Faunal remains from the Early Iron Age rock-cut complex Gluhite Kamani (Eastern Rhodopes, Bulgaria)

Nadezhda Karastoyanova; Stella Nikolova; Georgi Nekhrizov

Nadezhda Karastoyanova https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6032-4873; Stella Nikolova; Georgi Nekhrizov https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0933-7980

2 May 2023 · volume 45 · (issue 5) · pp. 107–124 · PDF [full text]

Abstract: The faunal remains recovered from the Gluhite Kamani site offer the unique opportunity to explore the consumption patterns of the Early Iron Age communities inhabiting the Rhodope Mountains. While a lot high-altitude and rock-cut sanctuaries have been registered within the Rhodope Mountains, this is the only site yielding a larger assemblage (n = 3160) from a stratigraphic sequence dating to the Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age transition and the Early Iron Age. Domestic animals dominate, with sheep/goat being the main exploited species through all stratigraphic layers. The results show that the percentage of represented domestic animals is relatively continuous, while the number of wild animals seems to vary throughout the different periods. As the site is regarded as a sanctuary during the Iron age, the extent to which we can identify any ritual activity from the osteological assemblage is commented on in the discussion regarding the cull patterns observed, and taphonomy.

Keywords: archaeology, Early Iron Age, faunal analysis, Mediterranean, taphonomy, zooarchaeology

References [48]

Arnold E., Greenfield H. 2006 The origins of Transhumant Pastoralism in Temperate South Eastern Europe, a zooarchaeological perspective from the Central Balkans. British Archaeological Reports, International series.

Balasescu A., Udrescu M., Radu V., Popovici D. 2003 Archéozoologie en Roumanie, Corpus de données. Editura Cetatea de Scaun, Târgovişte.

Becker C. 1986 Kastanas: Ausgrabungen in einem Siedlungshügel der Bronze- und Eisenzeit Makedoniens 1975–1979. Die Tierknochenfunde, Band 5, Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa, Spiess, Berlin.

Benecke N. 2006 Die tierreste, in Anfänge und Frühzeit des heiligtums von Olympia. Die ausgrabungen am Pelopion 1987–1996 (OlForsch 31). Ed. H. Kyrieleis, Berlin and New York, pp. 247–248.

Binford L. 1981 Ancient men and modern myth. Academic Press, pp. ii, 103–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-100036-3.50001-8

Boessneck J., Driesch von den A. 1983 Tierknochenfunde aus Didyma. Archäologischen Anzeiger: 611–651.

Boessneck J., Driesch von den A. 1988 Knochenbfall von Opfermahlen und Weihgabenaus Heraion von Samos (7. Jh. v. Chr.). Institut für Palaeoanatomie, Domestikationsforschung und Gerschichte der Tiermedizin der Universität München, München.

Chenal-Velarde I. 2001 Des festins à l’entrée du temple? Sacrifices et consommation des animaux à l’époque géometrique dans le sanctuaire d’Apollon à Erétrie, Grèce. Archaeofauna 10: 25–35.

Dibble F., Fallu D.J. 2020 New data from old bones: A taphonomic reassessment of Early Iron Age beef ranching at Nichoria, Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 30: 102234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102234

Dibble F., Finné M. 2021 Socioenvironmental change as a process: Changing foodways as an adaptation to climate change in South Greece from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. Quaternary International 59: 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.04.024

Dobney K., Rielly K. 1988 A method for recording archaeological animal bones: The use of diagnostic zones. Circaea 5.

Driesch von den A. 1976 A guide to measuring animal bones from archaeological sites. Peabody Museum Bulletin 1, Harvard University.

Efstratiou N. 1993 The archaeology of Greek uplands, the Early Iron age site of Tsouka in the Rhodope Mountains. The Annual of the British School at Athens 88 (1): 135–171. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400015926

Ekroth G. 2009 Thighs or tails? The osteological evidence as a source for Greek ritual norms in La norme en matière religieuse en Grèce ancienne. Actes du XIe colloque du CIERGA, Rennes, Septembre 2007 (Kernos supplément 21), ed. P. Brulé, Liège, pp. 125–151.

Ekroth G. 2017 Don’t throw any bones in the Sanctuary! on the handling of sacred waste in ancient Greek cult places. In Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Supplementary volumes, Vol. 13, Ritual Matters: Material Remains and Ancient Religion, pp. 33–55.

Forest V. 1997 Donnees biologiques et donnees zootechniques anciennes. Essai de mise en equivalence. Revue de Médecine Vétérinaire 148 (12): 951–958.

Gaastra J. 2018 Animal Remains from Ritual Sites: A Cautionary Tale from the Eastern Adriatic. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 28: 18–30. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.2627

Gejvall N.-G. 1939 The Fauna of the different settlements of Troy. Bulletin de la Societe Royale des lettres de Lund 1937–1938 II.

Gejvall N.-G. 1969 Lerna I: The fauna, American school of classical studies in Athens. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, New Jersey.

Grant A. 1975 The use of tooth wear as a guide to the age of domestic animals. In: Cunliffe B. (ed.) Excavations at Portchester Castle, vol. 2. Society of Antiquaries, London, pp. 245–279.

Grant A. 1984 Ritual behaviour: the special bone deposits. In: Cunliffe B.W., Danebury: An Iron Age Hillfort in Hampshire, Vol. 2, CBA Res. Rep. 52, London, pp. 533–543.

Halstead P. 1996 Pastoralism or household herding? Problems of scale and specialisation in Early Greek animal husbandry. World Archaeology.

Hamilakis Y., Konsolaki E. 2004 Pigs for the gods: Burnt animal sacrifices as embodied rituals at a Mycenaean sanctuary. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 23: 135–151. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2004.00206.x

Iliev N. 1994 Cattle farming in Veliki Preslav (IX–X centuries). Archaeology 3–4: 66–70.

Ivanov St., Vasilev V. 1979 Studies of animal bone remains. In: Ezero – the early bronze settlement. Archaeological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, 25: 425–480.

Kiotsekoglou S.D 2015 Thracian Megalithic Sanctuaries from the Prefecture of Evros Greece. Megalithic Culture in Ancient Thrace, pp. 39–64.

Marakas G. 2007 The role of ‘space’ in the religion of the LBA to EIA of Greece. Rosetta 2: 1–20.

Moran N.C., O’Connor T.P. 1994 Age attribution in domestic sheep by skeletal and dental maturation: a pilot study of available sources. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 4 (4): 267–285.

Morlan R.E. 1994 Bison Bone Fragmentation and Survivorship: a Comparative Method. Journal of Archaeological Science 21 (6): 797–807. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1994.1077

Morris J. 2011 Investigating Animal Burials, Ritual mundane and beyond. BAR British Series, 535. Archaeopress, Oxford, UK.

Nekhrizov G., Roller L., Vassileva M., Tzvetkova J., Kecheva N. 2012 Gluhite Kamani: Old questions and new approaches. In: Yanakieva S. et al. (eds) Thracia XX, in honour of the 40th anniversary of the Instituite of Thracology, pp. 215–233.

Nekhrizov G., Tzvetkova J. 2012 Skalen kompleks Gluhite Kamani. Arheologicheski otkritiya i razkopki za 2011: 127–130.

Nekhrizov G., Tzvetkova J. 2018 Contributions to the Periodization and Absolute Chronology of the Early Iron Age in South Thrace. Archaeologia Bulgarica, XXII, 1, NOUS Publishers, pp. 17–44.

Nicholson R. 1993 A morphological investigation of burnt animal bone and an evaluation of its utility in archaeology. Journal of archaeological science 20: 411–428.

Nikov K., Marinova E., De Cupere B., Hristova I., Dimitrova Y., Iliev S., Popov H. 2018 Food supply and disposal of food remains at Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Ada Tepe: Bioarchaeological aspects of food production, processing and consumption. In: Ivanova M. et al. (eds) Chapter 17 – Social Dimensions of Food in the Prehistoric Balkans, Oxbow Books, pp. 278–299.

Payne S. 1973 Kill-off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from Asxvan Kale. Anatolian Studies 23: 28–303.

Peters J. 1993 Archaic Milet: Daily life and religious custom from an Archaeozoological perspective. In: Buithenhuis H., Clason A.T. (eds) Archaeozoology of the Near East. Proceedings of the First International Symposium on the Archaeozoology of Southwestern Asia and Adjacent Areas, Universal Book Services, Leiden, pp. 88–96.

Pöllath N., Peters J. 2011 Smoke on the Mountain – Animal Sacrifices for the Lord of Doliche. In: Winter E. (ed.), From Kummuh to Telouch. Archaeological and historical investigations in Commagene, Dolichener and Commagenische Forschungen 4, AMS 64 (Bonn 2011), pp. 47–68.

Popkin P. 2014 Prehistoric Anatolian Subsistence Practices: Zooarchaeological Evidence. In: Wawruschka C. (ed.) Prehistoric Economics of Anatolia: Subsistence Practices and Exchange. Proceedings of a Workshop held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, November 13–14, 2009. Rahden/Westf.: Verlag Marie Leidorf GmbH (Internationale Archäologie. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Symposium Tagung Kongress 18).

Popov H. 2009 Kush kaya. Harakteristiki na obitavaneto prez kasnata bronzova i rannata zhelyazna epoha. Arheologiya 1–2: 21–40.

Ribarov G., Ribarova B. 2015 Myastoto na konya v bita na horata ot razlichnite istoricheski epohi v Yugoiztochna Bulgaria (po arheozoologicheski danni). Maritsa-Iztok vol. 7, Stara Zagora, pp. 258–261.

Russel N. 2011 Social Zooarchaeology. Humans and animals in Prehistory, Cambridge.

Schmid E. 1972 Atlas of animal bones. Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam–London–New York, 159 pp.

Stroud R.S. 1965 The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth Preliminary Report I: 1961-1962. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 34 (1): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/147134

Trantalidou K. 2011 Animal remains related to sacred areas on the Cycladic islands Amorgos and Tenos, during the Geometric period: Two distinct examples bearing evidence of sacrificial rites and bone working activities. In: The Dark Ages revisited. An international symposium in the memory of William DE Coulson, University of Thessaly, Volos, vol. 14–17: 1015–1061.

Trantalidou K. 2017 Active responses of Early Iron Age Aegean communities to their natural and social environment: the evidence from the animal bones. In: Regional stories: towards a new perception of the early Greek world: acts of an international symposium in honor of Professor Jan Bouzek, Volos, pp. 18–21.

Tzvetkova J. 2016 Sakralnoto i profannoto v trakiyskite svetilishta ot I hil. pr. Hr. In: Delev P. (ed.) Symposion. Sbornik v pamet na prof. Dimitar Popov. Universitetsko izdatelstvo Sv. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, pp. 392–420.

Velarde I. 2001 Des festins à l’entrée du temple?: sacrifices et consommation des animaux à l’époque géométrique dans le sanctuaire d’Apollon à Erértie, Grèce. Archaeofauna 10: 25–35.

Supplementary materials [4]

01
Document title: Metric data from the mammalian remains of the site
Kind of document: Microsoft Excel (OpenXML)
MIME type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Document name: 000512000452023-01.xlsx
https://doi.org/10.48027/hnb.45.052/01

02
Document title: Number of unidentifiable bone splinters by size groups
Kind of document: Microsoft Excel (OpenXML)
MIME type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Document name: 000512000452023-02.xlsx
https://doi.org/10.48027/hnb.45.052/02

03
Document title: Domestic species skeletal elements (quantified by diagnostic zone counts and NISP); Wild species skeletal elements (quantified by diagnostic zone counts and NISP)
Kind of document: Microsoft Excel (OpenXML)
MIME type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Document name: 000512000452023-03.xlsx
https://doi.org/10.48027/hnb.45.052/03

04
Document title: The NISP values from different types of LBA and EIA sites of the Mediterranean
Kind of document: Microsoft Excel (OpenXML)
MIME type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet
Document name: 000512000452023-04.xlsx
https://doi.org/10.48027/hnb.45.052/04