Mammals in the economy of ancient Porphyreon (Lebanon)

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 453-473
Author(s):  
Joanna Piątkowska-Małecka

An archaeozoological analysis of mammal remains recovered from the dwelling units and streets of ancient Porphyreon excavated in 2009, 2010 and 2012, gives insight into the importance of mammals for the residents of this quarter in succeeding periods: from the Iron Age through the Persian and Hellenistic periods to Byzantine times. Husbandry lay at the base of the animal economy and was supplemented with hunting various species of gazelle. Cattle, sheep and goat were the most numerous livestock species represented in the archaeological record. The high percentage of cattle observed in Iron Age deposits could have resulted from the agricultural lifestyle of the population. Starting from the Persian period, sheep and goat played the most prominent role in the animal economy, implying a pastoral model of husbandry. Raising goats for meat was more significant initially; from the Hellenistic period onwards, the number of sheep reared for milk and wool increased. Pigs constituted a minor percentage of the livestock. The presence of equid remains, including horse and donkey, was confirmed for the Persian period, when these animals were used for transportation.

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 487
Author(s):  
Yigal Levin

For several hundred years, from the late Iron Age to the end of the 2nd century BCE, the southern neighbor of Judea was “Idumea”, populated by descendants of Edomites, together with Qedarite and other Arabs and a mix of additional ethnicities. This paper examines the known data on the identity, especially religious identity, of these Idumeans, using a wide range of written sources and archaeological data. Within the Bible, “Edom” is presented as Israel’s twin and its harshest enemy, but there are hints that the Edomites worshipped the God of Israel. While the origins of the “Edomite deity” Qaus remain obscure, as does the process of their migration into southern Judah, the many inscriptions from the Persian period show that Qaus became the most widely worshipped deity in the area, even if other gods, including Yahweh, were also recognized. The Hellenistic period brought heightened Greek and Phoenician influence, but also the stabilization of “Idumea” as an administrative/ethnic unit. Some of the practices of this period, such as male circumcision, show an affinity to the Judaism of the time. This paper also discusses the outcome of the Hasmonean conquest of Idumea and the incorporation of its inhabitants into the Jewish nation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Hjelm

“The Pentateuch that the Samaritans Chose”, is the heading of Chapter Seven in Magnar Kartveit’s The Origin of the Samaritans (2009). The heading is highly problematic in regard to both the origin of the Samaritans and the production of biblical texts and books in ancient Palestine. Kartveit’s  assumption that the Samaritans “chose one text-type in particular among the different texts available” rests on several old paradigms about Samaritan origins and religion, which badly fit recent evidence from archaeology and epigraphy. A continuous and independent Yahvistic cult in Israel, from at least the Iron Age, a temple on Mt Gerizim from early in the Persian period, and a highly developed temple city on Mt Gerizim in the Hellenistic period, do notsustain paradigms about Samaritans as an “aberrant” branch of Judaism or the Samaritan Pentateuch as an off-shoot of a Jewish pre-Samaritan or proto-Masoretic Pentateuch.


2018 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 143-198
Author(s):  
Xenia Charalambidou

Naxos, the largest of the Cycladic islands, offers a nuanced insight into Iron Age funerary behaviour in the Cyclades and relations between social groups as reflected in the archaeological record. The focus of this paper is the cemetery of Tsikalario in the hinterland of the island, with emphasis on two burial contexts which exhibit a range of activities related to funerary ceremonies and the consumption of grave-offerings. The grave-tumuli found in the Tsikalario cemetery comprise a mortuary ‘phenomenon’ not found otherwise on Naxos during the Early Iron Age. Such a differentiation in mortuary practice can be interpreted as a strategy used by the people of inland Naxos to distinguish their funerary habits from the more typical Naxian practices of, for example, the inhabitants of the coastal Naxos harbour town. This distinctive funerary practice can speak in favour of an attempt by the kinship group(s) that buried their deceased in the cemetery of Tsikalario to articulate status and identity. Beyond these tumuli, evidence from a different type of grave context at Tsikalario – Cist Grave 11 and its vicinity (Burial Context 11) – offers an additional example of a well-thought-out staging of funerary beliefs in the inland region of Naxos. Not only does it illustrate the coexistence of other types of burials in the cemetery, but, alongside the tumuli and their finds, it also demonstrates, through the symbolic package of the grave-offerings and the multifaceted network of interactions they reveal, that inland Naxos participated in the intra- and supra-island circulation of wares and ideas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-272
Author(s):  
Anthony C. King

This paper is a survey of overall species counts from northern and central Hampshire sites, of Iron Age, Roman and early Saxon date, and their implications for chronological changes in animal husbandry and diet. Three zones, around Basingstoke, Andover, and central Hampshire, are compared with each other, and also with the Roman urban centres of Silchester and Winchester. The Andover region shows the greatest degree of continuity from Iron Age to Roman times and later, while the Basingstoke region has a pattern of change from sheep/goat dominated assemblages to ones with higher cattle numbers. This may be due to agricultural intensification, and an orientation of the animal economy in northern Hampshire more towards the Thames Valley and supply to Silchester, than an earlier 'Wessex pattern' more focussed on sheep and wool production.


Author(s):  
Maria Ntinou

Wood charcoal analysis at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia, Poros aims to provide information on the vegetation of the area and its management and on the range of plants used in the activities taking place at the sanctuary. During the excavations of 2003–2005 in Areas D and C, systematic samples from fills and features from all the excavated strata were recovered and water flotation was used for the separation of wood charcoal from the sediment. Wood charcoal was found in two pits dated to the Early Iron Age, near the supposed altar of the Archaic period (Feature 05), in a deposit of the Hellenistic period (the “dining deposit”), in floor deposits (Early Iron Age and Late Classical/Early Hellenistic periods), and fills of different chrono-cultural periods (Archaic–Early Roman). All the taxa identified in the wood charcoal assemblages are thermophilous Mediterranean elements, most of them evergreen broad-leaved. The assemblages show that the most frequent taxon is the olive, followed by the prickly oak, the Fabaceae, and the heather. In most assemblages mock privet/buckthorn, strawberry tree, the pear and Prunus family species are present, while Aleppo pine, lentisc, the fig, and the carob trees are less frequent. Olive cultivation was an important economic activity during the whole life of the sanctuary and probably olive pruning constantly provided the sanctuary with fuel. The woodland would be the additional source of firewood for the sanctuary’s needs for fuel for mundane activities such as heating and cooking, for more formal ones, such as sacrifice, but also for industrial activities such as tile firing. Activities related to the reorganization of space and the expansion of the sanctuary may be reflected in charcoal of carpentry by-products as the fir, cypress, and maybe pine remains.


Author(s):  
Matthew Suriano

The history of the Judahite bench tomb provides important insight into the meaning of mortuary practices, and by extension, death in the Hebrew Bible. The bench tomb appeared in Judah during Iron Age II. Although it included certain burial features that appear earlier in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, such as burial benches, and the use of caves for extramural burials, the Judahite bench tomb uniquely incorporated these features into a specific plan that emulated domestic structures and facilitated multigenerational burials. During the seventh century, and continuing into the sixth, the bench tombs become popular in Jerusalem. The history of this type of burial shows a gradual development of cultural practices that were meant to control death and contain the dead. It is possible to observe within these cultural practices the tomb as a means of constructing identity for both the dead and the living.


Author(s):  
Andrew Erskine

Plutarch wrote twenty-three Greek Lives in his series of Parallel Lives—of these, ten were devoted to Athenians. Since Plutarch shared the hostile view of democracy of Polybius and other Hellenistic Greeks, this Athenian preponderance could have been a problem for him. But Plutarch uses these men’s handling of the democracy and especially the demos as a way of gaining insight into the character and capability of his protagonists. This chapter reviews Plutarch’s attitude to Athenian democracy and examines the way a statesman’s character is illuminated by his interaction with the demos. It also considers what it was about Phocion that so appealed to Plutarch, first by looking at his relationship with the democracy and then at the way he evokes the memory of Socrates. For him this was not a minor figure, but a man whose life was representative of the problems of Athenian democracy.


Author(s):  
Nadine S. Rögner ◽  
Veronika Mall ◽  
Martin Steinhaus

AbstractAn odorant screening by gas chromatography–olfactometry (GC–O) and a crude aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) applied to the volatiles isolated from a light and a dark liquid malt extract (LME) by solvent extraction and solvent-assisted flavour evaporation (SAFE) identified 28 odorants. Fifteen major odorants were subsequently quantitated and odour activity values (OAVs) were calculated as ratio of the concentration to the respective odour threshold value (OTV). Important odorants in the light LME included 3-(methylsulfanyl)propanal (OAV 1500), (E)-β-damascenone (OAV 430), and 4-ethenyl-2-methoxyphenol (OAV 91). In the dark LME, sotolon (OAV 780), 3-(methylsulfanyl)propanal (OAV 550), (E)-β-damascenone (OAV 410), acetic acid (OAV 160), and maltol (OAV 120) were of particular importance. To get an insight into the changes during malt extract production, the quantitations were extended to the malt used as the starting material for both LMEs. Addition of a minor amount of water to malt before volatile extraction was shown to be effective to cover the free as well as the bound malt odorants. Results showed that some LME odorants originated from the starting material whereas others were formed during processing. Important process-induced LME odorants included (E)-β-damascenone and 4-ethenyl-2-methoxyphenol in the light LME as well as maltol, sotolon, (E)-β-damascenone, and 2-methoxyphenol in the dark LME. In summary, the odorant formation during LME production was shown to be more important than the transfer of odorants from the malt.


Koedoe ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Plug ◽  
Paul Skelton

Fish remains from Late Iron Age sites in the Transvaal are relatively scarce. It seems as if the people did not utilize the riverine resources extensively. Therefore the unique assemblage of large numbers of fish bones on a Late Iron Age site, provides some insight into the fish population of a section of the Letaba River a few hundred years ago. The presence of other faunal remains provides some information on prehistoric utilization of the environment in general. Hunting strategies and aspects of herding can also be deduced from the faunal remains.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Alfsdotter ◽  
Anna Kjellström

During excavations of the Iron Age ringfort of Sandby borg (ad 400–550), the remains of twenty-six unburied bodies were encountered inside and outside the buildings. The skeletons and the archaeological record indicate that after the individuals had died the ringfort was deserted. An osteological investigation and trauma analysis were conducted according to standard anthropological protocols. The osteological analysis identified only men, but individuals of all ages were represented. Eight individuals (31 per cent) showed evidence of perimortem trauma that was sharp, blunt, and penetrating, consistent with interpersonal violence. The location of the bodies and the trauma pattern appear to indicate a massacre rather than a battle. The ‘efficient trauma’ distribution (i.e. minimal but effective violence), the fact that the bodies were not manipulated, combined with the archaeological context, suggest that the perpetrators were numerous and that the assault was carried out effectively. The contemporary sociopolitical situation was seemingly turbulent and the suggested motive behind the massacre was to gain power and control.


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