The Pig and the Chicken in the Middle East: Modeling Human Subsistence Behavior in the Archaeological Record Using Historical and Animal Husbandry Data

Redding, Richard W.

doi:10.1007/s10814-015-9083-2

Cited by 45 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…57). Similar frequencies are evident in Roman sites of the Southern Levant surveyed here and by others (16,46). The incorporation of chickens as a livestock in Europe thus occurred around the first century B.C.E.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Redding (16) has suggested that in the Levant chickens came to replace pigs as an important economic species in the first millennium B.C.E. In contrast to large herd animals, both taxa could be reared on a smaller household scale, engendering relatively little interest from central authorities, artists, or historians.…”

Section: Environmental and Anthropogenic Conditions For The Economicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to large herd animals, both taxa could be reared on a smaller household scale, engendering relatively little interest from central authorities, artists, or historians. Both taxa would have exerted similar demands (food and labor) on the household economy, thereby likely competing for these resources (16). However, as opposed to the low mobility and high water consumption of pigs, chickens provided an easyto-grow, compact, and highly portable package of meat and a more efficient source of protein through both its eggs and meat (16,59).…”

Section: Environmental and Anthropogenic Conditions For The Economicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, there are only very partial data, and thus there is great uncertainty regarding the place and time of the earliest economic exploitation of chickens: When and where did chickens move from being an exotic species, used only sporadically for symbolic and ritual purposes, to an important livestock species in the Mediterranean and European economies (16,17)? Our study of chicken remains from the Southern Levant (Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan) and particularly from the Hellenistic site of Maresha in Southern Israel sheds new light on these issues.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…or slightly earlier (20). In Egypt, the oldest known chicken remains are possibly even earlier (16). At this early phase, chicken remains in archaeological sites are very sparse and often are not associated with domestic contexts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Earliest economic exploitation of chicken outside East Asia: Evidence from the Hellenistic Southern Levant

Perry-Gal

Erlich

Gilboa

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is today one of the most widespread domesticated species and is a main source of protein in the human diet. However, for thousands of years exploitation of chickens was confined to symbolic and social domains such as cockfighting. The question of when and where chickens were first used for economic purposes remains unresolved. The results of our faunal analysis demonstrate that the Hellenistic (fourth-second centuries B.C.E.) site of Maresha, Israel, is the earliest site known today where economic exploitation of chickens was widely practiced. We base our claim on the exceptionally high frequency of chicken bones at that site, the majority of which belong to adult individuals, and on the observed 2:1 ratio of female to male bones. These results are supported further by an extensive survey of faunal remains from 234 sites in the Southern Levant, spanning more than three millennia, which shows a sharp increase in the frequency of chicken during the Hellenistic period. We further argue that the earliest secure evidence for economic exploitation of chickens in Europe dates to the first century B.C.E. and therefore is predated by the finds in the Southern Levant by at least a century. We suggest that the gradual acclimatization of chickens in the Southern Levant and its gradual integration into the local economy, the latter fully accomplished in the Hellenistic period, was a crucial step in the adoption of this species in European husbandry some 100 y later.chicken | Gallus gallus | zooarchaeology | Hellenistic | Levant

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Environmental and Anthropogenic Conditions For The Economicmentioning

confidence: 99%