Camel and horse skeletons from protohistoric graves at Mleiha in the Emirate of Sharjah (U.A.E.)

Abstract

Animal burials from a graveyard at Mleiha in the interior of the Sharjah Emirate (U.A.E.) are described and documented with regard to the archaeozoology of the represented species. These are two horses, nine dromedaries, and three camel hybrids. The hybrids represent crossbreeds between two‐humped Bactrian camels and one‐humped Arabian dromedaries where the latter species has been the female parent. According to their central position in the graveyard, the hybrids seem to have been status animals. One of the horses was in a similar position while the other was in a peripheral grave together with a dromedary.