Animal exploitation in the Upper Tigris River valley (Turkey) between the 3rd and the 1st millennia BC Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Mathematisch‐Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Christian‐Albrechts‐Universität zu Kiel vorgelegt von Rémi Jean‐Paul Berthon Kiel, 2011 Referent: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Müller Korreferent: Prof. Dr. Cheryl Makarewicz Korreferent : Dr. Marjan Mashkour Date of the oral examination: 10.10.2011 Date of the printed manuscript: 12.12.2011 Dean Kiel, 13.07.2011, Hiermit erkläre ich, Rémi Berthon, geboren am 10.12.1982 in Annemasse (Frankreich), dass diese Abhandlung nach Inhalt und Form meine eigene Arbeit ist. Beiträge von anderen als meiner Person wurden deutlich als solche hervorgehoben. Diese Arbeit wurde weder im Ganzen noch in Teilen einer anderen Stelle im Rahmen eines Prüfungsverfahrens zur Begutachtung vorgelegt, veröffentlicht oder zur Veröffentlichung eingereicht. Die Regeln guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft wurden bei der Entstehung dieser Arbeit eingehalten. Rémi Berthon Acknowledgements Three years ago I was imagining the dissertation as a single‐handed yacht race. I realize now that I would have never been able to complete it whitout the support of many people. It is my pleasure to thank them all here. I am very thankful to my supervisor Prof. Dr. U Müller who supported my studies in Kiel. I have been able to reach this stage of research thanks to Dr. M. Mashkour who provides me with advices, comments, criticisms and stong support since I looked at my first animal bone. I also want to thank Dr. E. Vila, Prof. Dr. C. Makarewicz, Prof. Dr. R. Duttmann, PD Dr. D. Heinrich and Dr. U. Schmölcke who accepted to take part in various stages of my PhD committee. My research greatly benefited from the wonderful human, scientific and material facilities provided by the Graduated School “Human Development in Landscapes”. I thank its coordinator, Prof. Dr. J. Müller, the scientific coordinators PD Dr. M. Weinelt and Prof. Dr. O. Nelle, and all the academic staff. Each member of the Graduate School provided me with valuable support. I would like to thank in particular F. Bauer who rescued my computer in several occasions and R. Colunge who is the guardian angel of all the PhD students of the Graduate School. My research started in Paris in the UMR 7209 at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. I thank Dr. J.D. Vigne, Dr. M. Mashkour, K. Debue and all the other members of the team who continued to support my research after my departure for Kiel. In the Zoological Institute of the CAU, I had access to a nice working place and a wonderful osteological collection thanks to Prof. Dr. G. Hartl, R. Lücht, PD Dr. F. Zachos, H. Luttmann and J. Oesert. The study of the material and the exportation of part of it to France and Germany has been possible thanks to the kind permission of the Kültür Varlıkları ve Müzeler Genel Müdürlüğü of the Republic of Turkey and the support in particular of Ms. Nevin Soyukaya, Director of the Diyarbakır Archaeology Museum. I am grateful to the excavations directors who gave me access to the faunal remains and to their entire team for their support. At Kavuşan Höyük, Prof. Dr. G. Kozbe kindly proposed me to study the faunal remains. I thank Bahar, Selin, Irem, Özcan and all the team members for their help in the field and in the laboratory at the Ege University in Izmir. At Giricano I thank PD Dr. A. Schachner and P. Bartl. The material was made available to me in Münich thanks to Prof. Dr. Joris Peters, Dr. H. Obermaier and B. Möllenkamp. Although I did not study any material from Ziyaret Tepe in the frame of my PhD, I received valuable support from Prof. Dr. T. Matney and Dr. L. Rainville. I would like also to thank Prof. Dr. H. Greenfield and T. Greenfield who kindly shared their data with me. At Kenan Tepe, Ass. Prof. B. Parker and Dr. L. Swartz Dodd kindly provided me with faunal remains from the Middle Bronze Age layers. At Müslümantepe I received the support from Y.Doç.Dr. E. Ay, Arş.Gör. C.M. Tarhan and Y.Doç.Dr. Z.A. Ay and their students. At Hirbemerdon I had the pleasure to work in the field with Dr. N. Laneri, Ass. Prof. M. Schwartz, Ass. Prof. J Ur, Dr. S. Valentini, Dr. A. D’Agostino and E. Hammer. 1 I worked in Türbe Höyük thanks to the invitation of Yard. Doç. Dr. H. Sağlamtimur. I thank Öğr. Gör. Dr. A. Uhri, Ezgi, Fatoş, Burak, Koray, Ali, Derya, Hayrı, Mert, Aylan and all the team members. This research has been financially supported by the Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’ at the Christian‐Albrechts‐Universität of Kiel. I received also additionnal financial support from the UMR 7209 ‘Archéozoologie et Archéobotanique’ at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris and from the Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes in Istanbul. I will not forget the friendly support I received from my friends in Kiel, specially my colleagues of the Graduate School. For their presence in the difficult times and for their ability to solve problems with beers and sausages I thank Andrea, Michael, Kemal, Hermann, Ingo, Julia, Steffie, Philipp, David, Marta, Daniela, Silvia, Torben, Annegret, Josh, Ben, Vincent, Karina, Katerina, Anja, Martin, Hannes, Uta, Şafak, Christoph, Tim, Bettina, Daniel, Rouven, Nelly, Gianni and Sarah. I thank in particular Anja Prust for the last minute help with the German language. Even out of sight, my friends were always present when I needed them, thank you Céline, Julien, Sylvain, Tú, Francelin, Claire and Nicolas. My parents and my sister always gave my the freedom to take my own decisions and supported me in all occasions. They took part in each step of this adventure without complaining even during the long‐distancehouse moving and the late hour proof reading. My grand‐father showed me what steadfastness is. Sophie, you were with me in every moment. You know how much your presence helped me to go through the difficult times. This work is nourished with your support. 2 Abstract The prehistory and ancient history of the Upper Tigris River valley (in southern Turkey) was poorly known until recently, due to a lack of archaeological researches. Since the last decade, numerous research projects are taking place in this area in order to document the cultural heritage which will be flooded by the lake of the Ilısu Dam in a near future. Despite the recent growth of archaeological investigations between the cities of Bismil and Siirt, many important fields of research haven’t been targeted yet. It is the case for one of the main socioeconomic components of ancient societies: the exploitation of resources from animal origin. This large field of research encompasses many issues related to, among others, the use of the landscape, the economic system and the existence of cultural constraints. In order to answer these questions, the faunal remains from seven settlements were studied. These sites are located on the banks of the Tigris, Botan and Bitlis Rivers. Assemblages were selected from layers dated from the 3rd to the 1st millennia BC. This chronological range has the advantage to be represented in all the selected sites. It was also a period of rapid changes in the political background of the region, with well‐defined economic and cultural entities. The study of the faunal remains enables to compare all these settlements in terms of subsistence strategies and socioeconomic choices. It appeared that a diversity of animal exploitation patterns existed in all the chronological phases considered. Besides the exploitation of the main domestic mammals such as cattle, pig and sheep and goat, the exploitations of red deer and equid were important variables. It is argued here that this variability is related to peculiar choices made by the communities inhabiting these settlements. Depending on the period, these choices seem to have been influenced by local environmental conditions on one hand and economic specializations on another hand. The variability in the patterns of animal exploitation should be taken into account when the issue of subsistence strategy is discussed at an inter‐regional scale. Indeed, the Upper Tigris area, and especially the small rural settlements studied here, shows a picture much less homogeneous than expected. It is also argued that small settlements embedded in a rural environment should be also studied beside the main large urban settlements. These smaller settlements played an important role in the socioeconomic complexity of the Bronze and Iron Age. Finally, it is argued that small faunal assemblages have a great analytical value when they are studied by the same researcher in order to increase the possibility to compare them with each other. Considering several assemblages together, as it is possible in case of large‐scale salvage programs, enables, with the help of multivariate analyses, to confirm the reliability of the patterns observed. 3 Zusammenfassung Augrund fehlender archäologischer Forschungen sind die Frühgeschichte und die antike Vergangenheit des Oberen Tigristals (in der Südtürkei) bis heute wenig bekannt. In den vergangenen 10 Jahren wurden viele Projekte in diesem Gebiet unternommen, um das kulturelle Erbe dieser Region zu dokumentieren, welche künftig vom Ilısu‐Staudamm überflutet wird. Trotz der zunehmenden archäologischen Untersuchungen zwischen den Städten Bismil und Siirt, wurden einige wichtige Forschungsfelder kaum berücksichtigt, so auch die sozioökonomischen Faktoren früher Gesellschaften: die Nutzung von Ressourcen tierischen Ursprungs. Dieses Thema beinhaltet die Aspekte der Landschaftsnutzung, dem Wirtschaftssystem und der kulturellen Eigenheiten. Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen wurden Faunenreste aus archäologischen Grabungen in sieben Siedlungen an den Ufern der Flüsse Tigris, Botan und Bitlis untersucht. Die Materialsammlungen stammen aus Schichten, die vom 3.