A Zooarchaeological Study of Animal Sacrifice in the Bronze and Iron Age Southern Levant
Open Access
- Author:
- Scott, Marissa
- Graduate Program:
- Anthropology (MA)
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 29, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Tim Ryan, Program Head/Chair
Jose Mariano Capriles Flores, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Ann Eloise Killebrew, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Justin Lev-Tov, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- anthropology
ancient near east
animal sacrifice
Bronze Age
Iron Age
Southern Levant - Abstract:
- Textual evidence, especially the Ugaritic texts that date to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 14th – early 12th centuries BCE) and the Hebrew Bible, suggest that the ritual killing and consumption of animals regularly took place as part of religious offerings to various gods and deities in the Ancient Near East. As a result, we expect that these practices should leave behind a distinct signature in the archaeological record and particularly in the faunal remains recovered from specialized ceremonial contexts from ancient settlements in the region. By reviewing this evidence from published sources, I address the following questions: 1) Do the faunal remains from ritual contexts indicate animal sacrifice in the Ancient Near East and the southern Levant in particular? 2) Does animal sacrifice leave behind signatures consistent with suggestions set forth by religious texts? 3) What specific factors constrain the identification of animal sacrifice as described in religious texts in the studied faunal assemblages? Based on the textual sources, I identify a series of attributes related to animal sacrifice that would be identifiable on faunal remains and test these on well-established and previously published ritual contexts from Megiddo, Hazor, Mount Ebal and Tel Dan. As a result, I argue that the faunal assemblages of these sites are consistent with the written sources including an abundance of relatively fragmented and burned fragments of young male sheep, goat, and cattle. Nevertheless, older and female animals were also present as were other taxa, including animals not mentioned as adequate for sacrifice, suggesting that these assemblages were formed by a combination of animal sacrifice, ritual feasting, and other sources of deposition. The reasons why this was the case might be related to various factors including how the spaces were used, how trash was managed, and how strictly ritual activities followed the textual prescriptions. Future research might help to further clarify these aspects to gain a better understanding of the role of animal sacrifice in the development of ritual behavior in the Ancient Near East.