Food, Economy, and Culture at Tel Dor, Israel: A Diachronic Study of Faunal Remains from 15 Centuries of Occupation Lidar Sapir-Hen, Guy Bar-Oz, Ilan Sharon, Ayelet Gilboa, and Tamar Dayan This paper presents the results of a study of the cultural and economic changes from a longue durée perspective as reflected in the animal remains from a nearly continuous occupation span- ning the early Iron Age through the Roman period at Tel Dor, a harbor town on Israel’s Car- mel coast. Such long-term zooarchaeological analyses are currently rare. Focusing on the choice of food, as well as on animal exploitation methods/strategies, the paper asks whether changes through time can be explained in economic or cultural terms, whether they can be correlated with changes in the site’s material culture, whether they reflect some change in the site’s population, or should be explained in terms of the adoption of new cultural norms. The results demonstrate that during a millennium and a half of Dor’s existence, there was very little change in most pat- terns of animal exploitation and consumption. The only apparent change was in the increase in pig remains between the early Iron Age and the Hellenistic and Roman periods. In view of the constancy in all other exploitation characteristics, and in light of other data from Dor, the paper suggests that this change does not reflect a change in the site’s population but rather the adoption of new norms. Introduction tion, excavated thoroughly and sampled systematically. In the southern Levant, studies of animal remains from he study of animal remains and their implica- the periods discussed here (Iron Age through Roman tions for elucidating diachronic changes of long period; see below) are being conducted in an ever- duration in a single site may provide us with accelerating pace and indeed have provided us with Timportant insights regarding economic and cultural valuable knowledge regarding the economies of these changes. Preconditions for such a study are adequate periods and occasionally also of specific cultural affini- faunal assemblages from a single central site, from ties. However, most zooarchaeological studies focus on well-defined contexts, representing continuous habita- a specific period (e.g., recently, Iron Age: Lev-Tov 2000; Maher 2005; Raban-Gerstal et al. 2008; Marom et al. 2009; Persian period: Sade 2006; Hellenistic period: Cope 2006; Roman period: Bar-Oz et al. 2007). Thus, to Lidar Sapir-Hen: Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv Univer- sity, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel, [email protected] Guy Bar-Oz: Zinman Institute of Archaeology, Uni- versity of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel, Ayelet Gilboa: Zinman Institute of Archaeology, [email protected] University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905, Ilan Sharon: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew Uni- [email protected] versity of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Tamar Dayan: Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, [email protected] Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel, [email protected] © 2014 American Schools of Oriental Research. BASOR 371 (2014): 83–101. 84 SAPIR-HEN ET AL. BASOR 371 date, discussions of possible long-term changes in fau- fragmented, and the choice of which body parts to con- nal assemblages and their economic and cultural impli- sume (Wapnish and Hesse 1988; Crabtree 1990; Zeder cations have per force been extremely limited. Several 1991; Lev-Tov 2003; O’Day, Van Neer, and Ervynck 2004; studies of the fauna of multilayered sites in Israel have Twiss 2007; deFrance 2009). been published, representing continuous occupations of We studied the faunal remains from the long se- these tells (e.g., recently Lachish in the Shephelah [Early quence of habitation at Tel Dor, a port town on Israel’s Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period: Croft 2004] Carmel coast, spanning the early Iron Age to the Late and Beth Shean in the Jordan Valley [Late Bronze Age Roman period, with one possible occupational gap (see through the Muslim period: Horwitz 2006], in addition below). During this time span, the world around Dor to one site in Jordan, Hesban [Bronze Age to Byzan- underwent fundamental changes, and Dor itself saw tine period: LaBianca and von den Driesch 1995]) and major transformations in its urban composition, the discussing aspects of the animal economy. Although function of the settlement, its political affiliation, for- the animal economy as reflected in the faunal remains eign domination, international relationships and, in is the focus of these studies, the discussion of cultural certain periods, possibly also in the composition of its implications of the economic changes in a diachronic inhabitants (see recent summaries in Gilboa and Sharon perspective is relatively limited. Our study stands out in [2008] for the Iron Age; Nitschke, Martin, and Shalev that it deals with these cultural implications, based on a [2011] for the Persian to Roman period).1 This (nearly) wealth of faunal remains, derived from good contexts, continuous occupation at Dor and the wealth of its fau- which were collected systematically and studied with a nal remains, coupled with modern systematic excava- unified research protocol. tion and collection methods (see below), make Dor one The composition of livestock and the ways of exploit- of the best-studied tells in the Levant and hence an ideal ing it (see below) and the site food and food system se- locus for this type of study. It presents a unique oppor- quence may also serve as a cultural indicator and may tunity to examine cultural and economic changes from shed light on social aspects (see Gumerman 1997; Mintz a long-term perspective, as gleaned through the prism and Du Bois 2002; Pearson 2003; Twiss 2007; 2012 and of animal bones. references therein). Apart from the immediate caloric It should be acknowledged at the outset that, in most value, the choice of what to eat may have symbolic and cases, bones are derived from secondary contexts and political-economic meanings and may even play a role cannot be used to identify functions of specific build- in social construction of memory (Montanari 2006; see ings and other activity areas (this situation is typical of review in Mintz and Du Bois 2002; Twiss 2012). Our stratified tells; Dor’s specific case is demonstrated and choice of food as well as the way we consume it have an discussed in Sapir-Hen et al. 2012). In addition, since important role in building individual and group iden- the bones originate from several close-by subareas in one tity (Pearson 2003). According to Mauss (1979: 97–123), part of the tell (see below), there is very little chance that differences among individuals and among societies will they will reveal possible patterns of intrasite variability. come into expression in “body techniques.” These “body We return to this issue in our discussion. techniques” are exemplified, for example, in the ways people prepare food, cook, and eat; hence, such a model A Brief Summary of the Tel Dor expects that the body techniques of immigrants or new Excavations and Sequence inhabitants may differ from local ones (see also Dietler 1996 and Bray 2003 for the reflection of these aspects in Tel Dor was first excavated in 1923–1924 by J. Gar- the “culinary equipment,” namely, the type of vessels). stang on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in In terms of the zooarchaeological finds, differences in Jerusalem. Most of the extant information regarding the habits are expected not only in the choice of what to eat mound (including zooarchaeological studies) derives, but also in the method of preparation for consumption however, from two long and systematic excavation ses- (see below; also Nyerges 2004; Stein 2012). Therefore, we sions: from 1980 to 2000, led by E. Stern of the Hebrew paid special attention to understanding the cultural deci- University, and from 2003 on, directed by A. Gilboa and sions of a site’s inhabitants regarding the choice of what I. Sharon. Although the town was established in the first to eat and how animals are exploited. The exploitation of half of the second millennium b.c.e., the earliest depos- animals can be inferred from a combination of several factors—for example, in the methods of processing and 1 A full bibliography of over 400 items is available at http://dor.huji. cooking the animals in preparation for consumption, by ac.il/bibliography.html, including annual interim reports for the rele- the location of butchery marks, the way body parts are vant excavation seasons at http://dor.huji.ac.il/reports.html. 2014 FOOD, ECONOMY, AND CULTURE AT TEL DOR, ISRAEL 85 its excavated systematically (to a very limited extent and constructed, serving the Neo-Assyrian administration only in Area G in the center of the mound) date to the (Ir2c).2 end of the Late Bronze (LB IIB), the 13th century b.c.e. Following a partial or complete abandonment of In the early Iron Age, a new town was established, the site after the Assyrian withdrawal around the mid- which rapidly spread to occupy the entire extent of the seventh century b.c.e. and through the sixth century, tell—about 8 ha. From its inception, it was densely built the site is reoccupied sometime around 480–450 b.c.e. and fortified. The early Iron Age sequence has been Both the primary Phoenician sources (e.g., the Esh- divided into four main chronological horizons—Ir1a munazar sarcophagus inscription) and Greek histori- (terminating in a site-wide destruction), Ir1b, the Ir1|2 ans and geographers (e.g., “Pseudo-Scylax”) agree that transition, and Ir2a (Gilboa and Sharon 2003; with fur- Dor is a Phoenician town at this phase (again), and a ther subdivisions that do not concern us here).