Recent camel finds from Hungary

This paper is a brief review of camel bones recently discovered in the territory of modern-day Hungary. The goal of this paper is to provide an inventory of all known camel finds representing both the Roman Period province of Pannonia (1st–4th c.) and the northernmost outpost of the Ottoman Empire in Europe (16th–17th c.), historical periods when this exotic animal was present in Hungary. In spite of the fact that both occupying forces used camels, the camel discoveries cannot be linked exclusively to military functions. Morphological and metric information identifies the majority of these bones as originating from dromedaries. However, the list of 18 sites offers putative evidence that both dromedary and Bactrian camel were used in the central part of the Carpathian Basin.