Lily Heald
Pronouns: She/her
Research Mentor(s): Kara Larson
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Anthropology; Museum of Anthropological Archaeology / LSA
Program:
Authors: Lily Heald, Kara Larson, Alicia Ventresca Miller
Session: Session 7 4:40-5:30 p.m. Hussey Room
Poster:
Abstract
The predominant discussion on provisioning strategies has centered the idea of feeding ‘sites.’ Distinctions between feeding a ‘site’ and feeding its inhabitants have been blurred in zooarchaeological literature and discussions; however, these often engage vastly different social and economic mechanisms. To address feeding people beyond how the ‘site’ was provisioned, in-depth comparative faunal analyses using isotopic approaches on herd management is required. Tell el-Hesi, an Early Bronze Age IIIA site along the edge of the Northern Negev Desert in the Southern Levant, provides the opportunity to explore the inner mechanisms of how food was provisioned to the occupants of that community. Excavations from the Early Bronze Age occupational layers in Field VI revealed a portion of the perimeter wall and a public workshop quarter, suggested to be a general market area. Bioapatite isotopic analysis on faunal remains from this area yielded carbon and oxygen data, providing new insights into herd management practices at the early urban community. Modeling carbon and oxygen data within the same isospace provides unique insights into herd management, particularly concerning if all animals at the site were managed similarly or differently, indicating if specialized pastoralists were present or if the community inhabitants were herding their own animals. The carbon and oxygen results from Tell el-Hesi push back on previous assumptions that Tell el-Hesi was provisioned by outside specialized pastoralists. Instead, the site likely preserved a direct relationship with food through independent herd management practices in the face of urban growth and development. These results highlight a need for refocused analyses at archaeological sites to recenter people into discussions on provisioning and foodways, moving beyond site-level observations.
