#EAA2023

Описание: Presentation for the annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists at Belfast for the session "Transitions in Iron Age Europe: Environment and Foodways." September 2nd, 2023.

Abstract:
While the iconographic and textual evidence for animals in the historical Greek world is well-trodden, the evidence from animal bones and biomolecular evidence from animal teeth on the island of Crete provide a new perspective on animals and humans in the first millennium BCE. After the end of the Bronze Age, the faunal record suggests a shift away from
sheep to goat management in eastern Crete, likely as an adaptation to a drying climate in the drier regions of the island. This taxonomic shift in the zooarchaeological record is complemented by evidence for various animal management strategies evident from sequential isotope analysis: pasturing, foddering, and seasonal mobility are all evident. These various strategies relate to the management of animals consumed both in houses and in larger civic feasts, and they provide new detail to the socioeconomy of city-states that develop across the island in the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods.

Thanks to:

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport for permission to conduct the analysis.
The European Commission and Cardiff University for providing funding for the research.
The Azoria Project directed by Donald Haggis and especially all the students on the project who helped with excavation and processing of faunal remains, as well as Margie Scarry, Peggy Mook, and Rod Fitzsimons, Melissa Eaby, and Jonida Martini.
Jonida Martini, Noemi Ruberti, and several Cardiff University who helped sample the materials.
Collaboration with Sandra Nederbragt who processed the isotope samples.
The staff and students at the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, including Takis Karkanas, Dimitri Michailidis, and Zoe Chalatsi.
The staff at the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, Study Center at East Crete.

My patrons on Patreon whose support in 2021 and 2022 helped fund the isotope analysis of additional specimens from the site of Azoria. Feel free to support me at   / flintdibble  

Keywords: archaeology, Crete, zooarchaeology, ancient animals, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, isotope analysis, animal husbandry, ancient Greek sacrifice, ancient Greece