Herding and Feasting at Halaf Domuztepe: Zooarchaeological and Biogeochemical Data

Introduction

This project examines zooarchaeological and isotopic indicators of ancient peoples' animal management practices at the late Neolithic site of Domuztepe (6000-5450 cal. BCE). Located in southeastern Turkey's Kahramanmaraş Province, excavations at the site provide an important record of lifeways during the Halaf Period (6100-5200 cal. BCE). More information about the site, including excavation notes and primary data records, can be viewed here.

This study examines ancient peoples’ mobility and their cooperation in resource production during the Halaf period and its relevance for understanding emergent social complexity in the Ancient Near East. Zooarchaeological data — animal bones recovered from archaeological contexts — reveal how ancient people incorporated animals into their economies as sources of primary and secondary products, and as forms of material and symbolic wealth. Isotopic data derived from zooarchaeological specimens permit the examination of ancient animals’ mobility and diets, which provide proxy data for ancient herders’ mobility and animal management choices. Using data from both zooarchaeological analyses and analyses of radiogenic strontium and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes derived from zooarchaeological teeth specimens from domesticated animals, this project evaluates social and economic cooperation and coordination among participants in both daily subsistence activities and in large-scale communal feasting events at Domuztepe. These data reveal people's choices regarding how they structured their pastoral economy on a day-to-day basis, and attest to periodic communal events that brought large groups of people together, offering them the opportunity to interact and for changes in social relationships to occur.

Assemblages and Connections to Other Analyses at Domuztepe

The excavations of late Neolithic strata at Domuztepe yielded considerable quantities of animal bones that can derive from ancient peoples’ daily consumption practices, as well as feasting. The complete faunal assemblage at Domuztepe can be subdivided into four sub-assemblages:

1. The Quotidian Assemblage is the aggregate zooarchaeological assemblage from primary and secondary midden and floor deposits. This was analyzed by Sarah Whitcher Kansa.
2. The Ditch Assemblage is the earliest feasting assemblage at the site. It is composed of a series of discrete pits in a spatially segregated portion of the site. This assemblage was primarily analyzed by Hannah Lau, with some analytic work by Sarah Whitcher Kansa.
3. The Death Pit Assemblage is the second feasting assemblage. It is the remains of a single large feasting event. Faunal remains from this assemblage were analyzed by Sarah Whitcher Kansa. Human remains were analyzed by Suellen Gauld.
4. The third feasting assemblage is the Operation III Assemblage, a large concentration of faunal remains that stem from participants’ repeated disposal of refuse from feasting in a localized area. This assemblage was primarily analyzed by Sarah Whitcher Kansa, with some analytic work by Hannah Lau.

Primary zooarchaeological data from assemblages analyzed by Sarah Whitcher Kansa can be viewed here.

Methodological Notes

Zooarchaeological Methods

This assemblage was recorded following procedures employed by Sarah Whitcher Kansa on other assemblages from Domuztepe. Each specimen (identifiable and unidentifiable) was uniquely observed and recorded.

Measurements and tooth wear are recorded following:

Grant, Annie

Payne, Sebastian

von den Driesch, Angela

Whitcher, Sarah

In this project I compared zooarchaeological analyses completed by myself and Sarah Whitcher Kansa (Kansa 2010). In order to ensure the comparability of data produced by two researchers we made explicit choices about how to record material, what criteria we would use differentiate among morphologically similar genera sheep and goat, and how to construct derived quantitative metrics. For specimens I found difficult to identify, I either photographed them or brought them to Sarah Whitcher Kansa to discuss jointly. We also completed an interanalyst variation study in order to identify any systemic biases in our analyses.

For a more complete discussion of methods employed in this study see Lau 2016.

Biogeochemical Methods

All samples were prepared for analysis at Arizona State University’s Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory, directed by Dr. Kelly J. Knudson, and followed standard protocols employed there. Radiogenic strontium samples were analyzed at A.S.U.’s W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry (Drs. Ariel Anbar and Everett Shock, directors). Stable oxygen and carbon samples were analyzed at Northern Arizona University’s Colorado Plateau Stable Isotope Laboratory (Dr. Bruce Hungate, director).

Data Records

Forthcoming data records will include zooarchaeological primary data from the Ditch and Operation III, biogeochemical data from all four late Neolithic zooarchaeological assemblages at Domuztepe, and images of specimens sampled for biogeochemical analyses.

Related Publications

Lau, Hannah

Campbell, Stuart, Sarah Whitcher Kansa, Rachel Bichener and Hannah Lau

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (#BCS-1419298 with Dr. Elizabeth Carter), as well as a financial support from UCLA’s Graduate Division (Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, 2011 and Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2015) and UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology (Steinmetz Fund Grant 2012, 2014). My sincere thanks go to Dr. Elizabeth Carter (University of California, Los Angeles) and Stuart Campbell (University of Manchester) for permission to work on these assemblages, as well as to Sarah Whitcher Kansa (Alexandria Archive Institute) for her guidance and collaboration. Thank you also to the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums in Ankara and Ahmet Denizhanoğullari, Director of the Kahramanmaraş Museum for their assistance. I am also very grateful for the laboratory access to the directors of ASU’s Archaoelogical Chemistry Laboratory and W.M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry, and the NAU Colorado Plateau Stable Isotope Laboratory.