Pigs and the pastoral bias: The other animal economy in northern Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BCE)

Price, Max; Grossman, Kathryn; Paulette, Tate

Abstract

Discussion of the animal economy in Mesopotamia has been subject to a persistent, pastoral bias. Most general treatments assume that the Early Bronze Age (ca. 3000–2000 BCE) animal economy was dominated by the herding of sheep and goats. An examination of the abundant written evidence would support such a contention. Zooarchaeological evidence from northern Mesopotamia, however, clearly demonstrates that pigs played a major role in the diet, despite their virtual absence in the written record. In this paper, we attempt to lay bare and correct for the pastoral bias by reviewing the relatively meager written evidence for pig husbandry and by examining the zooarchaeological evidence for pigs from two angles. First, we use relative abundance data from sites across northern Mesopotamia to demonstrate the ubiquity of pigs and to identify regional- and site-level patterning in pig consumption. Second, we use a series of proxy techniques to reconstruct pig husbandry practices at three sites: Tell ‘Atij, Tell al-Raqa’i, and Tell Leilan. Ultimately, we argue that this “other” animal economy emerged to fill a niche opened up by the twin processes of urbanization and institutional expansion. For households struggling to deal with the impacts of these wide-ranging transformations, pigs offered an alternative means of subsistence and perhaps a way of maintaining some degree of autonomy.

Citation

Price, M., Grossman, K., & Paulette, T. (2017). Pigs and the pastoral bias: The other animal economy in northern Mesopotamia (3000–2000 BCE). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 48, 46-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2017.06.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 23, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-12
• Deposit Date: Mar 7, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
• Print ISSN: 0278-4165
• Electronic ISSN: 1090-2686
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Pages: 46-62
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2017.06.001
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1179308