Faunal remains from Tel Abel Beth Maacah: Social change in the late second millennium BCE Hula Valley

AbstractGeological, geomorphological, and morphotectonic studies at the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov Acheulean site, Northern Jordan Valley, provide: 1) a unique opportunity to establish the ecological background of hominid behavior during the early stages of widespread human occupation; 2) crucial data for understanding the paleo-environment and the various processes that affected the area near the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site; and 3) a basis for further comprehensive research in the region.Quaternary tectonic activity near the Acheulean archeological site has produced a complex local setting that controls the surrounding landscape. Tectonic activity formed the Benot Ya'aqov embayment, which attracted hominids and a variety of other fauna. Sediments of the Benot Ya'akov formation deposited in the embayment facilitated excellent preservation of the remnants of Acheulean hominid activities and of abundant floral and faunal remains. The formation was subsequently affected by faulting and folding. Local uplift ended the deposition of lacustrine sediments in the embayment of Hula Valley Basin and caused erosion and vertical incision of the Jordan River that resulted in the capture of the Rosh Pinna River and the exposure of the Benot Ya'akov formation. These deposits are found in different structural positions along the north–south oriented morphotectonic embayment. The outcrops contain numerous archeological sites, giving the study area an unusually high potential for future hominid discoveries.

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Animal consumption and social change: the vertebrates from Ditch 7 in the context of a diachronic approach to the faunal remains at Perdigões enclosure (3400-2000 BC)

Archaeofauna ◽

10.15366/archaeofauna2021.30.005 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 75-106

Author(s):

NELSON J. ALMEIDA ◽

ANTÓNIO CARLOS VALERA

Keyword(s):

Social Change ◽

Bronze Age ◽

Red Deer ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Faunal Remains ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Faunal Assemblage ◽

Tooth Marks ◽

Animal Consumption

The results from the study of the faunal assemblage from ditch 7 of the Perdigões enclosure (Reguengos de Monsaraz, Portugal) are presented. Dated to the Chalcolithic and the transition to the early Bronze Age it comprises a total of 3380 remains. Results show the rele- vance of swine, caprines, cervids, bovines and equids and their diachronic oscillation. Indicators of butchering and consumption were recorded, comprising cutmarks, anthropogenic breakage, thermo-alterations and tooth marks, the latter mainly of a carnivore origin. The spectra obtained were compared within the scope of the Perdigões chronology, from the late Middle Neolithic to the transition to the early Bronze Age (3400-2000 BC), thus representing a first approach to the diachronic behaviour of vertebrate consumption at the site. Domesticated species are prevalent but changes in the domesticated/wild ratio are evident with a wild input, mainly from red deer, of significance in the late Middle Neolithic and in the transition to the early Bronze Age, whereas the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods have a growth in the domesticated component.

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