Life on the Periphery, Life at the Crossroads: A Zooarchaeological Perspective on Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Animal Utilization at Kinet Höyük (Turkey). by Radovan Kabatiar A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto © Copyright by Radovan Kabatiar 2017 Life on the Periphery, Life at the Crossroads: A Zooarchaeological Perspective on Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Animal Utilization at Kinet Höyük (Turkey). Radovan Kabatiar Doctor of Philosophy Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto 2017 Abstract This study examines faunal skeletal remains from Kinet Höyük, a small harbour site in the Plain of Issos in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean. The faunal material in this study covers the period of approximately six and a half centuries in the long history of the site, spanning from the Late Bronze Age I through Late Bronze Age II, when the site was under Hittite control, and ends with the Early Iron Age. It aims to contribute to the growing body of environmental studies helping to understand and reconstruct events that mark the collapse of Late Bronze Age polities, and the following era of transformation and formation of new political and geographical entities. Based on the analysis of nearly 35,000 animal bones, I argue that the local population continued occupation of the site and adjusted their subsistence strategies to the changing geopolitical, economic and climatic conditions, despite a decline observed toward the end of the Late Bronze Age, and that the modifications seen in animal husbandry and exploitation of wild fauna reflect a period of hardship, rather than influx of new settlers. This thesis also represents the first major report on the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age faunal remains from Kinet Höyük, and it revises conclusions drawn from the very preliminary data published previously. Legal, administrative, ritual and economic texts ii dealing with the treatment and purchase of animals or animal products, known mainly from the Late Bronze Age Hittite archives and from a limited number of texts dated to the earlier phases of the Iron Age, are also examined in light of the results of this zooarchaeological analysis. This unconventional interdisciplinary approach yielded some interesting insights, and offered a novel perspective on both the bioarchaeological and textual materials from this eventful period in the history of the eastern Mediterranean. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Tim Harrison for helping me navigate through my doctoral studies and especially for his guidance, advice, and support while I was trying to complete this ambitious research project. I am indebted to Doç. Dr. Marie-Henriette Gates, the director of the Kinet Höyük Archaeological Project at Bilkent University (Ankara), who entrusted me with the analysis of this large and immensely important faunal skeletal assemblage and greatly helped during my many research trips to Turkey. I cannot thank enough to Prof. Salima Ikram for introducing me to the study of animal bones and guiding me through my first attempts at faunal remains analysis while working at Kinet Höyük as her assistant. I am also grateful to Prof. Canan Ҫakırlar who helped me with preliminary analysis of fish bones and shells in the early stages of my research. This project would not be possible without the tireless work and dedication of the many workers, students, and scholars who participated in the excavations and helped to retrieve the osteological material. Then, I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Max Friesen who has always been an excellent instructor and a patient mentor, who helped me to crack all the methodological issues and also facilitated access to the zooarchaeology lab and its comparative skeletal collection in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. I am grateful to fellow zooarchaeologist Dr. David Lipovitch for the endless talks about bones over dinners and coffees, and also for sharing some faunal data from his work at Tell Tayinat. My thanks also go to the external reader Prof. Evangelia Pişkin and Prof. Heather Baker for their positive comments and suggestions about the final draft of my dissertation. I would have never understood any of the statistics without the generous help of Dejana Nikitovic who has been an amazing friend and colleague from day one, always ready for a long walk and talk about skeletons. I also wish to acknowledge the advice and support offered by the archaeologists and osteologists I met during my studies in Toronto, in particular Debra Foran, Bonnie Glencross, Steve Batiuk, and Stanley Klassen. I need also to include the administrative and managerial staff in our department, namely Anna Sousa, Sandra Bremner, Maria Leonor Vivona as well as our former staff Jennie Jones and Megan Tate. I am grateful for your hard work, for keeping an eye on all the paperwork iv and deadlines, and for offering kind words and big hugs during the challenging moments of my doctoral studies. And finally, I would like to thank my family and my friends, old and new, who cheered for me from the sidelines, provided endless supply of dark chocolate and cookies, and most importantly, believed in me through all those years. I am truly blessed and grateful for having you in my life. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv List of Figures ix List of Charts xi List of Appendices xii Introduction 1 1 Historical and Zooarchaeological Background 7 1.1 Site History, Location, and Explorations 7 1.2 Review of Previous Zooarchaeological Publications and Ancient Textual Sources 15 1.3 Zooarchaeological Research at Kinet Höyük: Late Bronze and Iron Ages 21 2 Species Diversity and Frequency 23 2.1 Excavation Process and Collection of Animal Bones 23 2.2 Species Identification 24 2.3 Quantification Methods 25 2.4 Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Fauna at Kinet Höyük 28 2.4.1 Species Diversity and Frequency in Period 15 28 2.4.2 Species Diversity and Frequency in Transitional Phase T 15/14 30 2.4.3 Species Diversity and Frequency in Period 14 32 2.4.4 Species Diversity and Frequency in Transitional Phase T 14/13.1 33 2.4.5 Species Diversity and Frequency in Period 13.1 35 2.4.6 Species Diversity and Frequency in Period 13.2 37 2.4.7 Species Diversity and Frequency in Transitional Phase T 13.2/12 39 2.4.8 Species Diversity and Frequency in Period 12 41 2.5 Discussion 44 2.5.1 Domestic Mammals: Horses, Donkeys and Other Equids 44 2.5.2 Domestic Mammals: Cattle 46 2.5.3 Domestic Mammals: Sheep, Goat, and Pig 47 2.5.4 Wild Mammals: Deer Species and other Herbivores/Omnivores 48 2.5.5 Wild Mammals: Carnivores 51 2.5.6 Small Wild Mammals: Hares, Rodents, and Moles 54 2.5.7 Reptiles 55 2.5.8 Birds 56 2.5.9 Fish 56 2.5.10 Molluscs 58 2.6 Concluding Observations 58 vi 3 Dietary Contribution 60 3.1 Methods 60 3.2 Dietary Contribution 63 3.2.1 Species and Adult Live Weight – Domestic Fauna 65 3.2.2 Species and Adult Live Weight – Wild Fauna 68 3.3 Meat Yield Estimates 71 3.4 Discussion 79 3.4.1 Domestic Species 79 3.4.2 Deer 85 3.4.3 Birds 87 3.4.4 Molluscs and Reptiles 88 3.5 Concluding Remarks 91 4 Age and Slaughter Patterns 92 4.1 Methodology 93 4.2 Cattle 98 4.2.1. Discussion on Cattle Slaughter Profiles 101 4.3 Domestic Pig 103 4.4 Sheep 107 4.5 Goat 111 4.6 Comparison of the Individual Slaughter Patterns for Sheep and Goat 115 4.7 Sheep/Goat Slaughter Pattern for Indistinguishable Specimens 119 4.8 Conclusion 121 5 Sex and Size Determination 124 5.1 Methods – Sex Determination 124 5.2 Methods – Withers Height Calculation 131 5.3 Sex and Size of Domestic Mammals at Kinet Höyük 132 5.3.1 Pig – Sex Determination 132 5.3.2 Cattle – Sex Determination 135 5.3.3 Cattle – Withers Height 140 5.3.4 Sheep and Goat - Sex Determination 142 5.3.5 Sheep and Goat - Size Determination 147 5.4 Concluding Observations 149 6 Butchering Practices 151 6.1 Cut Marks on Bones of Wild Fauna 152 6.2 Cut Marks on Bones of Domestic Fauna 156 6.2.1 Cut marks on Cattle Remains 158 6.2.1.1 Discussion and Reconstruction of Cattle Butchery 164 vii 6.2.2 Cut Marks on Sheep and Goat Bones 169 6.2.2.1 Discussion of Sheep and Goat Butchering Methods: General Comments 183 6.2.2.2 Discussion of Sheep and Goat Butchering Methods: Forelimb 186 6.2.2.3 Discussion of Sheep and Goat Butchering Methods: Hindlimb 189 6.2.3 Cut Marks on Bones of Domestic Pig 192 6.2.4 Textual Source Related to butchering of Domestic Mammals 195 7 Other Modifications of Faunal Remains 202 7.1 Gnawing 202 7.2 Thermal Alteration 204 7.3 Fragmentation 207 7.4 Concluding Remarks about Bone Alterations 213 8 Non-dietary Utilization of Animals 216 8.1 Non-dietary Utilization of Domestic Species 216 8.1.1 Non-dietary Use of Donkeys, Horses, Mules and other Equids 217 8.1.2 Non-dietary Use of Cattle 219 8.1.3 Non-dietary Use of Sheep and Goat 222 8.1.4 Non-dietary Use of Domestic Pigs 224 8.1.5 Non-dietary Use of Domestic Dogs 225 8.2 Non-dietary Utilization of Wild Fauna 228 8.2.1 Non-dietary Use of Deer Species 228 8.2.2 Non-dietary Use of Birds 231 8.2.3 Non-dietary Use of Molluscs 232 8.2.4 Non-dietary Use of Fish 240 9 Kinet Höyük within the Anatolian and Eastern Mediterranean Realm 245 9.1 Kinet Höyük and Other Sites in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages 245 9.2 Sheep and Goat Herding 247 9.3 Cattle Herding 252 9.4 Pig Herding 255 9.5 Equid Remains 258 9.6 Utilization of Domestic Dogs 261 9.7 Summary of Observations 262 Conclusions and Future Directions 266 Bibliography 273 Appendices 292 viii List of Figures Fig.