Continuity and Change in Upland South Subsistence Practices -- The Gibbs House in Knox County, Tennessee

This report concerns the faunal remains excavated from the Gibbs House Site in Knox County, Tennessee. This site was excavated by Dr. Charles H. Faulkner of the University of Tennessee in five field seasons between 1987 and 1991. The animal bones were examined at the University of Tennessee, Department of Anthropology\u27s Zooarchaeology Laboratory. Faunal remains were excavated from a number of deposits that dated from the late eighteenth century up to the turn of the nineteenth century. The total assemblage was divided into, early, middle, and late period samples in order to examine changes in diet over time. The largest sample, made up of 3,310 bones, dated to the late eighteenth century. The second faunal sample from this site dated to the early nineteenth century, but comprised only 535 bones. The third assemblage was slightly larger, with a total of 569 bones. The latter collection was from mid-to-late nineteenth century contexts. Species represented in the assemblages did not change very much over time, nor did their relative importance. Pigs were far and away the most important species in all time periods, followed by cattle and chickens. Domestic mammals were dominant even in the frontier period assemblage. Native fauna incorporated into the Gibbs\u27 diet included, among others, white-tailed deer, squirrels, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, and Canada geese. Wild animals played a small role in this dietary strategy; from the early to the late times native fauna always made up only about 10 percent of the identified species. Butchering methods remained very similar over most of the time represented by the deposits, but did change around the tum of the nineteenth century. Similarly, dumping patterns remained similar in character over much of the time, but were altered late in the nineteenth century

Pigs, Philistines, and the Ancient Animal Economy of Ekron from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age II

The assemblage of animal bones recovered from the excavation area of Field I at the site of Tel Miqne-Ekron, located in Israel, is the subject of this dissertation. This site has been identified as the ancient city of Ekron, one of the Philistine cities. The faunal remains from Ekron can be divided into three main parts, bones recovered from the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age I, or Iron Age II strata of the site. Research questions relevant to these three time periods were formulated for each corpus of animal bones. The theme which ties these subdivisions together is world systems theory, such that the animal economy of Ekron is framed in terms of the development and evolution of a Mediterranean world economy. The Late Bronze Age in the southern Levant is notable for the presence there of an Egyptian administration. Faunal remains from Tel Miqne-Ekron\u27s Late Bronze Age levels were analyzed to examine the extent of Egyptian influence on the economy of Canaan. That is to say, was the Egyptian administration of Canaan pervasive enough to affect the staple goods economy of the region during this period? Examination of the faunal data produced no evidence that the town\u27s economy was anything but provincial, an agricultural strategy aimed at providing for only local needs, and not external demands for trade and tribute. The Iron Age I was the historical period in which the Philistines emerged as a powerful military and political entity in Canaan. Animal bones derived from Iron Age I deposits were identified and analyzed for the degree to which the Philistine diet reflected an ethnically distinct foodway related to Aegean dietary preferences. In addition, the data was examined in terms of how the animal economy fit into the larger picture of trans-Mediterranean trade. Although there are unique components to the faunal assemblage of Iron Age I Ekron, most notably an abundance of pig bones, the diet was not definitively Aegean in character. These results do not negate the possibility of a Philistine migration from the Aegean or elsewhere, but do argue that abundant pig bones should not be used as ethnic markers. Swine agriculture in the Ancient Near East may have been affected by a variety of circumstances, among them the degree to which local Levantine city economies were governed by foreign imperial polities. In eras of foreign rule over the Levant, pig use was generally low, while the opposite is true for times of independence, as was characteristic of the Iron Age I. The Iron Age II was a time of expanding territorial states, and Ekron in that period came under the political control of a series of foreign powers, most notably the Neo-Assyrian Empire. As with the Late Bronze Age, the primary research agenda for this portion of the faunal assemblage was to determine the extent to which these imperial states penetrated and developed a Mediterranean world economy. In contrast to the Egyptian administration in the Late Bronze Age, the succession of states and especially the Neo-Assyrian Empire did penetrate the staple economy of Ekron such that animal production strategies were changed. Among other economic changes correlated with the advent of the Neo-Assyrian Empire\u27s expansion into Philistia, sheep were favored over goats, cattle were heavily employed in traction activities, and pigs nearly disappeared from the diets of Ekron\u27s population. Using the diachronic changes visible in the faunal assemblage excavated at Tel Miqne-Ekron as an example, it is possible to trace the non-linear development of a Mediterranean world system from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age II. Although Egypt was already a territorial state and an empire by the Late Bronze Age, the faunal remains from Ekron demonstrate that the Egyptians were either incapable or uninterested in altering the Levantine subsistence economy. The Iron Age I animal economy of Ekron demonstrates a prosperous but insular city economy, seemingly untied to regional exchange in staple goods. Finally, the Iron Age II faunal displays in a variety of ways an astonishing degree of regional interconnectedness which affected not only the production of prestige goods, but also the orientation of animal production