Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

Agriculture

First Advisor

Katherine Koudele

Abstract

Analysis and characterization of faunal remains -- those bones and bone fragments collected from archaeological sites -- allows anthropologists and archaeologists to more completely reconstruct the ways in which ancient societies survived and interacted. As animals have invariably played an integral role in human society, providing transportation, draft, and a consistent food source, the study of their bones can elucidate the lifestyles and cultural practices of the people who raised and utilized them. Faunal remains for this project were collected and identified during the 2009 dig season at Tall Jalul in Jordan as part of the Madaba Plains Project. Further analysis of osteological and surface features allowed elucidation of the animals' species, age, gender, butchering methods, and pathologies. Initial inferences may be drawn from the preponderance of sheep and goat bones identified over other species; from these results it is plausible to posit that the ancient inhabitants of Tall Jalul may have embraced a pastoral existence, with agrarian activities and subsistence hunting supplementing this lifestyle.

Subject Area

Animal remains (Archaeology) --Jordan --Tell Jalul.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/2/

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