Ancient Economic Complexity and Adaptation in the Semi-Arid Highlands of Jordan: A Zooarchaeological Study of the Early Bronze Age Through the Ottoman Period at Tell Madaba

Abstract

ABSTRACT This dissertation examines and compares animal utilization by the peoples who inhabited Tell Madaba, a site located along the fertile plains of the Central Jordanian Plateau that has maintained a continuing urban character for some 5,000 years, during seven historical periods: the Early Bronze Age, the Iron Age II, the Late Hellenistic Period, Early Roman/Nabataean, Byzantine, Late Byzantine/Early Islamic, and the Ottoman period. The primary research presented in this dissertation focused on a large faunal assemblage excavated between 1996 and 2002. Analysis of these remains in their archaeological contexts, in combination and comparison with data from neighboring sites, was used to identify the adaptive economic strategies and lifeways at Tell Madaba throughout each occupational phase. The analysis involved assessing the relationship between producers and consumers in addition to the variation in animal production systems visible within the distribution of species, ages, and carcass parts. A general review of ethnicity is also presented and illustrates the difficulty in using presence/absence of particular species as ethnic markers. Most likely, pigs at Tell Madaba represent socio-economic differences during the various occupational phases. Tell Madaba appears to have been a large urban center during each of the occupations studied here. However, subtle shifts in size and population are evidenced in the historical literature and previous survey and archaeological work. These shifts are also detectable in the animal production system over time. The results presented here reveal differences in animal utilization between several of the occupations, which also coincide with changes in the geopolitical climate and population, along with political instability. Changes in the animal production system are detected between the Early Bronze Age and the Iron Age, as the city rebuilt following the collapse of most urban cities and towns following the Late Bronze Age. Intra-site comparisons of the Iron Age II show that occupants in different areas of the site had differential access to species, carcass parts, and age groups. After an extended period of sparse occupation following the Iron Age II, reoccupation and rebuilding efforts began to occur during the Late Hellenistic Period resulting in a slight increase in agriculture and more reliance on by-products from medium-sized mammals. By the Roman period through the Ottoman agriculture increased significantly, while fewer sheep were available for food and goats increased in importance, sustaining an animal production system reliant on dairy and other by-products. Based on the limited change in the physical climate during these time periods, these shifts are a direct result of the adaptive strategies implemented within the animal production systems in order to sustain the occupants during various levels of occupation, rebuilding efforts, and social and political climates.