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UC Berkeley Postprints UC Berkeley Postprints Title Measuring Local Diversity in Early Iron Age Animal Economies: A View from Khirbat al- Mudayna al-‘Aliya (Jordan) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5d25c95x Authors Lev-Tov, Justin Porter, Benjamin W. Routledge, Bruce Publication Date 2011 DOI 10.5615/bullamerschoorie.361.0067 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Measuring Local Diversity in Early Iron Age Animal Economies: A View from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʿAliya (Jordan) Justin S. E. Lev-Tov Benjamin W. Porter Statistical Research, Inc. Department of Near Eastern Studies 21 W. Stuart Avenue University of California, Berkeley Redlands, CA 92374 240 Barrows Hall, #1940 [email protected] Berkeley, CA 94720 [email protected] Bruce E. Routledge School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology Hartley Building Brownlow Street University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 3GS, United Kingdom [email protected] We use faunal evidence from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʿAliya, an agropastoral settle- ment located in west-central Jordan, to examine early Iron Age subsistence regimes. Analysis of faunal evidence reveals a low-intensity, nonspecialized animal economy de- pendent on both domesticated and wild species, including freshwater crabs. The sub- sistence economy of the settlement, we argue, was structured so as to take maximum advantage of its location overlooking the Wadi al-Nukhayla, a perennial water source supporting a relatively verdant floral and faunal array. This diverse and flexible organ- ization made subsistence in this resource-scarce environment more sustainable. When this profile is compared with other early Iron Age southern Levantine communities, the diversity of ways that animal economies were organized during this period is apparent, signaling the need to investigate the local strategies that communities used to adapt to their immediate environmental circumstances, not only ecologically but also socially. s in many parts of the world (see deFrance tions traditionally asked by biblical archaeologists. 2009), the zooarchaeology of post-Neolithic At the same time, ideology and identity demarcated a A communities in the southern Levant has topic where evidence from the southern Levant gen- tended to focus on issues of social complexity, particu- erated immediate global interest, due to the region’s larly political economy, status, and ideology/identity. historical link to three major world religions. By and Indeed, the growth of interest in the zooarchaeology large, this marriage of global and traditional interests of early Iron Age communities in the southern Le- has been positive, if only for its role in promoting the vant since the 1980s can be credited directly to one of serious collection and analysis of faunal assemblages these themes—namely, ideology/identity. Analysis of from historic-period settlements. However, this suc- the ideological use of animals (e.g., in ritual sacrifice), cess has come at a price—namely, the prioritizing of and the relationship between diet and collective iden- group identity in explaining diversity within and be- tity (e.g., pork consumption), fit well with the ques- tween early Iron Age faunal assemblages. In contrast, 67 68 LEV-TOV, PORTER, AND ROUTLEDGE BASOR 361 a comparison of recent zooarchaeological studies (e.g., huber and Roberts 2009; Gitin, Mazar, and Stern Lev-Tov 2006; Raban-Gerstel et al. 2008; Marom et al. 1998; Ward and Joukowsky 1992), their effects are 2009) suggests that early Iron Age faunal assemblages visible in the archaeological record: the collapse of can show a high degree of inter-settlement variability palace economies, the migration of groups between best explained in terms of localized subsistence strate- regions, and the intensification of settlement in areas gies and environmental adaptations. In this paper, we previously limited or lacking in population. Due to illustrate the importance of such local adaptations in the collapse of international commercial networks and early Iron Age subsistence practices using the faunal the decline in demand for finished goods and luxury assemblage from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʿAliya (here- items, early Iron Age economies experienced a reor- after KMA), an early Iron Age settlement located on ganization that emphasized meeting local subsistence the semiarid eastern margins of west-central Jordan. needs rather than market demand. This shift to a lim- KMA (Routledge 2000; 2004: 96–108; Routledge ited and local subsistence economy is reflected in the and Porter 2007) was one of several small agropasto- many small and medium-sized settlements that have ralist communities founded in the 11th century b.c.e. been surveyed and excavated across the region (e.g., in west-central Jordan and abandoned after no more Miller 2003). Excavated evidence indicates that these than a century of occupation. These settlements were settlements often depended on naturally available lo- located in a semiarid zone with limited precipitation cal resources to organize low-intensity agropastoral levels and poor soil quality. The analysis of excavated economies around grain production, viticulture, and faunal evidence reveals that the community organized animal husbandry at household and community levels a low-intensity, nonspecialized animal economy that (Hopkins 1985; Stager 1985). depended on both domesticated and wild species. Faunal assemblages recovered from early Iron Age When this profile is compared with published data settlements, like other archaeological and textual evi- from other early Iron Age southern Levantine settle- dence, have been used to distinguish among early Iron ments, the diversity of ways that animal economies Age ethnic groups (Finkelstein 1996; Hesse 1990; were organized during this period is apparent. These Faust 2006: 35–40; Killebrew 2005: 176, 219; but findings reaffirm the need for archaeologists to investi- cf. Hesse and Wapnish 1997). Early Iron Age Israel- gate the local strategies that communities use to adapt ite society, for example, is characterized as recently to their immediate environmental circumstances and settled agropastoralists living in villages in the Central avoid regional panoramic generalizations that do not Highlands north and south of modern Jerusalem, while account for synchronic diversity. the Philistines are characterized as urban agricultural producers and craftspeople living in the coastal plain early iron age animal economies: between Gaza and Tel Aviv (e.g., Dever 1995; Kille- trends and limitations brew 2005; Miller 2004; Stager 1998). The sugges- tion that ethnic differences should be apparent in the Comparatively speaking, the animal economies faunal evidence is strengthened by the Hebrew Bible’s of the early Iron Age southern Levant have seen ex- tendency to link subsistence practices with early Iron tensive investigation by zooarchaeologists. This at- Age ethnic groups—Canaanites, Israelites, Philis- tention is due, in part, to the search for data beyond tines, Moabites—that scholars believe were bounded the limited and problematic written sources (e.g., by discrete identities and practices, and expressed in the Hebrew Bible) used to reconstruct the time pe- the material record. Scholars combine these textual riod’s history and societies. The early Iron Age (the and artifactual representations of early Iron Age sub- 12th through early 10th centuries b.c.e.) throughout sistence practices with ethnographic categories con- the southern Levant is characterized as a period of structed from recently past and contemporary Middle gradual recovery following a period of political and Eastern societies (e.g., “nomads” and “pastoralists”) in economic upheavals unevenly experienced throughout order to help them interpret patterns in the archaeolog- the eastern Mediterranean and Near East at the end of ical evidence. These patterns, then, are sought in the the Late Bronze Age.1 Although scholars have long archaeological record and then linked to specific eth- debated the reasons for these upheavals (e.g., Bach- nic identities (e.g., Levy and Holl 2002; Levy 2008). While we are not interested here in passing judgment 1 See Bloch-Smith and Nakhai 1999 for an overview of the time on attempts to identify early Iron Age ethnic groups, period. we do argue that this rush to “read” ethnicity into sub- 2011 LOCAL DIVERSITY IN EARLY IRON AGE ANIMAL ECONOMIES 69 sistence strategies, and particularly, animal economies, seasons of mapping and excavation on various scales has analytical consequences. The first consequence (Routledge 2000; 2004: 96–108; 2008; Routledge and is that subsistence practices are often characterized Porter 2007). The settlement is positioned in a semi- only by the relative abundance of a particular animal arid zone, falling between the 100 and 300 mm iso- type (e.g., pigs). A second consequence is that static hyets (el-Sherbini 1979: 174, table 2), and therefore categories are created that do not represent how com- receives only the minimum amount of precipitation plex such strategies likely were in antiquity. Societies needed to practice rain-fed agriculture.2 The yellow are described as being, or becoming, either nomadic Mediterranean and yellow steppic soils surrounding or sedentary, pastoralist or farmer, hunter or herder, the settlement make agricultural production difficult, when in fact, the evidence suggests that a combina- as compared with the red Mediterranean soils to the tion of these labels and a variety of herding
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