Bactrian, ca. 2500 – 1900 B.C.

Bronze

H: 6.5 cm

PROVENANCE: Ex- European private collection, acquired in the early 1990s.

Serial No: 5738

This charming bronze ornament faithfully reproduces a Bactrian camel, a species with two humps that was known to roam Central Asia, in the region of what is now modern day Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and eastern Iran, in ancient times. 

Domesticated early on for its utility as a hardy pack animal and as a mode of transportation – the camel was particularly well adapted for the dry, open terrain of the Central Asian highlands. The flattened shape of this ornament and the openwork character of the design suggest that it may have been suspended, perhaps from the harness of a camel, as an ornament.