The Biblical Archaeologist - Vol.56, N.2

59 Pages·1993·13.91 MB·English

by  American Schools of Oriental Research

blical
Arcaeologist
Bi
Perspectiveso n the AncientW orldf romM esopotamiat o the Mediterranean Vol.5 6 No.2 June1 993
PAMPERED POOCHES.
OR PLAIN PARIAHS?
The Ashkelon Burials
Dog
Biblical
Archaiset olog
Perspectiveosn the AncientW orldf romM esopotamitao theM editerranean Volume5 6 Number2
A Publicationof theA mericanS choolso f OrientaRl esearch June1 993
54 About the Authors
55
Pampered Pooches or Plain Pariahs?
The Ashkelon Dog Burials
Paula Wapnish and Brian Hesse
Did the cosmopolitan Persian period port city of Ashkelon have a
"pet cemetery?" Dog bones are common at ancient sites, but the
Ashkelon finds of thousands of bones and dozens of articulated
skeletons, including many puppies, are altogether unique and extra-
ordinary. Ashkelon's buried dogs are a first-class mystery whose
solution demands all the forensic capabilities of zooarchaeological
science. Were the dogs a special breed? Did they die of natural causes
or were they sacrificed? Were the dogs pampered pets lovingly
page 55 interred or urban hounds merely discarded?
81 Economics with an EntrepreneurialS pirit:
Early Bronze Trade with Late Predynastic Egypt
Timothy P Harrison
Economics link the late twentieth-century "global village" in ways we
readily appreciate. Can the same be said about Egypt and southern
Palestine during their earliest historical periods? Advances in archae-
ological study of exchange items and anthropological modeling of
exchange now enable the flow of goods between the two regions to be
traced. The network that emerges suggests the presence of "entrepre-
neurs" moving goods back and forth across the ancient landscape.
94
The Samaria Ivories, Marzeah, and Biblical Text
Eleanor Ferris Beach
How important was the visual dimension of ancient texts to their
signification? A comparative study of the renowned Samaria ivories
page 81 helps to reconstruct the lost visual context of several Hebrew biblical
texts. As the symbolic backdrop of the marzeah,t hese carvings inform
us about the meaning of this elite institution, and direct our attention
to its powerful iconographic significance for the literature of the
Hebrew Bible. Among other examples, the power of the visual image
preserved in the ivory carving of the "woman at the window" facili-
tated and ironically undermined the 2 Kings account of the usurper
Jehu's encounter with Queen Jezebel.
105 Arti-facts
107 Book Reviews
On the cover: the plaster-jacketedd og skeleton from the Ashkelon
excavationsi s flanked by an Egyptiand og portraitf rom the Beni Hasan
tombs (12th dynasty)a nd a drawingo f the modern Pharaohh ound.
Neitherr epresentationa ccuratelym odelst he Ashkelond og type that
more nearlyr esembledt he naturallyo ccurringp ariahd og.
page 94
About the Authors
:i:R a __
-: -- i_-_ i: i, Eleanor Ferris Beach
I
- P-:::-:--~ :i- i:---- -I-~::: l--:--:i--i: ':-l i Ellie Beach is Assistant Professor of Religion at
i--iii-~ i_::;;: i/r:~ Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota), where
iil :. --
she teaches Bible and Women's Studies. She
-- --:-- 1'
received her Ph.D. in Old Testament from Clare-
E
:: mont Graduate School and has excavated at
Zeror (1966), Gezer (1973), and Lahav (1986-87).
-.-..--- : - iii: I --i :. Her research devotes special attention to relating
;; i-i ---~~-:- archaeology and iconography to textual studies.
Timothy P. Harrison
Sub-
Tim Harrison is completing his Ph.D. program at
the University of Chicago. He has participated in
fieldwork at Jebel Abu Thawwab, Zeiraqon, Tell
Halif, and Tell ePUmeiri where he serves as field
supervisor of Area D (Early Bronze Age).
Presently, he is collecting settlement data on the
Madaba Plains region of Central Jordan in order
to study the social and economic development of
the region during the Early Bronze Age.
Paula Wapnish and Brain Hesse
Drs. Wapnish and Hesse are responsible, jointly
and individually, for hundreds of publications
To place your subscription to on pastoral systems, animal domestication, and
BiblicalA rchaeologist,c omplete faunal analysis: reports, reviews,
thisfo rman dr eturitnt o S cholars
major papers, academic and popu-
Press,P .O.B ox 15399,A tlanta,G A lar presentations, photographs, and
30333-0399. Individual orders
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must be prepaid by check or
money-orderd rawn on a United Archeology:F rom Objectivest o Analy-
Statesb anko r by VISAor sis. Taraxacum: Washington DC,
MasterCarFd.o rf asters ervicew ith 1985). They have excavated around
MasterCarodr VISAc,a ll( 404)7 27- the world, including Turkey, Iran,
2345. Non-USs ubscriberas dd $5 Lebanon, Israel, Chile, and
for postage. Alabama, and provided faunal
F $35 USi ndividuals analysis at such sites as Tel
F $45 USi nstitutions Miqne-Ekron, Ashkelon, Tel
El $40 non-USi ndividuals Batash-Timna, and Qasile. Both
$i5 0 non-USi nstitutions received their Ph.D's at Columbia
l Checko r money-ordeern closed University. Brian holds the position
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R MasterCard VISA
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Studies Program, and serves as
SIGNATURE
. Research Associate with the Smith-
NAME " : i sonian Museum. Paula lectures at
ADDRESS _. : . . _... UAB in the Department of History
and is Research Associate with the UAB Depart-
ment of Anthropology, the Smithsonian Institu-
COUNTRY _ _ _ tion, as well as Harvard's Semitic Museum.
., Their daughter, Arielle, will soon turn five.
54 BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993)
From the Editor Biblical
Archaeologist
Perspectiveosn theA ncientW orldfr om
It demanded great skill, patience, and creativity to read Ellie Beach's study Mesopotamitao theM editerranean
on the Samaria ivories in last September's issue of BiblicalA rchaeologist.A n
error in BA's former production system jumbled the pagination of the article Editor David C. Hopkins
Art DirectorL yle Rosbotham
and turned it into a papyriologist's dream (or nightmare). Professor Beach's Book Review Editor James C. Moyer
treatment of these famous carvings and their relation to biblical texts is hap- EditoriaAl ssistant Timothy L. Adamson
pily re-presented in this issue, with apologies to both the author and the EditoriaCl ommittee
readership. Jeffery A. Blakely Gerald L. Mattingly
The task of re-constructing Beach's text presented a rough parallel to her ESerynmesot uSr. FGrietrinic hs CGaareotal Lno. M Paelyuemrsb o
own challenge to re-construct the lost iconographic or visual context of Kenneth G. Hoglund Neil A. Silberman
ancient texts. Beach supplies the rhetoric of the Samaria ivories through a Thomas E. Levy Mark S. Smith
comparative analysis of a constellation of motifs shared by various caches of Gloria London Paul Zimansky
Near Eastern ivory carvings. This rhetoric focuses on life-death transitions Subscriptions Annual subscription rates are
$35 for individuals and $45 for institutions.
among the elite. It provides commentary on the biblical marzeah,w here There is a special annual rate of $28 for those
ivory studded couches were employed, thereby making sense of certain tex- over 65, physically challenged, or unem-
tual allusions. Moreover, the iconography of the carved motifs furnishes the ployed. BiblicalA rchaeologisti s also available as
visual backdrop of another group of texts, affording uncommon access into part of the benefits of some ASOR membership
the imagination of the ancient audience. cinatteergnoartieiosn. aPlo asdtadgree sfsoers Cisa naand aiadnd iatinodn aolt h$e5r.
Entering into the enigmatic imagination of the ancient world also consti- Payments should be sent to ASOR Member-
tutes the heart of Wapnish and Hesse's zooarchaeological research. They sAhtilpa/nStuab,G sAcr 3ib0e3r3S 3e-r0v3ic9e9(sp ,P h.:O4 0.B 4o-7x2 175-329394,5 ;
address the remarkable and baffling preponderance of dog burials exca- Bitnet:S CHOLARS@EMORYUVII)S. A/Mas-
vated in Persian Period strata of Ashkelon. A commanding assemblage of tercardo rdersc an be phoned in.
archaeological, historical, literary, and, above all, animal-bone data is metic- Backi ssues Backi ssues can be obtainedb y
ulously marshaled. The canine skeletons are re-constructed, and the dogs coarl wlirnigtSi nPg CS Pus CtoumsteormS eerrSv eicrevsia cte 8s,0P 0.O-4.3B 7o-x6 692
themselves are once again given visual embodiment with the help of com- 6996,A lpharettaG, A 30239-6996.
parative analysis. Osteological data portray the animals' lives and deaths. PostmasterS end addressc hangest o Biblical
The re-construction points tellingly to the act of interment itself as the inter- ArchaeologisAt,S ORM embership/Subscriber
pretive key. It is precisely at this point, where behavioral motivation comes Services,P .O.B ox 15399,A tlanta,G A 30333-
0399.S econd-classp ostage paid at Atlanta,G A
to the fore, that archaeologists confront what culture historian Robert Darn- and additionalo ffices.
ton refers to as "the unfathomable strangeness of life among the dead" (The Copyright? 1993b y the AmericanS chools
Kiss of LamouretteR: eflectionsi n CulturalH istory. New York:W . W. Norton & of OrientalR esearch.
Co., 1990, xiv). What did the urbanites of Ashkelon hope to gain from bury- CorrespondenceA ll editorialc orrespondence
ing their city's dead dogs? should be addressedt o BiblicaAl rchaeologist,
4500 MassachusettsA venue NW,W ashington,
Gain and loss are prominent in Harrison's thinking as he searches for a DC 20016-5690( ph:2 02-885-8699f;a x:2 02-885-
meaningful re-construction of the patterns of exchange between Egypt and J8a6m05e)s.CB o. Mokosyf oerr ,rD eevpieawrt smhoeunltod f b Ree sleingito tuo sD r.
southern Palestine in the Early Bronze Age. The quantities and distributions Studies,S outhwestM issouriS tateU niversity,
of traceable articles chart an exchange network and suggest the motivations 901 SouthN ational,B ox 167,S pringfield,M O
65804-0095.
of Early Bronze Age actors. The "traders" may have belonged to an ancient
variety of entrepreneur. Again, the archaeological task constitutes the re-con- Aadddvreerstsiseidnt goC SoarrraehsF poosntedre,Sn cches holoaurlsdP brees s,P .O.
struction of intangible patterns and notions that have long since vanished. Box 15399,A tlanta,G A 30333-0399(p h:4 04-
727-2325;f ax:4 04-727-2348)A. ds for the sale
The archaeological task-whether it be determining the nature of of antiquitiesw ill not be accepted.
regional interaction or dog-related behavior or the iconographic function of
ivory carvings-always demands more than restoring the correct order of a BiblicalA rchaeologist( ISSN 0006-0895) is pub-
mis-paginated text. It requires an enlightened and enlightening entry into lished quarterly (March, June, September,
December) by Scholars Press, 819 Houston
the minds of our ancient forebears.
Mill Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, for the
American Schools of Oriental Research
(ASOR), 3301 North Charles Street, Baltimore,
MD 21218.
L4OFlg
David C. Hopkins
o'
Editor rny/'3m
Ca
skeletons. Animals consumed on site
Pooches
Pampered rarely remained intact after slaughter.
They were butchered into halves or
Plain Pariahs? quarters and then reduced to smaller
or cuts depending on consumer prefer-
ences.2 In this way the carcass was
The Ashkelon Dog Burials dispersed throughout the site. After
the meat was eaten, bones were often
discarded around households or
By Paula Wapnish and Brian Hesse other places of consumption. If not
scavenged by roaming animals or
otherwise disturbed, these bones
n 1985w hent he LeonL evyE xpe- bones were found in other parts of then were incorporated into the
dition renewed excavations at the site, an impressive representation deposit near the site of disposal.
Ashkelon, a large port on the of canines for one year's efforts. Sev- Larger settlements frequently had
southern coastal plain of modern eral questions were apparent. neighborhood or city-wide dumps
Israel, the huge quantity of faunal The first issue was the abun- that served as the accumulators of
material recovered included many dance. In our experience, wild canid refuse. Bones of a once live animal
remains of small mammals, animals bones are rare at large historic sites. might end up in the same dump area
smaller than sheep/goats but larger At Ashkelon, for
than rats or mice. Among this sample example, seven 5 5 1 62 7
were 21 bones of immature canids years of excavation
(for unfamiliar terminology check the have produced in
6 65 6 12 146
glossary on page 76), including artic- excess of a million
ulations (2 to 4 bones each) from 4 animal bones, but 19 17 20 2)
individual pups, all excavated in the less than 30 speci- 15l/
same area of the site, the soon to be mens of fox, a lone
infamous Grid 50. Because the bones wolf possibility,
were immature, it was not clear and not a single S23- 24 25 26 27 2
whether they were from domestic jackal. Domestic
dogs (Canisf amiliaris), the most likely dogs are much 2V 30 32 33/ 35
possibility, or from one or more of the more common at
three wild canids of the southern ancient cities than
Levant, the wolf (Canis lupus), the fox their wild cousins, -\
(Vulpess p.), or the jackal (Canis yet their numbers
aureus). Immature morphologies, are but a fraction of
where the size and shape of bone ele- the typical bone
ments are growing and changing into collection. The pro-
the adult form, make it difficult to portion of -NJ 51 52 53 54 1155 56
distinguish the remains of closely canid/dog bones
related species. While the sheer size in the first season's
of an immature bone sometimes can faunal sample sim-
be used to distinguish medium sized ply was much
dogs from the much larger wolf or higher than
the much smaller fox (in terms of expected.
size, the jackal is too close to call), The articula-
some bones were from such young tions of immature
individuals-so small and canids from Grid
unformed-that it was impossible to 50 were also
a loo
do more than assign them to the intriguing. It is not 0 ;0m0
canid family. unusual to
During that first season's excava- encounter the
tions, 11 bones of adult dog also were bones of non-food Topographic plan of Ashkelon shows the three grids which
recovered from Grid 50. The partial animalsI as multi- have produced dog burials. These tinted areas (38, 50, 57) have
skeletons of three adult dogs and ple bone articula- produced hundreds of dog burials deposited over a relatively
another 147 individual adult dog tions or partial thin slice of time.
BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993) 55
through many routes of disposal but ............. X:
they would no longer have any
anatomical relationship to each other.
On the other hand, non-food ani-
mals, because they are not butchered,
often remain intact. Microfauna and
smaller mammals, such as dogs and X: Ii~iii M,
cats, may be left where they die, or a .. . . .....
malodorous carcass may be moved to
a street or alley, empty field or dump.
If the carcass is covered with dirt
there is less likelihood of it being
scavenged and a greater possibility of
the skeleton remaining intact. Other-
wise, accumulations of dirt and
debris will eventually bury the car-
cass but the slower pace of this pro- :.0
cess will expose the bones to greater
disturbance. This pattern holds for
large mammals as well, except that
carcasses are more likely to be moved
because of the stench. After burial,
The city of Ashkelon lies next to the sea, bounded by a semi-circularf ortification system.
complete skeletons undergo post- The 150-acres ite possessesa n occupationahl istorys tretchingf romt he fourthm illenium
depositional processes (including BCtEh rought he thirteenthc enturyC E.
excavation) that often result in the Photo courtesyo f RichardC leave.
destruction/disappearance or reposi-
tioning of some body parts (Hesse
and Wapnish 1985). Therefore, partial casses. If the dead Ashkelon puppies We didn't have to wait long for
skeletons or less extensive articula- were exposed for even a brief time, it some answers. In 1986, excavators in
tions are all that remain. is very unlikely that any part of the Grid 50 recovered many partially
While not common, there is noth- skeleton, let alone articulations, articulated and complete skeletons of
ing unique in uncovering bone artic- would have survived to burial. unquestionable domestic dogs.3 The
ulations from an individual donkey When a bitch whelps she chooses excitement of finding dog burials
or calf in excavation. It is very com- a concealed location for her litter. It is was contagious and for the next few
mon, almost expected, to find a few inconceivable that a wild canid summers volunteers and staff com-
bones or even a limb of a dog or a mother unaccustomed to and wary of peted in inventing ingenious or out-
cat. So what was puzzling about the people would choose a city rather rageous explanations for their pres-
clusters of canid puppy bones from than familiar surroundings in which ence. Had we but known, we might
Grid 50 was not their occurrence as to whelp. It is equally difficult to see have settled for the uncertainties of
partial articulations, but their age- the puppies as naturally occurring that first field season. By the end of
most were but a few weeks old. deposits of domestic dog bones. Once the 1992 excavation, 1238 dog finds
Under normal circumstances, imma- born, the young remain at the den were logged (more on counting the
ture bones of domestic canids are until they are weaned, which begins finds below) and our earlier ques-
rare at archaeological sites, those of about week 5, and attain indepen- tions had mutated into intractable
wild canids almost unknown. The dence by 3.5 to 4 months of age. This problems that eight seasons of dig-
paucity of immature canid bones is is well past the age of the puppy ging have yet to resolve.
explained by the animal's behavior bones in question. So how did sev-
and the attritional processes affecting eral bones from (not less than) four The Dog Burials
the carcass. Zoologist Thomas J. very young pups who were not litter Location and Date
Daniels, who has studied free rang- mates (based on the bones and their The renewed excavations at Ashke-
ing urban dogs, notes that he seldom locations) end up buried in what was lon are concentrated on the northern
found dog carcasses "if the animals then an open expanse in what we and southern mounds that comprise
have initiated movement away from now call Grid 50? Clearly, some much of the western part of the site
the den site" (pers. comm., May unusual human/animal behavior, (on the excavation project, see Stager
1988). Any number of bird and mam- depositional process, or both were 1991a,b,c). The dog burials discov-
mal scavengers eat exposed dog car- responsible for this phenomenon. ered were all on the southern mound.
56 BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993)
:i~::-:
:::
d : 1 i:
~IP'::- -i~s~eP~ ~ saP~-_i__:,-:: ?~R~-~'i~6_~.~-:.-_-:-: :-:~: :~i:-1:
.-iC --
::::::
o:
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-
i -:-
........... :::::r:::::_~;--: ;:: :::: :i:-:::: : ::::_ :
::::::::_1::::
.........
imp%::
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::::::
:~"i~i':i:*- :i::"-:- ?-: i:::::~i--:~:;--::::i:i:~~:: ii-:- ::::::::: ,:::::::
":: -
::: ?:.;:?::::-::::::
;::::6::::~: :l-i :~::ia:
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:::
~E- I ~:: ----::-
~i- '~:: ~::':::x:- '~I:~:;-i:i:i -is-i-;:ii-:l__l:iiiii:i ...: : :~:::-::.::=:::-a : ::::::::-:~::-: -::: -::
Partially excavated dog burials are exposed in Grid 50. The excavation of over 1200 burials has demanded a huge
The dogs were interredi n fillso verlayinga largew arehouse.T he expenditureo f energy,l eavingb ehindt he excitemento f the dis-
burialsw ere distributedr andomlyth roughoutt he area. coverya nd creatings eeminglyi ntractablein terpretivep roblems.
Photos by the author unless otherwise attributed. Photob y CarAl ndrews,c ourtesyo f the LeonL evyE xcavationast Ashkelon.
Many were removed in plaster jack- east. Because of the seaward erosion phase of Grid 50.
ets. Grid 50 is situated there, at the on the southwestern portion of the Grid 38 in the northeastern sector
southwestern side of the city along mound, we will never know how far of the southern mound was also a
the coast. Of the 1238 dog finds noted to the west dogs were buried. Exca- locus of dog burials, with 181 recov-
to date, 970 of them were excavated vations during the summer of 1992 in ered to date. Numerous subphases
here from Persian period (538-322 the northwest part of Grid 50 pro- comprised the nearly 10 feet of Per-
BCE)f ills overlaying a large ware- duced fragmentary elements of large sian period deposits that contained
house. The original warehouse of six scale architecture. Exactly how, or if, a complex series of large buildings.
30 by 60 foot storerooms was stepped these remains relate to the dog inhu- Most of the dogs in Grid 38 were
down to the sea on its western side. mations is under study. buried in streets or thoroughfares
After an initial phase of use, the ter- Directly south of Grid 50 lies Grid between the buildings. In Grid 50 the
racing was filled with a series of 57. About 500 BCEt, he first phase of a burials were dug into deposits well
debris-rich layers to level it (approxi- large building complex was begun dated by ceramic associations to the
mately) with the eastern half of the here, but before the next phase of fifth century BCET. he deposits were
building. Dog burials were concen- building could be initiated, the area capped by architectural remains that
trated in the thick matrix of the west- was leveled and briefly used for dog establish a terminal date possibly as
ern side of the warehouse, although burials. Fifty-eight dog finds were late as the first part of the fourth cen-
some dogs were recovered from a excavated from this phase of Grid 57, tury. A similar time frame applies to
thinner series of fill sediments to the all corresponding to the dog-burying Grid 57. In Grid 38 dog burial began
BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993) 57
later in the Persian period and con-
tinued throughout the occupation i::i z~i~i::::i:lJ .
into the first years of the Hellenistic
period (332 BCE).
Although the intervening areas
between Grid 38 and the two coastal
grids have not been excavated, it is
reasonable to offer several hypothe-
ses. No clear demarcations of the lim-
its of any of the dog concentrations
~
have been found. While Stager i~iiliii',ii~iii~liiiiiiii0 OEM
(1991b) refers to the dog burials in
Grids 50 and 57 as a cemetery, evi-
dence that a sacred area was set aside
for dog inhumation is not com-
pelling. The matrix into which pits
were dug accumulated throughout
the period of interment. Dogs were
buried where there was space, rather
than a space being prepared to
receive dogs. If we accept this view,
then the burials in Grid 38, while Plaster jackets enabled the removal and preservation of about 75 skeletons. Jacketing
somewhat later in date, are part of is expensiveb ut advantageousw hen time is at a premimumo r the skeleton is especially
the same phenomenon. The differ- fragile.C ompletes tudyr equirest he dogs to be re-excavatedfr omt heir modernc ocoons.
ence between the two concentrations
may be more apparent than real,
being conditioned by the architec- tal elements. The attitude in death debris from metal working (Grid 50),
tural nature of the spaces available was totally different that of the ear- but none were distinguished enough
for burial. lier animals. to deserve the label 'grave good'.
The dogs were buried on their This fact is consistent with two addi-
Pattern of Burial sides with tails carefully arranged to tional salient features: 1) No markers
In general, each dog burial seems to curl toward the feet, sometimes were found that would have sig-
have been a discrete event. This con- reaching between the lower nalled the location of a pit; 2) Burials
clusion is warranted by several hindlimbs. In a few cases the feet were frequently dug into or superim-
observations. The more complete were so entwined that they may have
skeletons were found singly, each in been bound at the ankles before bur-
its own unlined, shallow pit. The top ial. The limbs were flexed to different
surfaces of the pits were of varying degrees. In Grids 50 and 57 the legs
heights within the sediment matrix, were sufficiently extended from the
an indication that dogs were interred torso to suggest a natural repose. But
.4
sporadically. No pattern was dis- in Grid 38 the intact burials appeared
cernible in the orientation of the pits, cramped, with legs drawn up close to
nor in the placement of the corpse the body and the skeleton straining
within its pit, with respect to the against the edges of a pit just large Okii. .
compass or other interments. Each enough to contain it. This was
corpse was carefully placed in its undoubtedly because the burials
grave. There were no skewed limbs, were confined to narrow streets. W.
arched back heads, or other skeletal Overall, the careful interment of
distortions that characterize animals adult and immature dogs appears
that were just pitched into a conve- just a little less careful in Grid 38.
02&
nient hole. This was made especially No act of burial was accompanied
clear by comparison to a dog recov- by material associations. The pit Twop uppies belongingt o the categoryo f
ered from a drain of Hellenistic date matrices, which were often softer and Several Bone Finds.T hese bones~vere dis-
in a deposit just above the burial darker than the surrounding sedi- articulatedb ut found in close proximity.
layer in Grid 50. It was both twisted ment, contained small amounts of Slightlyd ifferents izes permittedt hem to
and missing most of its smaller skele- pottery, animal bones, flints and be segregated.
58 BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993)
cannot prove this adding the complete and partial
theory at present, it skeletons together we come up with
.......... should be kept in a minimum of at least 436 individual
: :$:::::-: : ::::::::: ---::--?: -::i-- :. ::--:__:-:j::AN S I :ii--:::;: In mind as the search dogs, though we suspect that about
-: ::- -:::;: :
to explain all the 600-700 animals are actually repre-
features of the sented. This larger figure we believe
oil iioli x: burials continues. will emerge when location, relative
q
body size, and stage of osteological
7: The Ashkelon
two W: development are factored in, thus
_iX s: -W~: ii_::::::i i:ii:"-ii:.- :i i~:--i--i--i~i -:::::::i~::::::: ::::::i:_:,:-i~:':::::a::::n: OUTeef ::- __;: _:::1_ -a - Dogs permitting us to combine some of the
: ::: :: ::j::::::'~:: A:ImjM e~:::?-- : FgMii[i':i;E:::::::b::: ' ::d:i: ~: Demography dog finds.
:::::-::::::::::::::t: :i~~~:a Numbers Sex
::-:: . . . .. .. . . 51. .. ...... .... ..... ... Generating an esti- Dogs of both sexes were buried.
::::I ............. ::::j:::- .x.x..:.:.:.n..:.:.:. ......... ?........i ...... .. mate of the total Males are identified by the presence
number of dogs of a baculum (os penis), females by its
buried is compli- absence in complete burials. While
cated by the fact many of the burials were disturbed
that so many of the and so indeterminate, there is no rea-
pits were disturbed son to suspect selection for one sex or
by subsequent another.
burials. To keep a Age at Death
handle on the We divided the dogs into three age
numbers involved groups: puppies (0-6 mos.), subadults
we defined three (6-18 mos.), and adults, based on
types of "dog tooth eruption and wear and the
find": Complete degree of long bone ossification (see
Dogs,P artialS kele- discussion in sidebar on skeletal age-
A puppy (top) and adult skelton displayed after removal, tons,a nd Several ing). The most striking characteristic
cleaning,a nd consolidationT. hisp rocesss ometimese nables Bone Finds, this last of the burials is the very large num-
disassociatedfi ndst o be recombined.
when only a few ber of puppies. The bar charts on
disarticulated page 63 illustrate the percentage dis-
bones or teeth are tribution of the three age groups by
posed on top of each other. It is found in close proximity.4 Only a dog dog find in each of the three grids. A
tempting to see these data in a cause find from a complete or partial burial difference emerges between the buri-
and effect relationship, but which can be equated with an individual als from the seaside grids and those
way around? Were burials dug into animal. The many Several Bone Finds in Grid 38. The percentage of puppies
each other because the graves were may have come from a disturbed comprising the total number of dog
unmarked, or may we surmise that partial skeleton, or an animal whose finds in Grids 50 and 57 is 58% and
the graves were unmarked because remains were so scattered that it was 55%, respectively. By contrast, pup-
burials were dug into each other? recorded as more than one dog find. pies made up 82% of the sample in
Since such a chicken-and-egg puzzle Therefore, the actual number of Grid 38. This substantive difference
will lead nowhere, a different theory (excavated) individual dogs will be may be partly explained by the distri-
is called for. Might the absence of smaller than the total number of bution of finds in the area. Most of
grave goods, markers, and burial dis- recorded dog finds. The table on the puppies in Grid 38 were recov-
turbances be the result of a more page 61 shows the distribution by ered as Several Bone Finds, which
comprehensive motivation? If we grid of the raw counts of the three implies that considerably more dis-
take the view that only the act of bur- types of dog finds in each of three turbance affected the remains, a
ial mattered, the position of each age categories. Information about the process that elevated the count of
grave would not have been impor- three main concentrations of dogs is puppies artificially. This may have
tant, hence no markers. Moreover, supplemented with a tabulation of occurred in antiquity but, more likely,
there would no longer be any signifi- the additional canid material recov- is a result of the failure to recognize
cance attached to the corpse, render- ered from the site. The graph on page puppies during excavation. Counting
ing the disturbance of previous buri- 61 presents these abundances on a only the complete and partial skele-
als unimportant. This would also logarithmic scale to illustrate visually tons reduces the differences between
account for the lack of any material the general similarities of the distrib- the grids. The Chi-Square statistic
deposits with the burials. While we utions, from the three grids. By computed for this comparison (1.091,
BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993) 59
2df) indicated that there was no rea-
son to suspect that the variability The Charactero f the Accumulation
arose from more than chance.
Puppies constitute almost two Paleontologists and zooarchaeolo- of the affectedp opulationa re
thirds of the sample from the three gists make a distinction between equally susceptiblet o the cause of
concentrations (62%). Adults make two kinds of faunal accumulation death. Therefore,t he demographic
up 33%, and subadults 5%.5S everal -catastrophic and attritional. Bet- patterno f a catastrophica ccumu-
problems complicate the easy as- ter understood as poles on a con- lation mirrorst he relativea bun-
sumption that this mortality pattern tinuum, the two categories distin- dance of the various age and sex
was representative of all the dogs at guish two patterns of mortality. In categoriesi n the living population
Ashkelon. For example, if some dogs a catastrophica ccumulation,a ll that was affected.
were buried and some dogs were not the animals found togetheri n a On the other hand, attritional
(for whatever reason), our data deposit are thought to have died accumulations result from multi-
would be skewed. Further distortions in a brief episode. Death is pre- ple causes operating over longer
would result if certain burial areas sumed to have resulted from a sin- periods of time. All memberso f
had been selected for particular types gle cause or a closely allied set of the affectedp opulationa re not
or ages of dogs. Since we already causes. As an example, the bison equally susceptiblet o the various
know that a large portion of the bur- kill sites that dot the American causes of death. The best example
ial area was lost to erosion, how con- GreatP lainsr epresentt he resulto f is the kitchen midden of an agro-
fident are we that the areas excavated single very successful hunts. Since pastoralc ommunity.H ere the ani-
accurately reflect burials in all the bison run in age and sex defined mals which are representeda re the
areas used in antiquity? herds at various times of the year, specific selections/culls of pas-
Fortunately, we are not totally in some cases, entire nursery toralistsr eactingt o the needs of
without some controls. We will never herds (bison cows and their pastoralm anagementa nd the
be absolutely sure that the buried calves) or whole bachelor herds opportunitieso f the marketplace.
dogs reflect population mortality, but were exterminated, while in others Usually this would mean that
every time we find Persian occupa- the entire population was slaugh- young males and old females pre-
tional debris, we find dog burials tered. Exceptionally virulent dis- dominate in the accumulation,
rather than the usual scattered dog eases can also produce a cata- since prime adults would have
remains. This at least gives us the im- strophic accumulation. One been spared to increase the pro-
pression that an awful lot of the dogs suggestion that has been made for ductivity of the herd. Stated more
at the site in that time period did get the Ashkelon dogs is that they generally, the demographic pat-
buried. How do we know that dogs were the victims of an epidemic tern of an attritional sample re-
were not differentially selected? We (Smith 1991). This proposition can flects the differential vulnerability
can't be sure of that either. But we do be evaluated quite precisely since of each age and sex class in the af-
know that all ages are represented a key characteristic of catastrophic fected population to the mortality
and that the distribution of mortality accumulations is that all members processes that kill their members.
is consistent with that experienced by
a population of unmanaged urban
dogs. Thus, there is no reason to sug-
gest that dogs were selected by age dence that carcasses were cut up or (atlas). The damage to the bone is
for burial. Finally, the distribution of skinned prior to burial. One radius consistent with the dog having been
the ages of the dog finds are similar from a non-Persian context is cut, struck sharply just behind the skull.
between the grids (the one anomaly and it is the solitary cut dog bone in Some teeth show extreme wear, but
explained by collection bias). Cou- the collection. Pathologies and dis- this is doubtless because in a beach
pled with the large number of burials eased bones are present in perhaps environment like Ashkelon's, sand
that have been uncovered and the 5% of the adult and subadult speci- was mixed into most of what the
size of the extent of the exposures in mens (see photographs on page 64). dogs ate (see photograph on page
the three grids, we believe that what These include damaged paws, knit- 65). Late Egyptian cat mummies
we have collected fairly represents ted breaks, dislocations, parasite show evidence of strangulation in
the dog-burial activities of the Per- infections, and dental anomalies.6 broken cervical vertebrae. This has
sian period. None of these is severe enough to not been noted on any Ashkelon
Cause of Death cause death. This does not mean that skeleton. Poisoning would, of course,
No skeleton shows evidence of a injuries were never severe. One dog leave no skeletal traces. Death by
trauma extensive enough to have found in Grid 50 in 1992 had a bro- strangulation or drowning might
killed the animal. There is no evi- ken and healed first cervical vertebra leave microscopic traces of blood on
60 BiblicalA rchaeologis5t 6:2 (1993)