National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CAMELIDÆ.

383

CAMELIDIE.

Camelus sp. [bactrianus Erxel (?)]. (See plate 73, figs. io and II; plate 77, figs. Io—I2.)

Bones of the camel are found only in the highest layers of culture II or the copper period of the North Kurgan. The phalanx secunda, No. 615, came from between +26 to +31 feet, and the fourth vertebra cervicalis, No. 1062, from +32 feet. No remains of the camel were found below these layers, though we naturally find them again in the shafts of the much later Anau citadel, where they can be but a few centuries old. It is therefore very probable that the camel was imported as a domestic animal at a much later time than the age of the lower strata of the North Kurgan. However, even the complete absence of bones of a wild camel in the layers of culture I is no reason to conclude positively that this animal was not then living in a wild state in this region, for Przewalski found it still in a wild state near Lob-Nor, south of the Tian Shan.

Table of dimensions (in millimeters).

It is impossible to determine exactly the species to which the Anau camel may have belonged; but historical reasons and considerations of geographical distribution make it seem probable that it was of the Bactrian race of camel, and therefore two-humped. This is only our opinion, however, for the differences between the skeleton of the one-humped dromedary and the two-humped Bactrian camel are very slight and not perceptible in the well-preserved bones of the kurgan. The Anau camel was certainly a large animal, as will be seen from the preceding table of dimensions, where it is compared with the skeleton of a camel preserved in the Museum of Bern.

Fossil remains of the camel have been found in the Siwalik Hills of Northern India and in later Pleistocene deposits in Lutschka, near Sarepta, on the Volga, north of the Caspian, the latter having been published by Nehring under the name

Proximal diameter.

Median diameter.

Proximal width.

Distal diameter.

Median height.

Median width.

Distal width.

„ b4

V

~

PHALANX I:

Anau City mosque shafts— 9 to— I I feet.

Camelus bactrianus,

adult (Mus. Bern)...

PHALANX II:

North Kurgan, Anau, +31 to +26 feet....

Camelus bactrianus,

adult (Mus. Bern)....

FOURTH VERTEBRA CERVICALIS :

Anau, No. 1062   

Camelus bactrianus

   Erxel. (Mus. Bern)    

28

24

19

II

22

19

18

14

104

91

74

56

2I

20

27

2I

34

32

30

2I

37

33

41

30

44

40

35

28

I38

I20

58

50

Io8

I00

69

68

62

6o

77

69