narrative, but it does indicate the incompleteness of the archeological study of the area.
Where do these people come from that publish these papers, not to illuminate knowledge, but to push a narrative?
I think that the generally used patriarchal chronology is also misleading the critics of the historicity. If I take 20 generations backwards from David, then Abraham lived around 1500 BC. According to Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary camels came into wider use “South Arabic saddle (Hawlani/Hadaja) pack animals; overland incense trade; change in camel status, 1500 B.C”. There is no need to support a chronology that generates anachronisms.
I fail to see the “news” in this article? Archeology has clearly shown that “Domesticated camels appeared in Mesopotamia by the middle of the second millennium B.C.” Which is approximately during the time of the Patriarchs. And the dromedary (a single-humped camel) was originally domesticated in southeastern Arabia, perhaps as early as the third millennium B.C., which would put it in Egypt as early as the time of Abraham…So where is the “news” because nothing stated here contradicts the Old Testament?…www.KingdomOfTheAntichrist.com
If the Bible indicates that there were domesticated camels in the days of Abraham, then some so-called scholar contradicts that statement guess who is wrong?
The title is a misnomer, as this discovery does not contradict the Bible. Note the words used- “Camels were not domesticated in ISRAEL until the 10th century BC”. As ‘archeological’ rightly pointed out camels were used as early as the 3rd millennium BC and the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (2100-1900 BC), as the images he referred to prove. According to the Bible, the state of Israel does not exist until the 12th-11th century BC (around the time of the Judges). Before then, it was the land of Canaan.
As such, while this evidence you mentioned here may be sound, the conclusion presented is incorrect.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Using 9th century bones from one location to generalize when and where camels were domesticated in ancient Israel is simply wrong.
It is refreshing to read these comments which have more subjective reasoning and intelligence than the TAU publication itself