PERTH: An excavation at the town of Tulln, Lower Austria, has led to discovery of a complete skeleton of a camel – an animal which was alien to the people in Tulln as they did not possibly know how to feed it, or eat it!
“The animal was certainly exotic for the people of Tulln. They probably didn’t know what to feed it or whether one could eat it. Perhaps it died a natural death and was then buried without being used,” said archaeo-zoologist Alfred Galik from University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna.
In addition to horses, the Ottoman army also used camels for transportation and as riding animals. In cases of scarcity, the soldiers also ate the animal’s flesh.
But the skeleton found in Tulln was complete. “This means that the animal was not killed and then butchered. It may have been acquired as part of an exchange,” Galik explained.
Extensive DNA analysis showed that the animal was a hybrid: Its mother was a dromedary and its father a Bactrian camel. The camel was male, around seven years old and most likely castrated.
“Such crossbreeding was not unusual at the time. Hybrids were easier to handle, more enduring, and larger than their parents. These animals were especially suited for military use,” Galik explains.
