In 2023, life-size reliefs of these animals were dated by luminescence as older than Stonehenge. The arrival of these animals was dated to the 900s BCE at Timna Valley copper mines. Michael Rostovtzeff argued that taxation from these animals enriched cities like Dura-Europos, where one was depicted below the god Arsu. An early record of these animals comes from Gindibu’s Qedarites at the Battle of Qarqar. A word for these animals is the second part of Zarathustra’s name. Richard Bulliet argued that cloth saddles led to the wheel’s replacement by these animals, which supposedly scared Lydia’s cavalry at Thymbra and resupplied Surenas’s horse archers at Carrhae (“CAR-rye”). These animals, which likely spread from the Hadhramaut to Somalia, enriched Palmyra and Petra by enabling caravans. For 10 points, a species of what animals is named for ancient Bactria? ■END■
ANSWER: camels [accept dromedaries, dromedary, Camelus, or gāmālim; accept Bactrian camels until “Bactria” is read; accept Camel Site; prompt on even-toed ungulates or artiodactyls] (Rostovtzeff defined “caravan cities.” The root word is uštra. Both Xenophon and Herodotus report Cyrus the Great’s use of camels at the Battle of Thymbra.)
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= Average correct buzz position