FINDS - Animal Bone
During the 2004 season, the zooarchaeology team returned to full scale operations and expanded to include an amphibian and reptile analyst. This season we added 64,752 specimens to the database, for a total of 650,179 specimens so far recorded from the site (564,951 from the East Mound). While some of our efforts were directed toward upcoming publications of the West Mound and BACH areas, for the most part we focused on current excavations in the TP, 4040 and South Areas. Excavations in these areas are at present largely focused on the later Neolithic levels of the site (after Level VI). We are thus gradually adding to our sample of material from these levels, which were poorly represented in the first phase of excavation. Our work in these later periods is still at an early stage, but initial results support hints from last season that faunal changes occur during this time span. This larger sample confirms that sheep/goat become proportionally more frequent from Level V on (or hunting becomes less important). Cattle are less frequent in these later levels, although Level IV is an exception. This season has provided further evidence that the symbolic importance of animals continues in these later periods, with finds of special deposits of animal remains and dismantled installations that continue at least through Level V, and commemorative deposits have been found in Levels IV and III-I. Level V has also yielded the first bucranium with plastered head and inset horns from the new excavations. In a new twist, both these horns and others that appear to be the remains of dismantled installations had the sheaths removed and the horn cores covered with plaster. Perhaps the horn sheaths were used in some other context. Animals and meat clearly continue to have strong symbolic value in the later levels. In the future, with larger samples, we can explore whether the nature of this symbolism shifts through time. We have detected a new pattern in commemorative deposits. In two finds from Levels VII and V, paired elements from cattle of different sizes (possibly a male and a female) have been deposited together. This may reflect a particular type of ritual centered on paired animals. We have also identified a completely new type of special deposit, an intact animal in a human grave from Level VII in Building 50. |