The introduction of domestic camel to the southern Levant - in the media
The paper appeared in Tel Aviv 2013 40 (2): 277-285, and got a great attention in the media:
Data available until recently allowed only the general claim that (one humped) camels as pack animals were introduced to the southern Levant at an early phase in the Iron Age (11th – 9th centuries BCE). A recent study of faunal remains from Timna (Site 30 season 2009; Site 34, Season 2013), together with previous studies, enabled Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef to pinpoint this event more precisely, as reflected in the well dated, stratified copper smelting sites of the Wadi Arabah. The new evidence indicates that the first significant appearance of camel at the Wadi Arabah was not earlier than the last third of the 10th century BCE, coinciding with the military campaign of Pharaoh Shoshenq I to the region.
