Gazelle-Hunters and Salt-Collectors: A Further Note on the Solubba

Simpson, St John

doi:10.2307/1357279

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…There is ethnographic evidence of game meat being boned, dried and salted for long‐term storage by communities that live in desert environments (e.g. Betts, : 63) and consumed a long distance away from the area in which it was captured and processed (Simpson, : 79). Remains from Saruq al‐Hadid clearly demonstrate that foodstuffs were being brought to the site from elsewhere in the wider region; the presence of fish, dugong and seabird in all horizons demonstrates in particular that people transported foodstuffs from the coast to the desert interior, throughout the site's occupation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of wild terrestrial animals in late prehistoric societies of south‐eastern Arabia: new insights from Saruq al‐Hadid

Roberts

Weeks

Cable

et al. 2018

Arab Archaeol Epigr

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The nature of the relationship between humans and wild terrestrial animals has been little discussed in Bronze Age and Iron Age south-eastern Arabia, largely due to a relative paucity of their remains in contemporary faunal assemblages. In this paper we present the results of analysis of animal bone recently excavated from Saruq al-Hadid, a late prehistoric (2200-800 BC) site located in the desert interior of the UAE. Wild terrestrial animals, particularly oryx (Oryx leucoryx) and gazelle (Gazella sp.), were the predominant taxa identified, suggesting longterm, frequent exploitation of these species. Here we use these remains to examine the implications of this wild animal exploitation for subsistence strategies and social formation at the site and in the region, alongside late prehistoric use of the desert zone and the complexities of the relationship between humans and wild animals that occur in this environment. A reassessment of the zooarchaeological evidence from south-eastern Arabia highlights the potential economic and social significance of wild animals to late prehistoric societies in the region, and the necessity to factor this importance into considerations of concurrent social developments. K E Y W O R D SBronze Age, Iron Age, Saruq al-Hadid, south-eastern Arabia, wild animals, zooarchaeology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of wild terrestrial animals in late prehistoric societies of south‐eastern Arabia: new insights from Saruq al‐Hadid

Roberts

Weeks

Cable

et al. 2018

Arab Archaeol Epigr

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“…48 They built kites up to three kilometers in length, and used them to harvest gazelle, their main source of subsistence, in large communal hunts. 49…”

Section: Large-scale Communal Hunting Outside Of North America Southwest Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale cooperation in small-scale foraging societies

Boyd¹,

Richerson²

2021

Preprint

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We present evidence that people in small-scale, mobile hunter-gatherer societies cooperated in large numbers to produce collective goods. Foragers engaged in large-scale communal hunts, constructed shared capital facilities; they made shared investments in improving the local environment; and they participated in warfare, alliance, and trade. Large-scale collective action often played a crucial role in subsistence. The provision of public goods involved the cooperation of many individuals, so each person made only a small contribution. This evidence suggests that large-scale cooperation occurred in the Pleistocene societies that encompass most of human evolutionary history, and therefore it is unlikely that large-scale cooperation in Holocene food producing societies results from an evolved psychology shaped only in small group interactions. Instead, large scale human cooperation needs to be explained as an adaptation, likely rooted in the distinctive features of human biology, grammatical language, increased cognitive ability, and cumulative cultural adaptation.

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“…They were some of the most commonly hunted animals in the Epi palaeolithic period and remained an important source of meat during the transition to agriculture in the Neolithic. From the Late Neolithic to the modern day, gazelles con tinued to be a food source for communities located in the steppe and desert (Simpson 1994;BarOz, Zeder, and Hole 2011;Rowan et al 2015). In addition, gazelle skins were luxury goods for prehistoric and historic communities in the Near East (Kirkbride 1974;BarOz, Zeder, and Hole 2011).…”

Section: The History Of Gazelle Exploitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gazelles, Liminality, and Chalcolithic Ritual: A Case Study from Marj Rabba, Israel

Price¹,

Hill²,

Rowan³

et al. 2016

Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

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Endangered today, gazelles were both economically and symbolically important to the peoples of the ancient Near East. In various contexts, the gazelle has represented liminality, death, and rebirth. Gazelles held special significance in the southern Levant, where archaeologists have documented cases, spanning 20,000 years, of ritual behavior involving gazelle body parts. What roles did gazelles play during the Chalcolithic (ca. 4500-3600 b.c.), a period of both decreased hunting and ritual intensification? In this article, we discuss a unique find of burned gazelle feet at the site of Marj Rabba (northern Israel). The feet were found within a well-constructed building that was used for rituals and included two articulated human feet. The gazelle foot bones, the majority of which derive from adult male mountain gazelles (Gazella gazella), appear to reflect the remains of intentionally destroyed skins or severed limbs. This unique find highlights the evolving symbolic importance of gazelles, perhaps as forces of liminality, in Chalcolithic rituals.

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Gazelle-Hunters and Salt-Collectors: A Further Note on the Solubba

Cited by 12 publications

References 1 publication

The role of wild terrestrial animals in late prehistoric societies of south‐eastern Arabia: new insights from Saruq al‐Hadid

The role of wild terrestrial animals in late prehistoric societies of south‐eastern Arabia: new insights from Saruq al‐Hadid

Large-scale cooperation in small-scale foraging societies

Gazelles, Liminality, and Chalcolithic Ritual: A Case Study from Marj Rabba, Israel

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