This essay collection brings together contributions from two research colloquia of the Collaborative Research Center “Difference and Integration. The interaction between nomadic and settled forms of life in the civilizations of the Old World”, based at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Leipzig. The colloquium “Symbolic Representations of Nomadic Identities” examined to what extent the representation of nomadic life from the “external” perspective of settled communities and the nomadic “internal” perspective has taken a symbolic form. The colloquium “Camel, Horse and Reindeer - Herd Animals and the Mobility of Nomads” engaged with the topic of nomad herd animals, which symbolically represent nomadic life and are also an essential element of the reality of nomadic life.